HATHORN, Charles Edward

HATHORN, JONES

Posted By: Sharon R Becker (email)
Date: 2/5/2014 at 14:18:50

HISTORY of CERRO GORDO COUNTY, IOWA
WHEELER, J.H. Vol. II. Pp. 522-23. Lewis Pub. Co. Chicago. 1910

BIOGRAPHY ~ CHARLES EDWARD HATHORN

The president of the Hathorn Automobile Company, of City, is recognized as one of the representative business men and sterling citizens of his native county, and his technical ability, fine initiative, constructive powers and progressive ideas have been the agencies through which he has pushed forward to the goal of worthy success. Concerning the company of which he is executive head specific description is given on other pages of this work, and in the sketch of the career of his brother, William H. Hathorn, who is secretary and treasurer of the company mentioned, is given due record concerning their parents, so that it is not necessary to repeat the data in the present connection.

Charles Edward Hathorn was born on the home farm near Clear Lake, Cerro Gordo county, Iowa, on the 6th of December, 1879, and in this county he has since maintained his home save for a period of about three years, during which the family resided at his father's old home in Rock county, Wisconsin. Mr. Hathorn duly availed himself of the advantages of the public schools and his inherent mechanical talent was fostered from his boyhood days, as he early began to assist in the work of his father's blacksmith shop, where he gained much facility in mechanical work, having been literally reared in the biisiness. When his father established the Hathorn Foundry Machine Company in Mason City he identified himself with the practical work and also the executive management of the business, and he was superintendent of the shops for several years. When about twenty-two years of age, for the purpose of gaining further experience, he was employed for a time as a locomotive fireman on the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad. After quitting railroad service he was engaged as superintendent of construction for the Invincible Bank Protection Company for a period of about two and one-half years. The headquarters of the concern were later removed from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to Wisconsin. Mr. Hathorn's next position was that of superintendent of the repair shop of the Mason Carriage Works, at Davenport, Iowa, and here he gained most thorough experience in automobile repair work — a knowledge that has proved of inestimable value to him in connection with the business of the company of which he is now president. He is a careful and conservative business man and a citizen well worthy of the high regard in which he is held in his native county. His political views are indicated by the sturdy way in which he marches under the banner of the Republican party, and in his home city he is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias and the Modern Brotherhood of America.

Mr. Hathorn is a bachelor.

NOTE: From the Globe-Gazette, December of 1919: Hathorn Auto Co. has moved into their new quarters in the Federal Bldg., Fourth Street.

From the Globe-Gazette, date unknown: Chas. Hathorn of Hathorn Garage, 5th St., has disposed his interest to his brother, W. H. Hathorn.

Charles Edward Hathorn died May 21, 1955. Sharing a gravestone with him (his wife, married after 1910?) is Hazel L. (Jones) Hathorn, born December 29, 1890, and died May 29, 1955. They were interred at Clear Lake Cemetery, Clear Lake IA.

Transcription and note by Sharon R. Becker, February of 2014