WALES, Charles E.

WALES, Charles E. (Bellows Falls, VT, July 15, 1833--Dubuque, IA, May 16, 1912). Wales gained his first experience in the hotel business being a clerk in a hotel in Boston, Massachusetts. His business success began in Monticello, Iowa where he carried on a general merchandising business along with grain and stock buying enterprises. He invested his money in real estate. He was once involved with other investors in a Texas oil company. He became a gentleman farmer through the purchase of a farm outside of North Buena Vista. (1)

Wales came to Dubuque around 1884 and formed a partnership with his sister-in-law in the the management of the LORIMIER HOUSE, then one of the leading hotels in eastern Iowa. (2)

In April, 1889 "Hotel World" of Chicago noted that Wales had sold his furniture to the Lorimier House Hotel Company saying he would retire on June 1st. The editor of "Hotel World" replied in its paper:

             Mr. Wales and his wife and sister, Mrs. Wm. Barnard
             will take a respite from business cares and go abroad
             for a year. It is ore than probably that Mr. Wales 
             will be lessee of the new Julien at Dubuque when 
             completed, and while he has put in no bid for it, the
             builders of the hotel, we learn, are agreed that Mr.
             Wales would prove decidedly the most desirable lessee
             both financially and otherwise, and he would certainly
             give Dubuque not only the best hotel in Iowa, but one
             equal to any in the west. (3)

Wales did become the manager of the JULIEN HOTEL. After several years, he became the owner of the Lorimier and changed the name to the WALES HOTEL. He was active in the management of the hotel until two years before his death.

His daughter from his first marriage became the wife of Frank D. STOUT.

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Source:

1. "Charles E. Wales Closes Career," Telegraph-Herald, May 16, 1912, p. 1

2. Ibid.

3. "Local News in Brief," The Herald, April 28, 1889, p. 8