author
Charlotte Taylor Blow Charless
1810–1905
Best remembered for founding a St. Louis home for elderly women in need, she also left behind a family-centered biography that preserves part of Missouri's early history. Her life joined public service with a strong sense of memory and duty.
1 Audiobook
A Biographical Sketch of the Life and Character of Joseph Charless In a Series of Letters to his Grandchildren
by Charlotte Taylor Blow Charless
About the author
Born in 1810, Charlotte Taylor Blow Charless is remembered as an American philanthropist who founded the Home of the Friendless in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1853. The home was created to support elderly, indigent women who could no longer care for themselves, and it became the work most closely associated with her name.
She is also known as the author of A Biographical Sketch of the Life and Character of Joseph Charless, a book written as a series of letters to her grandchildren. In it, she looked back on the life of Joseph Charless, helping preserve a personal and historical record for later readers.
Although she is not widely known today as a literary figure, her writing and charitable work together show a woman deeply concerned with family, community, and remembrance. She died in 1905.