For
Muscatine County Iowa
1911
| Biographies For Muscatine County Iowa 1911 | |
Source: History of Muscatine County Iowa, Volume II, Biographical, 1911, page 641
CHARLES HENRY YOUNG....Charles Henry Young, city engineer of Muscatine, being left an orphan at ten years of age, earned the money to pay his way at college and has attained high standing in a profession that calls for the best abilities of a thoroughly trained mind. He was born in Muscatine, August 6, 1880, and is a son of Henry and Emma ( Spaethe ) Young, the former of whom was born in Alsace-Lorraine, Germany and the latter in Muscatine. The father came to America with his parents when seven years of age, the trip requiring seven weeks by sailing vessel. The family settled in Muscatine, where the son learned the barber's trade, which he followed until his death in 1890 at the age of forty-one years. His faithful wife died eight months later, at the age of thirty-seven years. Nicholas, the paternal grandfather of our subject, was a merchant of Muscatine ans was called away at seventy-four years of age. He married Sophia Burr, by whom he had two children : Henry ; and Sophia, who became the wife of Nicholas Freyermuth. The maternal grandfather was Frederic Spaethe, a highly educated man, a bookkeeper and a very early settler of Muscatine. There were six children in his family : John, Emma, Charles, Louise, Ida, and Benjamin. To Henry and Emma Young three children were born : Charles Henry ; Lulu, the wife of W. W. Papes, of Muscatine ; and Nora, who died at the age of twenty-three years.Charles Henry Young, having been deprived of parental care by the death of his father and mother, went to live with his aunt, Mrs. W. F. Kuebler, and his uncle, C. H. Spaethe. At the age of eleven years he went to Quincy, Illinois, where he lived with his aunt, Mrs. W. F. Bader, continuing in her household for six years. He attended the public school of Quincy, where he gained a thirst for education, which he has never been able to entirely quench. At the age of seventeen he returned to Muscatine and entered the employ of the Van Nostrand Saddlery Company, learning the trade of harnessmaking and saddlery. He was with the firm for five years and became assistant foreman. Going into the country, he farmed for one year and then became a student of the Iowa State College, remaining at that institution for a year and a half. In the fall of 1905, in order to secure funds for further educational work, he became connected with the engineering department of the Northwestern Railroad Company in Wisconsin and in June 1906, went to Cheyene, Wyoming, for the Union Pacific Railway, where he continued for three months. Returning to the college, he spent one year more in the engineering department and then entered the employ of the Fort Dodge & Southern Railroad Company as bridge inspector, later being connected with the Marsh Bridge Company of Des Moines, Iowa, as their representative at Peoria, Illinois. He next took up his residence at Boulder, Colorado, the location of the Colorado State University, where he was identified with various engineering, municipal, mining and irragation enterprises for a year and a half, at the end of which time he entered the University of Colorado but after one term was obliged to withdraw on account of typhoid fever. He returned to Muscatine in December, 1909, and opened an office in the Hershey building as civil engineer and surveyor, soon acquiring an enviable reputation in his chosen calling. On March 17, 1910, he was appointed by the city council as city engineer and was elected by popular vote March 6, 1911, for a term of two years, so that he is now most creditably filling that position.
Mr. Young holds membership in and is a trustee of the Baptist church and is identified with the Commercial Club and the Young Men's Christian Association. He is also a member of the Masonic fraternity. Politically he is an independent republican, as he prefers to vote for the man rather than the party. Although he began as a boy under many disadvantages, he has steadily forged ahead and today is recognized in Muscatine as one of its substantial and trustworthy citizens, who has the unqualified respect of all with whom he has associated.
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