Bannock County
IDGenWeb
It is no easy task to adequately describe one who has led an eminently
active, busy and useful life and attained a position of high relative
distinction, trust and honor in his community, but biography finds its
most perfect justification in the preserving and recording of such life
histories as that of Charles G. Rose, now a leading merchant of the
county of Bannock, his home and scene of business activities being
located in the thriving city of Soda Springs, Idaho. He was born in
Trenton, N. J., October 5, 1841, a son of Stephen B. and Sarah T.
(Wikoff) Rose, also natives of New Jersey, the paternal ancestors
tracing back through several generations to early Colonial stock of New
England, and, further, to long years of occupancy on English soil, while
the mother's people were of distinguished German ancestry.
The
father, a zealous Mormon, identified himself with the Mormon colony of
Utah in 1851, his family following him thither in 1853, and he was there
in the employ of the Z. C. M. I. and William Jennings, being also a
merchant, a sagacious and discriminating sub-Indian agent at the time of
his first residence in Utah, winning high praise for his administrative
powers in that connection, becoming in later years a popular merchant at
Pleasant Grove. The mother died at Soda Springs, Idaho, in 1871, while
on a visit to that place to recuperate her health, the father dying at
the family home in Utah, on February 15, 1897, at the patriarchal age of
eighty-two years, the parent of five children, of whom Charles G. was
the eldest.
Identified with the West from his early youth and
receiving his education in the schools of Utah, in 1873 Mr. Rose
commenced his long identification with mercantile affairs by entering a
branch of the Z. C. M. I., located at Soda Springs, in a clerical
capacity, remaining here to the great satisfaction of his employers for
seven years, thereafter engaging in merchandising for himself and
establishing the first store of the place, outside of the mercantile
house by which he had been employed, on the site where the old Cariboo
Hotel now stands. Being prospered in his undertakings, he erected a
brick store especially intended to supply the necessities and
conveniences of an extensive mercantile trade, and here he is now
engaged in a prosperous business, carrying a full line of dry goods,
furnishing goods, shelf hardware, boots and shoes, and other desired
articles of merchandise, and receiving an extensive and appreciative
patronage. In connection with merchandising he conducts agricultural
operations on his finely located ranch, which is situated five miles
southeast of Soda Springs, where he has an estate of 480 acres, mostly
adapted to the raising of hay.
Standing high in the esteem of
the general public for his many sterling qualities of head and heart,
Mr. Rose holds a prominent position in the Church of Latter Day Saints,
having been an efficient superintendent of the Sunday school at Soda
Springs for the long period of twenty years, and also filling the
position of first counsellor to the bishop.
In Salt Lake City,
Utah, on November 22, 1868, the rites of holy matrimony were celebrated
that united Mr. Rose with Miss Margaret E. Nowlin, a native of Utah and
a daughter of Byran W. and Mary (Cummings) Nowlin, the father being a
native of Tennessee and the mother of Massachusetts, they being early
pioneers of Utah and having the distinction of crossing the plains in
one of the first Mormon companies in 1847. The names in order of birth
of the children of Mr. and Mrs. Rose are as follows: Nellie W., who died
at the age of three years, three months and three days; Charles E., who
married Martha E. Gibbs. May, now wife of Daniel J. Lau; Walter N.: Anna
B., now wife of Hyrum M. Lau; Nerva Leal, all of the living ones being
residents of Soda Springs.
In political relations Mr. Rose is
connected with the Democratic party, and, in forwarding the interests of
that organization, he has wielded no unimportant part in this vicinity,
but he has never been a seeker for its honors or emoluments. We have
thus outlined in brief the story of one of the most active and useful
lives of Bannock county; financially, socially and religiously the
career of Mr. Rose shows a distinct and unqualified success. His high
personal character has won the esteem of all, and the consensus of
public opinion is that he is a man of the strictest integrity,
broad-minded and progressive, who has won his way to a high standing in
the hearts of the people and is looked upon by them as a venerated
citizen and pioneer.
Extracted from Progressive Men of Bannock, Bear Lake, Bingham, Fremont and Oneida Counties, Idaho, published in 1904, pages 385-386, contributed 2021 Jun 15 by Norma Hass
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