Charlotte Taylor Blow Charless
Deceased Person
1810 – 1905
Who was Charlotte Taylor Blow Charless?
Charlotte Taylor Blow Charless founded the "Home of the Friendless" in St. Louis in 1853 for elderly, indigent women who could no longer work and care for themselves. Renamed “The Charless Home" in 1977, the institution celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2003 and continues to provide housing and services to retired men as well as women.
Mrs. Charless wrote a biography of her husband, Joseph Charless, Jr. to extol his exemplary moral and Christian character. Her husband, a prominent merchant and banker, was assassinated in St. Louis by a deranged bookkeeper, Joseph Thornton, who believed that Mr. Charless had ruined his character by testifying against him at trial. Mr. Thornton, accused of stealing nearly $20,000 from the Boatmen’s Saving Association, was acquitted of theft, but found guilty of murder. Mrs. Charless's biography, written as a series of letters to her grandchildren, was privately printed and published in St. Louis in 1869.
Born in Southampton, Virginia, Mrs. Charless traveled with her family first to northern Alabama and then, in 1830, to St. Louis where her father, Peter Blow, briefly operated a hotel.
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