Charles S. Eagle, a business man and mannfacturer at Topeka, is a native Kansan, and his family history is closely identified with the early border days of this state.
His father, James Eagle, who came to Kansas in 1856 and located in Douglas County, kept a hotel for several years on the old California trail at Big Springs. That was before the day of railroads, and his hotel supplied a service to the great traffic that went by his doors in stage coaches and prairie schooners. Like most other early settlers in Kansas he was drawn into the border and factional warfare, and was one of the men siain in the Battle of the Blue. He was married in Indiana to Sarah Ann Matilda Fry, who is still living and a resident of Topeka, being one of the interesting survivors of that pre-statehood period in Kansas. She was the mother of four children, and the three now living are: George M. of Topeka; Charles S.; and Elizabeth Alice, widow of Benjamin Ost.
Charles S. Eagle was born at Big Springs in Douglas County, Kansas, May 13, 1857, and had spent practically all his life within the borders of the Sunflower State. He grew up on a farm south of Lawrence, attended the public schools and also attended the schools of Lawrence, and he early found opportunity to make his own way in the world. For four years he worked in the wood department of the Santa Fe Railway.
In 1880 Mr. Eagle embarked in the retail eigar business and also became a eigar manufacturer. After thirty-five years he retired in 1915 from the retail business and is now giving his entire time to his cigar factory, which is one of the largest in the State of Kansas. It furnishes employment to about forty workmen, and transacts an annual business valued at about seventy-five thousand dollars.
Mr. Eagle is a member of the Topeka Commercial Club, is a democrat, and is affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and is also a member of the Country Club. In 1884 he married Mary Frederika Wikidal, of Canton, Ohio. Their one son is Harry W.