Charles Joseph VAN METER

                   age 23


After spending some years in the management of his fatherÕs plantation, he, in partnership with his elder brother, William, engaged in steam boating on the Green and Barren Rivers in 1856, and continued in it until the breaking out of the Civil War in 1861. He then entered the Quartermaster's service of the Confederate States Army and continued in that duty until 1865. After the close of the war he and his brother William resumed steam boating, and, in connection with it, engaged in the lumber business. In 1868 they joined a syndicate known as the Green and Barren River Navigation Co., and leased from the State of Kentucky the Green and Barren RiversÑthat is, the StateÕs improvements in the way of locks and damsÑfor thirty years. Their franchise was sold to the Federal Government some ten years before the expiration of the lease. In the same year, 1868, he and his brother purchased Grayson Springs, in Grayson Co., and managed it themselves until 1884. Capt. Van Metre is now residing on a farm near Bowling Green. He is a most estimable man, hale and hearty, though now in his 83rd year, and kind and charitable. He has always been a very active man, and no one stands higher in the community than he does; a man of sterling character; progressive and public spirited and much interested in education. About three years ago he was elected Chancellor of the Western State Normal School, which was established in Bowling Green by the Legislature of 1906 (W. A. 0.).