Bio of PRIOR, Charles Henry (b.1833 d.1921), Hennepin Co., MN
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EXTRACTED FROM: History of Minneapolis, Gateway to the Northwest; 
Chicago-Minneapolis, The S J Clarke Publishing Co, 1923; Edited by: Rev. 
Marion Daniel Shutter, D.D., LL.D.; Volume I - Shutter (Historical); 
volume II - Biographical; volume III - Biographical
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Vol II, pg 592-595
CHARLES HENRY PRIOR
Charles Henry Prior was born August 1, 1833, at Plainsville, Connecticut, and
was the first-born of Joseph and Lucretia (Barrows) Prior. In 1836 his parents
moved to Ohio by ox team, but returned to Connecticut the next year by the same
method of transportation. However, in 1837 they again went to Ohio, this time to
settle permanently. They went by the Erie canal and by team to Cleveland, where
they settled. Charles H. Prior was educated at the old Cleveland University and
Oberlin College, taking the civil engineering course at Oberlin. In 1853 he was
in charge of construction on Junction Railroad, Port Clinton, Ohio. The next
year he was with the New Albany & Sandusky Railroad, in charge of construction.
In 1857 he went to Madison, Wisconsin, as civil engineer on the Wisconsin and
Minne­sota Railway, which was then in course of construction between Milwaukee
and Prairie du Chien. That year he went by team and stage to Black River Falls
and made a map and plat of Black River Falls. In August, 1858, he went to
Northfield, Minnesota, and met the directors of the Minneapolis and Cedar Valley
Railroad, who employed him as surveyor and placed him in charge of field
operations. The next day he started gangs to work and himself started out to
walk over the entire works which extended from Austin, Minnesota, to Mendota,
Minnesota. In Decem­ber he was at Mendota, locating a crossing of Minnesota
river and making profiles for the crossing. In that month also he first visited
Minneapolis.
In August, 1859, the Minneapolis & Cedar Valley Railroad stopped all work, and
the next day Mr. Prior was making a survey of Lake Augusta for the United States
government. He was a man of action. He spent a few days in Lake Augusta, making
a map, then made his way back to Milwaukee, and to the Minneapolis & Cedar
Valley Railroad. Then he went to Watertown and began the survey for the road
from Watertown to Waterloo, Madison and Sun Prairie.
At this time his connection with S. S. Merrill began, and a friendship was
formed that lasted throughout their lives. For twenty-six years* they were
asso­ciated in business, with headquarters in Watertown. Mr. Prior seems to have
been the mainstay of the railway, judging by the positions he held. He was
roadmaster, bridge engineer, purchasing agent, had charge of all building
construction of all depots, was right-of-way agent, inspector of bridges over
the whole line, laid out all depot grounds, and bought and had charge of the
transportation of all wood, which was then the fuel used on railroads.
In 1870 he came to Minneapolis as superintendent of the Iowa and Minnesota
Division of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad with headquarters in
this, city. On January 10, 1872, he was made assistant general superintendent of
all lines out of Minneapolis and St. Paul. In 1875 he built the dam across the
west channel of the Mississippi river, at La Crosse, to confine the river to the
east channel. This was an engineering feat of note in those days, when
experience with the Mis­sissippi was very limited. He handled the undertaking
with great ability and suc­cess, and it is said that this was one job of which
he was always proud.
From 1870 to 1886 Mr. Prior was prominent in railway affairs in Minneapolis and
surrounding territory. His position brought him into close contact with the
milling interests and the city government, and he was always a courteous, and at
the same time a highly efficient, official. In 1879 he located and superintended
the construction of the Short Line, the present Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul
line between Minneapolis and St. Paul. In the same year, in conjunction with Mr.
Merriam, he bought and laid out Merriam park. On December 8, 1881, he was
appointed assistant general superintendent of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul
Railroad, having charge of the Dubuque Division, Dubuque Branch, River Division,
Southern Minnesota Division, Iowa & Minnesota Division, Iowa and Dakota
Divi­sion, Hamilton and Dayton Division, Jim River Division, Wabasha Division,
Still-water Division and Chippewa Falls Division.
After his old associates had passed on, the last of whom was S. S. Merrill, Mr.
Prior found that he could not work under changed conditions, so he resigned his
position of general superintendent of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul
Railroad, on August 31, 1886. No man did more to build up the railways of the
Northwest than Mr. Prior. Others invested capital but he was an active
constructor. He surveyed the rights-of-way, directed the construction of the
roads, their depots and buildings, and then he superintended their operations.
Moreover, he was one of the foremost of the men who transformed Minneapolis from
a hamlet into a city. He was one of the organizers of every public utility in
Minneapolis, except the gas company. He was with Mr. Lowry and Mr. Goodrich in
the early days of the Min­neapolis Street Railway; with John Watson, Henry M.
Carpenter, John Hankinson, L. M. Town and F. Gilson, he organized the Telephone
Company; with E. S. Corser and Mr. Barton he organized the Brush Electric Light
Company, also was one of the builders of the Syndicate building, and in spirit
he was with every movement for the building up and advancement of Minneapolis
during his life.
He kept a diary which makes most interesting reading, as it gives a clear
under­standing at this day of early conditions in the Northwest and how the
railroads were gradually extended into new fields. Also it gives glimpses of his
character, and the energy that carried him so successfully through the endless
difficulties that met him at every turn in building the great railroads that
have given the Northwest its prosperity and importance in the nation.
On December 6, 1860, he married Delia M. Noyes at Wheatland, Wisconsin, and he
tells how, in 1867, they began to build a home in Watertown, Wisconsin. He also
remarks on a trip he and his wife took to New York to buy "house fittings" and
tells how they rode on horse cars and traded at the store of A. T. Stewart. Then
how on Sunday they went to hear Henry Ward Beecher preach. In another place he
speaks of buying a horse at Prairie du Chien and bringing him to Minneapolis in
the baggage car of a passenger train.
Up to 1886 he lived a strenuous life but after that date he withdrew from active
labors. He lived to a ripe old age and saw cities grow up along the railroads he
had built-cities where there had been only hamlets or wilderness when he laid
down the rails. He died November 13, 1921, at the age of eighty-eight.-----