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History of Adair
County, Iowa, 1915.

Biographical.  Volume 2.

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Charlesworth Powel.

Charlesworth Powel is now living retired at Adair, but his life record covers many years of intense and well directed activity, including valiant service for his country at the time of the Civil war and prominent connection with industrial and commercial pursuits in this county.  He was born in Philadelphia, September 5, 1835, and has therefore passed the eightieth milestone on life's journey, his being an honored old age in which he is accorded a large measure of respect and veneration.  His parents were Richard and Sarah A. (Firth) Powel, also natives of Philadelphia.  The father was a cabinetmaker by trade and served a five years apprenticeship ere entering upon an active life devoted to that business.  In 1840 he went to Parkersburg, Virginia, where he followed cabinetmaking for a considerable period and then removed to Taylorville, Illinois, where he worked at his trade until his death, which occurred in 1872.  His wife has also passed away.

Charlesworth Powel was reared and educated in Virginia and spent the period of his boyhood and youth in his father's home.  He made his initial step in business as clerk in a store in Springfield, Illinois, and was there employed until 1861.  In the meantime the family had removed to Illinois and at twenty-six years of age, in response to the country's call for troops, he joined Company H of the Fourteenth Illinois Infantry, with which he served for three years or during the Civil war as first lieutenant and adjutant.  He then returned to Taylorville, Illinois, and purchased an interest in a general store, but after six months the partnership was dissolved.  He then secured employment with a milling concern, acting as bookkeeper and salesman, and that he was a most loyal and trusted representative of the house is indicated in the fact that he remained with the firm for twenty years, enjoying the entire confidence of his employers, which confidence was never betrayed in the slightest degree.  At the end of two decades he went to Tennessee, where he invested in five hundred acres of land which he owned and cultivated for ten years.  He then traded that property for a stock of drugs and a residence property in Adair, Iowa, and admitted his son to a partnership in the business, which they conducted together for several years.  Mr. Powel then sold his interest to his son and has since lived retired, enjoying a rest which he has truly earned and richly deserves.

On the 5th of April, 1865, Mr. Powel was united in marriage to Miss Rachael E. Milligan, a daughter of William and Eliza (Pollack) Milligan, who were natives of Pennsylvania and Virginia respectively.  The father was a tanner by trade and operated both a tannery and farm in Ohio, in which state he took up his abode in an early day.  His demise occurred in 1854, while his wife was called to her final rest in the year 1879.  Mr. and Mrs. Powel became the parents of seven children, as follows:  Preston, a druggist and physician of Adair, Iowa;  Mary, who died in 1870, when one year old;  Florence, who gave her hand in marriage to G. O. Reavis and resides in Los Angeles, California;  Edith, who passed away in 1911 and was the wife of David C. Kemmer, of Tennessee;  Reuben, living in Tennessee;  Richard, who makes his home in Alabama;  and Mabel who died in 1883, at the age of but one year.

In his political views Mr. Powel has been an earnest republican since casting his first presidential vote for Abraham Lincoln, while his religious faith is indicated by his membership in the Presbyterian church.  Those who know him esteem him highly and he is most honored where best known, showing that his entire life has commanded the confidence and good will of those with whom he has been associated.

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