Biography of Charles W. Barnes, Winter Haven, Polk County, FL

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Transcribed from:  The History of Florida:  Past & Present, The Lewis Publishing Co., Vol. 
II, page 296, 1923.

BARNES, CHARLES W.   The vital little City of Winterhaven (sic), Polk County, is the center 
of a district devoted to progressive enterprise in the growing of citrus fruit, and with this 
line of industry Mr. BARNES is here prominently identified, as is evident when it is stated 
that he is manager of the Winterhaven (sic) Citrus Growers Association.

Mr. BARNES claims the old Buckeye State as the place of his nativity, and he is a scion of 
old and honored families in the state, within whose borders were born his parents, WILLIAM H. 
and ORRELL A. (VANCE) BARNES, the former of whom is deceased and the latter of whom still 
resides in Ohio.

CHARLES W. BARNES, the second in a family of four sons, was born at Barnesville, Belmont County, 
Ohio, on the 23rd of January, 1872, and there he received his early education in the public 
schools, including the high school.  For 2 ½ years he was a student in the Ohio State University 
at Columbus, and in 1892 he graduated from the Eastman Business College at Poughkeepsie, New 
York.  During a period of four years thereafter he was in the employ of the Kidd Brothers & 
Burgher Steel Wire Company at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  He then returned to Ohio and entered 
the employ of the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company at Akron, but within a comparatively short 
time he went again to Pittsburgh, where for six years he was in the employ of the great 
Westinghouse Machine Company.

In 1909 Mr. BARNES came to Florida and established his residence at Winterhaven, where for 
three years he was connected with the Florida Citrus Growers Association.  He severed this 
alliance to assume his present responsible office, that of manager of the Winterhaven Citrus 
Growers Association, a position in which he is giving an effective and progressive administration 
that is proving of marked benefit to the members of this organization.  He is the owner of an 
attractive residence property at Winterhaven and also of a well developed orange grove.  The 
citrus association of which Mr. BARNES is manager shipped in 1921 375,000 boxes of oranges, 
grapefruit and tangerines, the "big year", 1920, recorded the shipment of 452,000 boxes, and 
the estimated shipment for the season of 1922 is 425,000 boxes.  The Winterhaven Citrus 
Association has the largest and most modern fruit-packing house in the State of Florida, and 
it is doubtful if it is excelled in the entire United States, even in California.  The 
association gives employment to an average of 200 men.

Mr. BARNES is known and valued as one of the progressive business men and loyal citizens 
of Polk County, he is a Knight Templar Mason and a member of the Mystic Shrine, and he and 
his wife hold membership in the Presbyterian Church.

In the year 1903 Mr. BARNES was united in marriage with Miss MINNIE TEDRICK, of Akron, Ohio, 
and the one child of this union is a son, CHARLES TEDRICK, who was born in the year 1910.