Harry Herbert Charles, 1865-1937
In 1893, Harry also got involved with the creation of a new theater for Quincy -- the Empire Theatre. Harry was elected secretary. Within a few months, Harry was made theatre manager, a position he held until September 1895.
Empire Theatre – interior
Empire Theatre program – H. H. Charles, Manager
In September 1895, right after Harry was replaced as manager of the Empire Theatre, his brother-in-law, George H. Stahl, hired him as advertising and sales manager of the Excelsior Incubator Company. Excelsior manufactured incubators used in poultry farming.
Ad for Excelsior Incubator Company – Quincy
Excelsior Incubator building – Quincy
While at Excelsior, Harry dealt with the replacement of parts for the company’s incubators. The parts usually had to be replaced as quickly as possible. A delay of several days meant a multiplicity of back-and-forth written communications to determine price and remittance of payment. Harry came up with an idea to shorten the process. As early as 1898, he began experimenting with a COD (cash/collect-on-delivery) parcel post system. The Quincy Post Office cooperated with the idea. The New York Times, November 15, 1899 (front page) said:
Ad for the Eureka Fire Extinguisher – 1893/94
Harry Herbert Charles, the first child of Edward Benson Charles, Jr. (1840-1903) and the former Francis C. Green (1840-1873), was born on May 7, 1865, in Quincy, Illinois. His mother was the firstborn of my maternal great great grandparents Ephraim Scudder Green (1810-1868) and the former Maria M. Bassett (1815-1913). Harry was the first cousin of my maternal grandmother, Edithe Alois Beutler. (This biography of Harry is derived from my book, Unsung But Not Forgotten [computer link to book])
Harry, a man of extremely slight physique, led a life of Herculean accomplishments. He came up with the of idea of a COD (cash/collect-on-delivery) parcel post system 14 years before it was officially adopted by the United States Post Office. Finding Quincy too small for his ambitious business plans, he eventually settled in New York City to pursue his goals in advertising. His crowning achievements in this field were to become the president of the Advertising Club of New York and to be decorated by the French Government as Chevalier of the Legion of Honor and as Officier of the Ordre du Mérite Agricole (Order of Agricultural Merit) for his work in truth in advertising.
In January 1890, while Harry was working at McCormick Harvester Company, predecessor to International Harvester Company, he married Jane “Jennie” Barbour (1867-1935). Harry and Jennie only had one child, Jane Barbour Charles, born in January 1891. Jane never married and lived until 1979.
The year 1893 turned out to be an interesting one for Harry. He announced that he had invented and patented a new device, the “Eureka fire extinguisher.”. The device went quickly into production by Harry’s newly formed H. H. Charles Company and was even sold nationally.
First cousin, twice removed
“Advertising Executive”
Quincy, Ill., Nov. 14. – Harry H. Charles of this city has devised a plan for adding a collect-on-delivery feature to the postal service, and a movement has been inaugurated to press Congress for legislation to that effect at the next session. The scheme has been tested during the last six months, and found to work well. Postmaster D. F. Wilcox of this city will present the matter for discussion at the Convention of First-Class Postmasters in Washington next week.
In his tests, Mr. Charles sends a package to the address of the patron, and by the same mail forwards a notice to the Postmaster asking him to deliver the package on the payment of the amount due, and then return the amount collected by postal order, registered letter, or in stamps, less the fee for the service. The tests made embrace almost every State in the Union. The patron gets his supplies quickly, the receipts of the Post office are increased by the registry or postal order fee, and the company gets its money promptly.
As we well know, things move slowly in Washington, D.C., and Harry’s idea remained for a long time at the discussion stage. Harry had first approached United States Postmaster General, Charles Emory Smith, with his idea. When Smith left office in 1902, Harry, after years of promoting it with no success, decided to let the matter drop.
This all changed with the administration of Frank H. Hitchcock, who took office as Postmaster General in 1909. Hitchcock strove to expand United States mail delivery to include packages, but it took several years to accomplish this. Finally, on January 1, 1913, parcel post service was introduced, allowing customers, both urban and rural, to send and receive packages without having to travel to a post office. Six months later, on July 1, 1913, the Post Office department introduced the collect-on-delivery parcel post service that Harry had so cleverly thought up, and had so successfully proven feasible, back in 1899.
In 1901, Harry involved himself in a couple of new projects. First, he began a movement to have a convention hall built in the city of Quincy, calling it the “Coliseum.” His second project was totally journalistic -- the acquisition of the Quincy Optic, a local Sunday society newspaper, which had recently come up for sale.
By 1903, Harry felt a need for a change and accepted an offer from the Gem Incubator Company of Dayton, Ohio, to become their new advertising and sales manager. He accepted and his family relocated to Dayton.
He did not stay at Gem very long. Within two years, in 1905, he was wooed away from Gem by White’s Class Advertising Company, a New York City firm that specialized in areas dear to Harry heart: agricultural advertising, farm products, and farm exploitation. His family again relocated, this time to New York City. By now, his daughter, Jane, was 14 years old.
Harry worked for White’s for several years, while planning to eventually open his own advertising company. He finally accomplished this in 1909 and called it the H. H. Charles Advertising Service. He set up his new office at 32 East 57th Street.
Harry quickly rose in prominence in the New York City advertising world. The esteem for his advertising expertise spread nationally and even internationally. He joined all the necessary professional clubs – the American Association of Advertising Agencies, the Associated Advertising Clubs of the World, and the International Advertising Association. When Harry was age 57, Advertising and Selling magazine, June 1922 (page 20), published a full-page photo portrait of him:
TO EXTEND POSTAL SERVICE
Collect-On-Delivery System Proposed by an Illinois Man.
Special to The New York Times.
Advertising and Selling, June 1922, page 20
The most important professional club that he joined early on was the Advertising Club of New York, which has an interesting history. In 1896, a group of eight advertising men in New York City began meeting for lunch on a regular basis to share their ideas. They called themselves The Sphinx Club, and in 1906 the growing group incorporated as The Advertising Men's League, ultimately becoming The Advertising Club of New York in 1915. Harry joined the club as soon as he moved to New York in 1905 and was frequently elected its secretary or treasurer. He watched the club develop and was partly responsible for its expanding success.
In addition to his skill in advertising, Harry also showed great organizational ability. The Advertising Club of New York recognized his competence and elected him president of the club in 1923 and then re-elected him in 1924. Harry’s period of service, 1923-1925, was an eventful one. In November 1923, he organized the first-ever advertising exposition, which was held in the 71st Regiment Armory and covered all aspects of advertising. In January 1924, after many months of planning, he oversaw the move of the clubhouse from its old space at 47 East 25th Street to its new quarters at 23 Park Avenue (corner of 35th Street). The new clubhouse was the magnificent old townhouse residence of James Hampton Robb, built in 1888-1892 and designed in the Italian renaissance revival style by Stanford White of McKim, Mead & White. The townhouse had six floors, 50 rooms, and a large central stairway brought from Italy. It cost $500,000 to remodel the building for use as its clubhouse. The ribbon cutting opening ceremony was held in January 1924.
Old clubhouse steps – 1923 – 47 East 25th Street. Front row – Harry Herbert Charles; Grover Whalen, Police Commissioner
New clubhouse — former Robb Townhouse — 23 Park Avenue
Concurrent with his work with The Advertising Club of New York, he was also a member of the Associated Advertising Clubs of the World. In the summer of 1924, Harry headed a large delegation of its members to attend the 20th Annual Convention of the Associated Advertising Clubs of the World held in London. Harry, Jennie, and Jane all applied for passports in order to make the trip to Europe a family summer vacation -- to include France, Italy, and Switzerland -- as well as to make the required convention appearance in London. They sailed for England in early July 1924 and returned to New York in mid- August.
The convention met in London July 13-18. After the convention, the delegation travelled to Paris, where the French government lavished the visiting group with special ceremonies and banquets. During one of the banquets, on July 28, Harry was awarded the Legion of Honor in appreciation of his work with the Associated Advertising Clubs of the World to promote “truth in advertising.” Harry was pinned with the cross of the Chevalier of the Legion of Honor by Camille Chautemps, the Minister of Interior, in the name of the French government. Another member of the group, Jess H. Neal, the secretary-treasurer of the Associated Advertising Clubs of the World, was similarly pinned that night. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 1, 1924 (page 27) published a photo of Harry, captioned with “Honored By France:”
Harry Herbert Charles — St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 1, 1924, page 27
Former President of New York Advertising Club Was Head of His Own Agency. Farm Products Expert. Began Career in Native Illinois With Agricultural Concerns – Decorated by France.
Harry H. Charles, president of the Charles Advertising Service, 32 East Fifty-Seventh Street and former president of the New York Advertising Club, died yesterday of pneumonia at his residence, 355 Riverside Drive, at the age of 72. He is survived by his second wife, and a daughter of his first marriage, Miss Jane Charles, of the Riverside Drive address.
A native of Quincy, Ill., Mr. Charles was educated in the public schools of that city. His early business years were occupied with firms dealing almost entirely with farmers, and when he became an advertising man, he made a specialty of agricultural products.
For some years, he had charge of collections for the McCormick Harvester Company of Chicago, predecessor of the International Harvester Company. Later, he was with White’s Class Agricultural Advertising Agency, said to have been the first to develop agricultural advertising. In 1910, Mr. Charles established his own advertising firm in this city. It became a charter member of the American Association of Advertising Agencies, and Mr. Charles served for years on the association’s agricultural committee.
Mr. Charles was president of the New York Advertising Club in 1923-1925 and in July 1924, he accompanied a group of American advertising men to Europe. As 500 of his associates assembled at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, he placed a bronze palm at the foot of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and delivered a brief address. The next day, he received the Cross of the Legion of Honor from Camille Chautemps, Minister of the Interior. Two years later, the French Government decorated him with the rosette of an Officier de Mérite d’Agricole.
In Berlin, in August, 1929, Mr. Charles was one of the principal speakers at the opening of the World Advertising Congress, and a few days later he presented to Mayor Boess of Berlin the greetings of Mayor Walker of New York. Mr. Charles was a former secretary of the Alliance Française of New York.
On Oct. 10, 1929, Mr. Charles was luncheon host to former President Calvin Coolidge at the clubhouse of the New York Advertising Club, 23 Park Avenue.
H.H. CHARLES DIES; ADVERTISING MAN
In 1926, the French government again bestowed an honor on Charles. He was decorated with the rosette of an Officier de Mérite d’Agricole, the Order of Agricultural Merit, in thanks for his contributions to agricultural advertising.
In August 1929, Harry went to Berlin, Germany, to attend the World Advertising Congress along with 1,000 other American delegates. A total of 5,000 advertising men representing 20 countries attended the congress. That year, the keynote theme was “selling the idea of peace to the world.” Harry was one of the principle speakers at the opening ceremonies. Several days later, he presented Mayor Boess of Berlin with a flag of New York and a letter from Mayor Jimmy Walker, sent by the Graf Zeppelin, conveying New York’s greeting to Berlin.
Sadly, Harry’s wife, Jennie, died on March 6, 1935 of heart disease after a long illness. She was only 67. Jennie was buried in the Green family lot in Woodland Cemetery in Quincy.
Within two years of his first wife’s death, Harry himself died, of pneumonia at age 71, March 2, 1937 in New York City. The New York Times, March 3, 1937 (page 23) said:
Harry was buried in the Charles family lot in Woodland Cemetery in Quincy.
Harry Herbert Charles – tombstone Woodland Cemetery – Quincy, Illinois