Shawnee County KS Archives Biographies.....Sheldon, Charles M. 1857 - 
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Author: James L. King (1905)

REV. CHARLES M. SHELDON.

    REV. CHARLES M. SHELDON, pastor of the Central Congregational Church of
Topeka, is a man whose name and fame probably extends around the world and one
whose manly, consistent Christian character has won for him the unbounded esteem
and admiration of his fellow-citizens. Rev. Mr. Sheldon was born in New York,
February 26, 1857, and is one of a family of six children born to Rev. Stewart
asd [sic] Sarah (Ward) Sheldon.

    The venerable father of our subject resides with him in Topeka. For many
years Rev. Stewart Sheldon was a minister of the Gospel in New York, but some
years since gave up his last charge and came to this city.

    Charles M. Sheldon was reared in New York through his early boyhood and
passed the remainder of that impressionable period in South Dakota. His
education was of a very ample character, pursued is Eastern institutions of
learning. In 1879 he was graduated from Andover Academy, in Massachusetts, and
then entered Brown University, at Providence, Rhode Island, which has been the
alma mater of so many illustrious men. He was graduated from Brown in 1883 and
three years later was graduated from the Andover Theological Seminary.

    Rev. Mr. Sheldon's first charge was at Waterbury, Vermont, where he served
from 1886 to 1888. In January, 1889, he accepted the call to his present charge,
the Central Congregational Church of Topeka. Here his labors have been continued
ever since. The great love and high esteem which he has inspired, in his
congregation of 500 members, tell of fidelity to duty, consistent Christian
living and the close following of the Master he aims to serve. When Rev. Mr.
Sheldon took charge, he found many difficulties in his path, one of these being
the immediate need for a new place of worship. The completed church edifice,
which tourists come far to see, on account of the reputation of its noted
pastor, is a handsome, substantial structure to which an addition has recently
been made, through the generous gift of $4,500 by the widow of the late T. E.
Bowman, and is known as the Bowman Memorial Annex. A sketch of Mr. Bowman will
be found elsewhere in this volume.

    In 1891 Rev. Mr. Sheldon was married to Mary Merriam, who is a daughter of
Everett B. Merriam. They have one son,—Merriam W. Their pleasant home is located
at No. 1515 West 15th street.

    To speak extensively of either Rev. Mr. Sheldon's spiritual work or of his
many successes in authorship, would be almost superfluous, in a work prepared
for circulation in a locality where his name is almost a household word. He is
the author of a number of very popular books, among these being: "His Brother's
Keeper," "In His Steps," "Malcolm Kirk," "Edward Blake" and "Born to Serve."
    Rev. Mr. Sheldon's influence on public men and measures has been great. He
is constantly concerned with great philanthropic ideas and is gratified many
times to find them adopted by those who have the financial resources to carry
them out. He is a man who has spent the best of his energies, the gifts of his
intellect and the deepest resources of his nature in aid of his fellow-men. He
does not convert the whole world to his way of thinking, but abundant success
testifies to the sympathy which he has kindled and which will perpetuate the
work as well as the name of one of the most retiring and unostentatious public
men of the century.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

HISTORY OF SHAWNEE COUNTY, KANSAS
AND
REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS

EDITED AND COMPILED BY
JAMES L. KING
TOPEKA, KANSAS 

"History is Philosophy Teaching by Examples"

PUBLISHED BY
RICHMOND & ARNOLD,
GEORGE RICHMOND; C. R. ARNOLD.
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS,
1905.

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