Copyright 2011-2019 John N. Lupia, III

Charles Elliot Makepeace (1855-1931), was born on December 11, 1855, in the town of Pamelia, Jefferson County, New York, son of Elliot Makepeace, an affluent farmer, and Angeline P. Plumb Makepeace. In 1804, his paternal grandfather Thomas Makepeace was one of the first settlers in Pamelia. Pamelia Four Corners is a small post village in the northeastern part of Pamelia, nine miles from Watertown, 181 from Albany, and 333 from New York City.

Makepeace was born into an illustrious colonial family who owned a homestead and farm in Pamelia, Jefferson County, New York. After graduation he became teacher in town and used his ingenuity to develop mechanical and electrical means to improve production of lumbering, feed grain, and washing machines. In the late 1870's he became a coin collector and dealer advertising in Numisma buying and selling old U. S. silver and copper coins and issued his catalogue.

Makepeace grew up on the family farm and became a teacher in the town of Pamelia.

Makepeace was for many years engaged in the agricultural implement business.

Makepeace correspondence with the Chapman Brothers, postmarked Watertown, New York, July 19, 1881. Courtesy Lupia Numismatic Library, Special Collection the Chapman Family Correspondence Archive.

From 1887-1888, he was the supervisor of the town of Pamelia.

In 1887, he received 20 carp from the New York State Fish Commission for the town of Pamelia.

He was junior member of the firm of Dean & Makepeace, a flour and feed supplier, Watertown, New York, for many years, and was one of the first in the United States to use electricity in the grinding of feed.

In 1889, Eli Zimmerman became an assignor to Makepeace on his patent for a washing machine.

In 1890, Pamelia Four Corners had a Limburger cheese factory owned by C. E. Makepeace, Ward M. Nichols, and William Mills, on road 21, which manufactured about 35,000 pounds annually.

On June 29, 1892, he married Mary "Mattie" B. Hoover (-1934), daughter of Samuel and Catherine Hoover.

The 1900 U. S. Census lists him as a lumberman.

He lived at 516 Bradley Street, Watertown, New York.

He died on January 30, 1931.

Bibliography :

Numisma, March, and May (1881) ads

Documents of the Senate of the State of New York, Volume 3, Issues 35-55 (1887) : 136

Commissioner of Patents Annual Report (1889) : 420

Town History from Child’s Gazetteer of Jefferson County, N. Y. (1890) : 600-604

Edgar C. Emerson, ed., Our County and it's People A Descriptive Work on Jefferson County, New York (Syracuse, N. Y. : The Boston History Co., Publishers, 1898) : 80

David F. Lane, "Mansions and Old Houses of the North Country," Watertown Daily Times (n.d.)