Charles Mears

Charles Mears
Charles Mears, c. 1856
Born	March 16, 1814 North Billerica, Massachusetts
Died	1895
Resting place	Michigan
Nationality	American
Occupation	businessman, entrepreneur
Known for	developing western Michigan
Parent(s)	Nathan Mears & Lucy Mears
Relatives	Thomas Mears, grandfather

Charles Mears was a Michigan lumber businessman, a Chicago, Illinois capitalist, and a developer of the western part of Michigan.Mears State Park in Pentwater is named after him.

Mears was the son of Nathan Mears and his wife Lucy. Mears had an older brother, Edwin. His next brother, Nathan, was younger than him, with his sister, Lucy Ann, younger yet and the youngest sibling was Elbert (also known as "Albert"). His grandfather was Thomas Mears, a minuteman in the American Revolutionary War. Mears was born in North Billerica, Massachusetts on March 16, 1814. His mother's family had the Scottish name of Levistone; which was anglicized to "Livingston." Mears's father was, from 1821 to 1828, one of the town’s fathers. He built and operated a sawmill, owned several farms, and kept a store.

In 1795, ground was broken at Billerica Mills for the Middlesex Canal (the first canal in the United States) which opened in 1802. Mears’s father owned one of the locks on the canal. Mears and his brothers became familiar with canals, canal locks, control of water power for dams, and mill machinery because of their father’s operations on the Concord River.

Mears and his siblings were not allowed to follow their own desires, which was the New England custom of the time. Mears used to look forward to "Training Day" because then he could get "a card of gingerbread." He was ambitious, revealing his early entrepreneurial trends. He was known to have said he was willing to "run a mile for a nickel."

Unfortunately, Mears and his siblings were left orphans very early in their lives by the death of their mother in 1827 and of their father a year later. Guardians were then appointed to take care of them. They were sent to the academies of that day to finish their education. Mears went to country schools to learn his basic schooling and then went to trade school in Lowell, Massachusetts to learn the cabinet trade.

One account has Mears in the lumber and provision trade in Massachusetts in 1835 and 1836. By then Mears and his brothers, like most of the young men of New England, were looking toward “the West” for new life adventures. In 1836 Mears's sister married and the brothers no longer felt obligated to stay in Massachusetts. They studied the “Farmer's map of Michigan” and decided to move to the newly opened western territory of Michigan. Mears and his brothers went to Paw Paw, Michigan, because of the Paw Paw River and its navigational capabilities to Lake Michigan.