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Charles E. Engle (Robert3, Margaret2, John1) is a son of Robert and Elizabeth Fleetwood Engle. We will give his history as he told it in a letter to our historian. "I was born in Hillsdale County, Mich., March 26, 1852. I was an active and industrious boy and worked hard on my father's 375-acre farm. I was fond of hunting and fishing. My schooling was limited. All of us children attended school in Mosherville, one and a half miles from home. At 18 years of age I was converted and united with the Methodist church at Mosherville. When 21 years of age I went with my brother, Leonard, to take up government land north of us. But we found it too hard a proposition for us as the land was heavily timbered.
I remained there that winter working on the state road. On one occasion I went on a bear hunt and lost my way in the big woods. I spent the night under a big tree, without fire and with nothing to eat.
In the spring I went back home and worked on the farm till I was 26 years of age. I felt that I had a call to preach the gospel. In order to prepare myself for the ministry I attended two terms at our home school and then spent two terms at Hillsdale college. But I was prevented from completing my education and gave up my cherished plan. About this time the country was filled with excitement over the wealth of the Leadville, Colorado mines. We heard that fortunes were made there in a week, sometimes in a single day. My brothers, Leonard and Frank, had already gone to Leadville. I arrived there September 20, 1880. For a time I worked for Leonard who was foreman in one of the mines. I then began prospecting and afterward leasing on my own account. But I never found a fortune.
In the early spring of 1883 I became acquainted with a young lady named Eva M. Holbert, and we were married October 21, 1883. She was an orphan and had come from Iowa with her uncle. She is an earnest Christian worker, being a teacher in the Sunday School, a worker in both Home and Foreign Mission Societies and a member of the W. C. T. U. In 1882 I learned the trades of paper hanger and painter and have worked at them since. I have often regretted that I could not complete my education and enter the ministry, but I have sought to do the Master's work as a Sunday School superintendent and teacher, and a member of the choir and a helper in mission work. I have never used liquor or tobacco. In looks and build I resemble my father, being nearly six feet tall, weighing 150 pounds, and having blue eyes and light hair. I have one child, a son, who is a druggist."
Child
Francis Irving, b. Sept. 21, 1884.
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F. Irving Engle (Charles4, Robert3, Margaret2, John1) is the only child of Charles E. and Eva Engle. He was born September 21, 1884 in Leadville, Col. He was never robust and strong and was compelled by ill health to leave school during his second year in high school. He worked in a drug store and took a course in pharmacy in a correspondence school. He passed an examination before the state board of pharmacy in March, 1906. Although the youngest member of the class of 38 he ranked second in the examination.
He went into business as a druggist in 1908 at Eaton, Col. He sold his business there in 1910 and went to Cripple Creek, Col., where he still engaged in business under the firm name "The Engle-Davis Drug Co." He has been a member of the Baptist church since he was 14 years old. He is a fine pianist and for several years has had charge of the choir in his home church. Intoxicating liquors and tobacco have never stained his lips, and he has never uttered a profane word. His mother says, "I never saw him angry." He is unmarried.