American politician

Charles Brooks *d (June 5, 1805 – November 20, 1886) was a U.S. Representative from New York.

Biography

Born in Springfield, Vermont, *d attended the public schools. He moved to Antwerp, New York, where he trained as a clerk, watch repairer, and mechanic. He was Antwerp's postmaster in the 1830s.

*d subsequently established a partnership with Gilbert Bradford, and the firm of *d & Bradford became successful as the manufacturer of portable steam engines to operate printing presses and other machines.

*d was a member of the New York State *embly (Jefferson Co.) in 1838.

He moved to Watertown, New York, in January 1844. He served as Clerk of Jefferson County from 1844 to 1846.

Originally a Democrat identified with the Free Soil and Barnburner movements, *d's anti-slavery views led him to become a Republican when that party was founded.

*d was elected as a Republican to the Thirty-fifth and Thirty-sixth Congresses (March 4, 1857 – March 3, 1861).

During the Civil War he engaged in the manufacture of rifles for the Union. Disputes with the War Department over fulfillment of the contract caused *d a financial loss.

Eli Thayer, the founder of Ceredo, West Virginia, had originally established the community as a model town in an effort to show southerners that a community could function without slavery. Thayer had borrowed from *d to finance the creation of the town.

In the late 1860s *d spent time traveling in the western and southern states to inspect his business concerns. In 1870 he relocated to Ceredo. His efforts to improve the town and repair his fortunes proved successful, with *d leading expansion of Ceredo's timber industry, including the building of a sawmill and the construction of roads and railroads.

He died in Ceredo on November 20, 1886. He was interred in Spring Hill Cemetery, Huntington, West Virginia.

Sources

• United States Congress. "Charles B. *d (id: H000658)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
• Charles B. *d at Find a Grave
• John A. Haddock, The Growth of a Century: as Illustrated in the History of Jefferson County, New York, 1894, pages 43–47

:This article incorporates:public domain material from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress website http://bioguide.congress.gov.