Rich, Charles

Born: 1809-09-12 Boston, Massachusetts

Died: 1862-10-31 Beardstown, Illinois

Flourished: Beardstown, Illinois

Charles Rich, a minister and merchant, attended Boston Latin School before going to sea as a sailor and then as a mate. He then underwent a religious conversion and attended Yale College, graduating when he was twenty-nine years old. After studying divinity at Yale's seminary, Rich became a minister. He served in Washington, DC; Nantucket; and Buffalo. In the early 1850s, Rich quit preaching and entered the mercantile business in Beardstown. He became a member of the large mercantile firm of Rich, Chase and Company.

Rich married Maria (Merria) Antoinette Chase in 1840 in Pepperell, Massachusetts. The couple had three children.

Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale College Deceased from July, 1859, to July, 1870 (New Haven, CT: Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor, 1870), 98; Massachusetts, U.S., Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988 (Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, 2011); U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Pepperell, Middlesex County, MA, 251; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Beardstown, Cass County, IL, 208; Newton Bateman and Paul Selby, eds., Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Cass County, ed. by Charles Æ. Martin (Chicago: Munsell, 1915), 707; Gravestone, Beardstown City Cemetery, Beardstown, IL.