Charles L. Wagner, 1852-1921

Charles L. Wagner was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1852 to Julius and Louise (Raymond) Wagner. The following biographical sketch about Charles L. Wagner appeared in volume 2 of Hewson Peeke's  book A STANDARD HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY:

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C. L. WAGNER. In the City of Sandusky where he was reared and has spent practically all his life, C. L. Wagner has a record of progressive success in business affairs. From a clerkship he has risen to a place where he is a controlling factor in the principal concern handling ice on the southern shore of Lake Erie. Though his home has nearly always been in Sandusky C. L. Wagner was born in Cleveland, October 24, 1852. His father, Julius Wagner, was born in Germany. He came to Sandusky in 1849, and as a car builder and joiner by trade was in the employ of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad for fifteen years. He married Miss Elizabeth Raymond and of their family of six children three are still living. The oldest in the family, C. L. Wagner received his education and early training in the public schools of Sandusky and at home. For six years he worked as a clerk in a local store, and there laid the foundation of a sound business experience. After that he was a salesman for ten years in the retail dry goods house of Zerbe & Company, and then entered merchandising for himself, in the partnership of Wagner, Powers & Bradbeck. When this company sold out he continued for himself in the carpet business up to 1885. In that year Mr. Wagner organized the Wagner Bros. Wholesale & Retail Ice Company. This subsequently became the Wagner Lake Ice Company, with Mr. Wagner as president and general manager. The business has a record of fifty years behind it, having been established in 1865 and incorporated in 1888. The storage capacity is said to be the largest around the southern shore of Lake Erie. While the business started on the basis of handling, storing and distributing lake ice, its development subsequently included the handling of coal, builders material of all kinds, and the concern was both wholesale and retail. But in 1906 this company was consolidated with several others into the Interstate Ice Company, which was later taken over by the City Ice Delivery Company, of Cleveland, Ohio, and Mr. Wagner is general manager of the wholesale department. The business is now a part of a large organization with its main offices in Cleveland, but Mr. Wagner remained as general manager of the wholesale business at Sandusky and Michigan. Thus Mr. Wagner has had a thoroughly successful business career, and together with that record has exhibited a public spirited generosity in behalf of everything that would promote the welfare of his home city.
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Charles L. Wagner died on August 5, 1921. He was laid to rest in the family lot at Oakland Cemetery in Sandusky, Ohio. He had a very well known business man in Sandusky.