WHO WAS CHARLES E. HERRON ?

Compiled by Ruth Cochrane and Myra Herron

Beginning quote from Catherine Huston Herron, 1962

“The slim, gangling youth hunched close between the bodies of the plodding oxen unconsciously seeking their warmth as well as the protection they afforded from the danger that lurked beyond. The snow crunched sharply beneath his feet, and the frost collected upon his cap and eyebrows. He was but dimly aware of these things as his eyes strained to pierce the darkness in an attempt to discern the skulking forms of wolves, for the area was littered with the bones of deer who had fallen prey to the hungry beasts.

“Such is the picture painted by the late Charles Herron of his boyhood days in the lumber camps along the “Little Wolf.”

Charles E. Herron was the 5^th child of George Colburn Herron and his wife, Catherine Link Herron. He was born in Wilson Township of Alpena County, Michigan, November 19, 1869. He attended the King School, a one-room school near his home on King Settlement Road. His father died in May of 1887 and left his mother with a young family to raise. Charles and his older siblings helped with the work on the farm.

In June of 1887, Charles was buried in the well while trying to recover the well pail which had fallen to the bottom of the well. He was totally buried for about 24 hours, with all the men and women in the neighborhood there, through the night, attempting to rebuild the inside structure of the well, without killing him.

It is interesting to follow Charles through the various U. S. census records. He is first seen in the 1870 census with his parents and siblings at the tender age of 5 months. By 1880, Charles is shown in a much larger family with a total of 8 children. Charles E. is 10 years old at ‘at home’. His siblings were George S., 18, Julia Ann, 16, Catherine M., 13, Noble F., 11, Robert F., 6, Ella May, 3, and Estella Jane, 1. In 1900, George C. Herron had died, and Catherine had remarried for a short time. She was counted as ‘Catherine Clark’ and as the head of the household. Charles, at age 30, was living with her and probably helping on the farm. We will find him married one year later.

August 19, 1901, Charles married Ida Warren who was born to Rev. and Mrs. Warren on February 6, 1881 in New Haven, Michigan, and who had been teaching in Wilson Township for two years.

Charles and Ida had six children, Gerald, Doris, Marjorie, Ralph, Eunice and Helen. After the couple grew older, they left Wilson Township and settled in a new home in Alpena. He died September 5, 1960 in Alpena, and was buried in Evergreen Cemetery. The picture with this biography is of their now-gone home that he built in Wilson Township.

The house on the Charles Herron farm. Unfortunately, it has been demolished.

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