A Biographical Sketch of the Life and Character of Joseph Charless

Addressing her grandchildren as Grandma, Charlotte Taylor Blow Charless preserves a family history shaped by Christian belief and grief. Her letters recall Joseph Charless through childhood stories, family relationships and acts of generosity. The opening follows the family's roots from Ireland to America, including an earlier Joseph Charless's work as a printer and his founding of a newspaper in St. Louis. These details place the intimate portrait within a growing city's history.

Moral instruction runs through the recollections. Charless asks the children to value goodness above wealth, and later letters dwell on their grandfather's humility, service to the church and kindness to poor neighbors. She also acknowledges his faults and draws on his own letters to describe his views as a father. Readers interested in family remembrance, Christian biography or early St. Louis will find personal anecdotes alongside a grandmother's hopes for the next generation.