CHARLES H. PRESCOTT. – The subject of this sketch is second vice-president of the Northern Pacific Railroad.
He was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on the 22d of June, 1839, and is the son of Harrison and Sarah Harris Prescott. His father was a native of Massachusetts, and can date back for three generations as members of New England families. Harrison Prescott died when his son was yet in infancy; and at the age of six he suffered the loss of his mother. So under the care of guardians he was educated in the common and high schools of Boston.
At the age of fifteen he found employment as clerk in the well-known shipping firm of Wilkingram Bros & Co., who had offices in nearly every part of the country, and who shipped lumber from Puget Sound as early as 1854. He remained in the employ of that firm until March of 1861, when he began to do for himself, and went to Australia, where he engaged in mining and sheep raising with good success.
After spending seven years in Australia, by exposure in the mines his health failed; and in 1868 he visited London, England, for a short time. He then returned to his native city, and in 1869 went to Kansas City in the employ of James T. Joy as auditor and treasurer of the Missouri, Fort Scott & Gulf Railroad. From that time until 1880, Kansas City was his home; and probably no one man did more for that country than Mr. Prescott.
In 1880 he was elected comptroller of the Oregon Railway & Navigation Company under the management of Mr. Villard. That position he held until 1881, when he was elected to succeed Mr. Oaks as manager of the corporation. He retained his position until in 1887 ill health compelled him to resign; and he returned to Boston.
In 1888 he was appointed to the position he now fills, and which he ably manages, having charge of all the company’s offices on the coast.
His marriage to Miss Georgianna Bryant took place in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1870; and the have one child by adoption.