CHARLES EVERETT HAMILTON
The creative mind, whatever its location and surroundings, is sure to
find expression in some production of utility or beauty, even if it be
only a meager one, and fall far short of the conception of its creator,
either through lack of resources or want of opportunity to work out its
full development. But where the creative spirit is strong and the
circumstances are favorable, the result is very likely to be something
of magnitude and great practical value, and if not produced wholly for
beauty, may still be beautiful in its utility and the service it renders
to mankind.
In the case of Charles E. Hamilton, of Carbondale, the spirit is strong
and the circumstances have been favorable, so that what he has achieved
is well worthy of close consideration and high praise. His productions
are works of science directed by high art, and combine in their make-up
and impressiveness both beauty and utility, service for the people of
the communities in which they operate, and profit for their creator as
well as renown for his ability and sweep of vision.
Mr. Hamilton's life began in Jefferson county, Illinois, on March 6, 1873,
where his parents, William J. and Catherine (Garner) Hamilton, were
prosperously engaged in farming. He grew to manhood on the farm and
performed his due part of the labor incident to its cultivation. He
attended the public school in the neighborhood of the farm, and made
such good use of his opportunity that he prepared himself for entry at
the Southern Illinois Normal University, where he completed his academic
education. The bent of his mind was not toward farming, and he determined
to become a lawyer. With this end in view he studied law three years in
offices, and then attended lectures at the Illinois College of Law. He
was admitted to the bar in 1901 and began practicing in Carbondale,
continuing his devotion to his profession until 1908. In that year he and
Dr. Lewis organized the Citizens Water, Light and Power company, with a
capital stock of seventy-five thousand dollars and himself as vice president
and general manager. His company bought out the Carbondale Lighting and the
Carbondale Water Works companies when they were sold by a receiver, but the
plants of all are still in operation and doing excellent work. The light
and power plant managed by Mr. Hamilton maintains a continuous current three
hundred kilowatt force, and his water plant operates with wells four hundred
to six hundred feet deep, and amply able to supply the demand of one hundred
and fifty thousand gallons, which is the daily consumption in the city from
its mains. Its water is pure, clean and invigorating, and is used in all
homes for drinking purposes in preference to any other. The company also
operates a twenty-ton ice plant to supply the local demand, and finds the
capacity of this taxed to its limit owing to the excellence of its output
and the satisfactory character of its service in distributing this. Mr.
Hamilton also founded the Benton, Illinois, Hamilton Utilities Company,
which has a capital stock of one hundred thousand dollars, and of which
he is also the vice president and the secretary. It supplies water, light
and ice to the city of Benton in the adjoining county of Franklin. This
company has about the same capacity as the Citizens Light and Power Company
of Carbondale. Both are equipped with every modern device of the most approved
type for their work, conducted according to the best intelligence and latest
developments in connection with it, and both have come to be prime necessaries
to the communities in which they operate.
Mr. Hamilton was married on July 28, 1894, to Miss Dora Hayes, of Mt. Vernon,
Illinois, a daughter of Richard L. Hayes, a farmer near that city. Five
children have been born of the union: Ralph Emerson, Lola (deceased),
Katharine Jewell, Charles Morrison and Helen. They are all living and
attending school from the home of their parents. The latter are devoted
members of the Methodist Episcopal church, and the father is one of the
trustees of the congregation to which he belongs. In fraternal life he is
a member of the Order of Odd Fellows and the Modern Woodmen of America. He
has taken a very active and helpful part in the affairs of Carbondale and
is now president of its school board, a position in which he has served the
community since 1905. In politics he is a Democrat, but he has never been
an active partisan and never sought or desired any of the honors or emoluments
his party has to bestow. Throughout the county, and in every other locality
where he is known, he is held in the highest estimation as a man and citizen,
and a very enterprising and productive business force, both through his own
efforts and through the efforts he awakens and stimulates in others by his
influence and example. Jackson county has no better citizen, and none whom
the people deem more worthy of their esteem or more representative of their
genuine manhood.
Source: History of Southern Illinois George Washington Smith,
M. A. VOLUME I - III ILLUSTRATED
THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY CHICAGO AND NEW YORK 1912
Page 658 - 659
Submitted by Robert W. Loman
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