CHARLES CUTLER FESLER.—Widely and favorably known as the post-
master at Clay City, Charles C. Fesler takes a genuine interest in every-
thing pertaining to his adopted township and county, and is among the
foremost to forward all enterprises of a beneficial nature, He was born
May 13, 1852, in Hutsonville, Crawford county, Illinois, a son of Nicholas
Fesler, and is of excellent German ancestry.

    A native of North Carolina, Nicholas Fesler was but a boy when he
accompanied his parents on their overland journey to Illinois. He sub-
sequently grew to manhood in Crawford county, that state, and after
beginning life for himself was employed at different trades, including
those of a wool carder, a shoemaker and a carpenter. He spent his clos-
ing years in Bellair, Crawford county, dyingin 1891 at the venerable age
of seventy-nine years. He married Mrs. Lucinda (Sweeney) Dorothy,
a widow with one child, Francis M. Dorothy, who passed the last years
of his life in Clay City, Indiana, Of this union the following named
children were born: James O.; Emily; Kate S.; William; and Margaret
M. and Charles C., twins.
    Brought up in his native county, Charles C. Fesler began the battle
of life very young, having been but eleven years old when he commenced.
to be self supporting. For three years he worked as a farm laborer, and
at the age of fourteen entered a general store at Bellair, Illinois, as a clerk,
and remained thus employed until 1870. Going then to Effingham, Illi-
nois, he there worked in a lunch room two summers. In 1872 he located
at Terre Haute, Indiana, where for seven years he- was employed as clerk
and bookkeeper in a grocery store. Coming to Clay City in October, 1879,
Mr. Fesler was here engaged in- mercantile pursuits with his half-brother,
the late Francis M. Dorothy, until 1885, when the partnership was dis-
solved. Opening then a grocery in this city, he operated it alone until
1894. For a few years thereafter he was employed in various ways, in
1897 superintending the building of the first gravel road made in Harri-
son township. In 1899 Mr. Fesler was appointed by President McKinley
postmaster at Clay City, and at the- expiration of his term, four years
later, was reappointed to the same office by President Roosevelt, who
again reappointed him to the office in February, 1908.
    Mr. Fesler married, in 1883, Mrs. Mary (Reed) Long, who was
born in Ohio, a daughter of Samuel Reed. She married for her first
husband Brishon Long, by whom she had two children, namely: Orville,
deceased, and Nettie, wife of Dr. H. 0. Woodrow. Fraternally Mr. Fes-
ler is a charter member of Uncas Tribe, No. 68, Improved Order of Red
Men, organized in 1882; a member of Martz Lodge, No. 360, Independent
Order of Odd Fellows; and of Clay City Lodge, No. 562, Ancient Free
and Accepted Masons, organized in i88o, and of which he is a charter
member, and was secretary and worshipful master for years. Of the first
two lodges he has been treasurer since 1893. Politically he is an earnest
advocate of the principles of the Republican party.