Charles Gilman Sanders, an enterprising lumber manufacturer of Chichester, was born in this town, April 30, 1824, son of Elijah and Olive (Philbrick) Sanders. His grandfather, Robert Sanders, followed the sea from the age of seventeen until he was sixty years old. Robert was engaged in both the foreign and coast trade; and during the War of 1812 he served upon a privateering vessel, which was fitted out at Portsmouth, N.H., by Captain Chase. His last days were passed in Epsom, N.H.; and he died at the age of sixty-four years. He voted with the Whig party in politics, and in his religious views was a Congregationalist. He married a Miss Foss, who lived to be seventy-eight years old; and she reared six sons and two daughters.
Elijah Sanders, born in Epsom in 1799, learned both tanning and shoemaking, and afterward followed those trades in Chichester for fifty years. He was an energetic and industrious man. His wife, Olive, was a daughter of Perkins Philbrick, a native of Rye, N.H., who moved from that town to Epsom, where he passed the rest of his life. She became the mother of two sons: Charles G., the subject of this sketch; and George S., who is no longer living. George S. Sanders married for his first wife Elizabeth Baxter, of Bridgewater, Mass. By that union there is one son, Charles H. For his second wife he wedded Hattie Atwater, a native of Maine, and left two children by this union-Calvin E. and Clara Olive. His second wife survives, and is living with her children in Worcester, Mass. Elijah Sanders lived to be eighty-six years old, and his wife died at seventy – two. They were members of the Methodist Episcopal church.
Charles Gilman Sanders acquired a common-school education in his native town. When his studies were finished, he learned the shoemaker’s trade with his father. He followed that calling for fifteen years; and then, in company with his father, he built a saw-mill for the manufacture of shingles, clapboards, etc. This mill was destroyed by fire, and in 1878 he erected another upon the same site. At the present time he is operating two saw-mills, one for the manufacture of shingles and clapboards, and the other for the sawing of heavy lumber. He also cultivates a farm of sixty-five acres. Both his manufacturing and agricultural enterprises are in a flourishing condition.
On December 3, 1846, Mr. Sanders married Abigail M. Ayer, daughter of Daniel Ayer, of Chichester. Mr. and Mrs. Sanders have had five children, of whom four are living; Frank L., Warren A., Nettie A., and Loren D. Frank L. married Emma Booth, who died leaving one son, Harry. Warren married Mary Ida Edmunds, of this town, and has four children-Bert, Minnie, Edward, and Rena. Nettie A. is the wife of Fred Lear, of Epsom, and has no children. Loren D. married Martha Tomlinson, a native of Vermont, and has one child, Harley Gilman. In politics Mr. Sanders is a Republican. He takes a lively interest in the progress of his town, and is a member of Chichester Grange, Patrons of Husbandry.