Charles Alger was born in Monroe, New York, and married Sarah Palmer in Manhattan, New York, in 1831. Charles Alger became wealthy in the pig iron business first at Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and later at Hudson, New York. He held at least two patents for blast furnaces. Around 1850, Charles went to Hudson, New York, and started the Hudson Iron Company. He had about $25,000 of the $75,000 start-up capital needed for the business. He soon acquired partners to make up the rest of the team.
Charles personally designed the iron works, which began operation in 1851. The iron works returned about 40% per year and was considered the third most profitable iron works in the country at that time. Charles Alger was the general manager at the Hudson Iron Company until 1864, when he retired. In the 1850 census, Charles Alger had a net worth of approximately $25,000. Ten years later, in 1860, his worth was listed at $250,000.
Charles had a skilled manager who took over the day-to-day operations of the works, which allowed Charles to come and go as he pleased. In 1861, his first marriage failed, and after 37 years, Charles and Sarah divorced in New Haven, CT. In the late 1860s, C.C. Alger formed a partnership to establish an ironworks in Cold Spring, New York.
When the operation was up and running, his partners made him president of the Cold Spring Iron Company. In 1869, we find C. C. Alger is traveling in Paris and is married to Marie Louise Molt. They had a daughter, Lucile Alger, born October 10, 1870, at Norwich, CT. Charles died in New London in 1874, and his wife and daughter inherited all of his considerable wealth, including his valuable art collection and the jewelry C.C. Alger had purchased for his second wife.
Following her mother’s death, Lucile eventually settled in Great Neck, Long Island, where she hired an architect to build an estate house on a large parcel of land. In 1910, the estate was known as the estate of Miss Alger and Miss Grace. Miss Grace, being Louise Nathalie Grace, daughter of William Russell Grace, famous financier, and two-time mayor of New York City. Lucile died on Christmas Eve in 1936 and left her wealth to Miss Grace. Miss Grace died in 1954.
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