Charles Schwartz was born in St. Genevieve county, Missouri, on January 4, 1862, being the son of Peter and Clara (Pollitt) Schwartz, natives of Pennsylvania and Missouri, respectively. The paternal grandfather of our subject was born in Alsace-Lorraine and he brought his family to Missouri when Peter Schwartz was a small boy. The latter is still farming in Missouri. The mother of our subject was called to depart this life in August, 1874. Charles was reared in Missouri until twenty-one, gaining his education from the district schools during the winter months of his first fourteen years and then he wrought with his father until he was twenty-one. Then he spent one year in Montana, one year in Portland, and one year in the Grande Ronde valley. He then settled near Ritzville, Washington, and took a timber culture and preemption. Ten years later, in 1896, he came to the reservation and filed on his present farm of eighty acres, two miles northeast from Lenore. His brother, Anton, has a quarter section adjoining. Our subject had but little capital when he settled, the first year the cattle ate his small crop, which necessitated his working in the harvest fields to support the family. He did better the next year and he has labored on successfully until now he is one of the prosperous men of the section. This year he raised over one thousand bushels of onions, one hundred and twenty sacks of potatoes and other crops in proportion. He has good improvements and a fine young orchard is soon to begin bearing.

On October 1, 1890, Mr. Schwartz married Miss Laura, daughter of Egbert and Eliza (Cumrine) Hill, who was born in Iowa, on August 28, 1873. Her parents are living in Spokane retired. This wedding occurred in Harrington, Washington, and five children are the fruit, Charles, born February 25, 1892; Eugene, born September 22, 1893; Arden, born August 11, 1895; Ethel, born November 11, 1899; Mildred, born October 9, 1901. Mr. Schwartz is a stanch Democrat and an active, intelligent citizen in all matters pertaining to general progress.