Pelton, Charles B.

Born: 1801-01-18 New York

Died: 1877-10-12 Ohio

Flourished:

Charles B. Pelton was a teacher, lawyer, dentist and fruit grower. Born near Ithaca, New York, Pelton received a good general education, and taught school in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, where he also read law. He practiced law in Columbia, South Carolina and also taught school in South and North Carolina. Switching his career from teaching and law to medicine, he studied medicine at Columbia Medical College, graduating in the class of 1832 with the highest honors. In 1835, he married Martha McClure, with whom he would have six children. Having converted from atheism to Christianity, Pelton studied theology in Columbia before ill health forced him to move in 1838 to Illinois, settling in Sparta, where he taught school for several years. In July 1844, Pelton moved his family to Springfield, Illinois, where he practiced dentistry in partnership with Edward Griffith. Pelton and Griffith dissolved their partnership in October 1844, and Pelton continued the practice alone. In 1850, he was practicing dentistry in Springfield and owned real property valued at $2,100. Pelton continued his practice until 1857, when failing eyesight forced him to end his practice. He moved to Union County, Illinois, where he operated a prize winning fruit farm through the Civil War. In 1860, he owned real property valued at $12,500 and a personal estate of $500.

J. M. Pelton, Genealogy of the Pelton Family in America (Albany, NY: Joel Munsell's Sons, 1892), 571-72; Sangamo Journal (Springfield), 4 July 1844, 3:7; 10 October 1844, 3:1; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Springfield, Sangamon County, IL, 119; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Union County, IL, 75; Gravestone, Walnut Grove Cemetery, Worthington, OH.