Charles Pfizer

He was born Karl Christian Friedrich{{cite book|title=German-American Business Biographies| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x3MOAQAAMAAJ|publisher=E-knihy jedou|date=2001|page=348|access-date=November 18, 2020|isbn=978-0-9703748-1-3}}{{cite book|title=Historie zdravotnictvi

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tmrnDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA283|author=Ivan Kazimour| publisher=E-knihy jedou|page=283|access-date=November 18, 2020|isbn=978-80-7512-758-7}} to Karl Frederick Pfizer and Caroline Klotz. Like his older cousin, future business partner and brother-in-law, Karl Erhart, Pfizer was born in Ludwigsburg, Kingdom of Württemberg (now Germany).{{Cite book |last=Pfannstiel |first=Mario A. |title=Innovationen und Innovationsmanagement im Gesundheitswesen: Technologien, Produkte und Dienstleistungen voranbringen |last2=Kassel |first2=Kristin |last3=Rasche |first3=Christoph |publisher=Springer-Verlag |year=2020 |isbn=978-3-658-28642-2 |location=Weisbaden |pages=360 |language=de}} During his early years, he worked as an apothecary's apprentice. He emigrated to the United States in October 1848.U.S. Passport Application for Charles Pfizer, May 1899; National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington D.C.; NARA Series: Passport Applications, 1795–1905; Roll #: 525; Volume #: Roll 525 – May 11, 1899 – May 19, 1899

Pfizer married Anna Hausch, in 1859, in his hometown of Ludwigsburg. He met Hausch during one of his trips to Europe to establish contacts with exporters of raw materials.{{Cite book |last=Ziegler-McPherson |first=Christina A. |title=The Great Disappearing Act: Germans in New York City, 1880–1930 |publisher=Rutgers University Press |year=2021 |isbn=978-1-9788-2319-8 |location=New Brunswick, NJ |language=en}} The couple had six children, five of whom survived to adulthood: Charles Jr (1860–1928), Gustavus (1861–1944), Emile (1864–1941), Helen Julia (born 1866, who married Sir Frederick Duncan, 2nd Baronet),{{cite news|title=Sir Oliver Duncan|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1964/09/26/sir-oliver-duncan.html|work=The New York Times|date=September 26, 1964}} Alice (who married Baron {{ill|Bachofen von Echt|de}} of Austria), and Ann (1875–1876).{{cite web|title=Charles Pfizer|url=https://www.immigrantentrepreneurship.org/entry.php?rec=31|website=Immigrant Entrepreneurship|access-date=May 10, 2017|language=en|date=January 1, 2017}} Charles and Emile also worked for Pfizer's company. The family lived at Brooklyn's upscale Clinton Hill. Pfizer built a Lutheran Church in New York.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ja52CQAAQBAJ&dq=Charles+Pfizer+lutheran&pg=PT67 | isbn=9781625840516 | title=Sacred Havens of Brooklyn: Spiritual Places and Peaceful Grounds | date=May 21, 2013 | publisher=Arcadia }}

In 1849, he borrowed US$2,500 from his father to buy a commercial building in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. He then co-founded Chas. Pfizer & Co. Inc.{{cite web|title=Trade catalogs from Chas. Pfizer & Co. Inc.|url=https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/SILNMAHTL_31594|publisher=Smithsonian|work=National Museum of American History|access-date=November 18, 2020|language=en}} Due to Pfizer's experience in chemistry and his partner's background as a confectioner, the company was initially engaged in the manufacture of food flavorings, iodine preparations, and citric acid for softdrink production. They also produced santonin, an antiparasitic, later expanding production to other chemicals.{{cite web|title=History: Charles Pfizer|url=http://www.pfizer.com/about/history/charles_pfizer|publisher=Pfizer|access-date=May 10, 2017|language=en|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170510151810/http://www.pfizer.com/about/history/charles_pfizer|archive-date=May 10, 2017}}

Pfizer's partner and cousin, Charles F. Erhart, also wed his sister, Frances,Vereinigung des Adels in Bayern e. V. (Hrsg.): Genealogisches Handbuch des in Bayern immatrikulierten Adels, Band XV, Neustadt an der Aisch 1984, p. 452. becoming his brother-in-law. When Erhart died, in 1891, their partnership agreement came into effect, which stipulated that the surviving partner could buy the other's share of the company for half of its inventory value. Pfizer promptly exercised this option, paying his partner's heirs $119,350 for Erhart's half of the business. He remained as the head of the company for 51 years, until 1900, when it was incorporated. Charles Pfizer Jr. then became the company's first president; he was later succeeded by his brother, Emile.

Pfizer died on October 19, 1906{{Cite book |last=Lee |first=Laura |title=The Name's Familiar II |publisher=Pelican Publishing |year=2001 |isbn=1-56554-822-1 |location=Gretna, Louisiana |pages=270 |language=en}} at his summer home, "Lindgate", in Newport, Rhode Island; his main residence was in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. His death followed a fall down stairs, a few weeks prior, in which he broke an arm and was further injured.{{cite news|title=Charles Pfizer|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1906/10/21/archives/charles-pfizer.html|work=The New York Times|date=October 21, 1906}} He was buried at New York's Green-Wood Cemetery.

{{Reflist}}

• [https://www.pfizer.com/about/history Charles Pfizer] at Pfizer.com
• Stevenson, William. [http://www.immigrantentrepreneurship.org/entry.php?rec=31 "Charles Pfizer."] In Immigrant Entrepreneurship: German-American Business Biographies, 1720 to the Present, vol. 2, edited by William J. Hausman. German Historical Institute.
• {{find a Grave|4755}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Pfizer, Charles}}

Category:1824 births

Category:1906 deaths

Category:19th-century German chemists

Category:Württemberger emigrants to the United States

Category:American manufacturing businesspeople

Category:Pfizer people

Category:People from Ludwigsburg

Category:Pharmaceutical company founders

Category:19th-century American businesspeople

Category:Deaths from falls

Category:Burials at Green-Wood Cemetery