Charles was a son of Charles K. & Clara (Robinson) Dawson.

He was a native of Saint Bartholomew, Lancashire, England, and was baptized at Liverpool, St. Bartholomew, Lancashire, England on 30 January 1870.

His petition for naturalization dated 1923 states that he immigrated in April 1894.

He enlisted at Portland, Oregon, in the Troop D, Fourth U. S. Cavalry on 2 February 1897 and was discharged on 22 November 1898 from Fort Yellowstone, Wyoming.

Single, he was enumerated at Horeb, Marion Co., Oregon in 1900, where he clerked in a saw mill.

He married first Estella Dawson in 1902 in Multnomah Co., Oregon, perhaps at Portland. They had two sons Herbert Wallace and Robert Erwin Dawson. She died of Spanish influenza in January 1919.

They were enumerated at Portland, Oregon, in the 1910 US Census and listed in the 1914 Portland City Directory, where Charles worked as a conductor of a street railway.

A widower, he was enumerated there in the 1920 US Census where he was a salesman at a grocery store.

He married second Cascinda M. (Epperson) Sanders on 28 February 1920, in Vancouver, Clarke Co., Washington. Cascinda was born about 1866 in Kansas. They divorced.

He married third Mable May Reed on 30 June 1924 at Portland, Oegon. According to his naturalization papers, dated 1923, Mable May was born in Travis City, Michigan on 14 May 1881. They divorced.

He was enumerated as widowed and as an inmate of Oregon State Soldier's Home at West Roseburg in the 1930 US Census.

He married fourth Belle Madeline Jones on 13 December 1935 at Santa Ana, Ventura Co., California.

He was enumerated, with wife Belle at San Diego, California, in the 1940 US. Census. They divorced.

Belle died on 6 December 1943 at Agnew Hospital, San Jose, Santa Clara Co., California. She was born in Minnesota on 13 January 1863.

Biography by Tom Brocher, last updated on 22 April 2024.