Charles H. Coulter was born on June 21, 1870 to John S. Coulter and Harriet (Gilley) Coulter in Needham, Massachusetts. Charles married Flora L. Stanley (1872-1899), daughter of Asa Doane Stanley and Ellen Maria H. (Spurling) Stanley on January 12, 1891 at Cranberry Isles, Maine.
Charles and Flora had two children, Edgar R. Coulter who died at the age of 3 in Brockton, and Ethel May Coulter, born on June 7, 1893 in Brockton, Massachusetts. Ethel married Francis Wheeler.
After Flora died in 1899 Charles H. Coulter married Helen F. Garner or Garnor (1864-1916) in October 1906.
Charles H. Coulter had a brother, Winifred or Winfred M. Coulter, born about 1865 in Needham, Massachusetts. Charles and Helen may also have had a son whose name was Winifred or Winfred, supposedly born on March 15, 1905. Researchers have been unable to find that either Winfred had a wife named Edna or what happened to Winfred.The photograph in SWHPL 10993 is marked as being of Edna Coulter. Perhaps future study will explain who she was.
Charles H. Coulter, a journeyman plumber and active in union affairs, was an interesting man. He was elected mayor of Brockton, Massachusetts for the Social Democratic Party, but the party later merged itself with a dissident faction of the Socialist Labor Party in 1901 and founded the Socialist Party of America.
“Ex-Mayor Charles H. Coulter, of Brockton, and Peter J. Mulligan have purchased the real estate interests of the Ocean Heights Land Company at Ocean Heights, Edgartown, consisting of a tract of about 300 acres, containing about 1200 shore lots. The new owners will make extensive improvements and erect a number of small cottage houses for investment.” - American Architect and Architecture, Volume 85, J. R. Osgood & Co., 1904.
In 1908 Charles H. Coulter and his partner, Francis S. Walsh, filed for bankruptcy of their plumbing business, Charles H. Coulter, in Brockton.
Charles H. Coulter died of “grippe” on January 25, 1916 in Natick, Massachusetts. His wife, Helen, attended him while sick from “grippe” herself.
“Coulter - Charles H. Coulter (1870-1916),” Southwest Harbor Public Library, accessed April 23, 2024, https://swhpl.digitalarchive.us/items/show/10050.Item 14058
