Person Page - 546

He was the owner and manager of the Gordian Knot restaurant in New York City and managed the Black Pearl restaurant in Newport, Rhode Island. He was an yachtsman and a member of the Christmas Cove fleet at Southport, where he was a summer resident.¹

Salem, July 8.-[Special.]-Thursday next has been fixed for the inquest to determine the responsibility for the accident during the fireworks display. In the meantime pieces of the exploded mortar continue to he picked up in various places, some nearly 1000 yards away. The funeral of the Sewall lad took place from his parents' residence this afternoon, and was conducted by the Rev. Dr. Gushee, a former rector of St. Peter's Episcopal Church, assisted by the Rev. DeWitt S. Clark. There were numerous floral offerings from sympathetic friends. It is proposed to present Daniel Barrett with a suitably inscribed gold headed cane as a testimonial for his bravery in seizing the frightened horse attached to the police ambulance, thus preventing it from dashing through the crowd which gathered at the scene of the accident. All of the injured children were reported this evening from the hospital as getting along finely and being as comfortable as could be expected. The little Ryan boy has not yet ceased to show that remarkable pluck which he exhibited on the night of the accident. Today his father called at the hospital, and on seeing the amputated arm began to shed tears. The lad at once told him that he did not want any one to come there to cry, but would be pleased to see anybody who would call to help him pass away the time. The nurses say they never saw such fortitude in a lad of his years.⁶

It is recorded that in November, 1860, a movement was made to secure a telegraph line from Waterville to Skowhegan. September, 1862, saw the arrival in town of the wires of the Somerset & Kennebec Telegraph Co., which became after a few years a part of the Western Union system. The first operator was Charles H. Sewall whose home was in the Hartwell house on the Island. The office was on the south side of Water St. in the second story of what was then the James Malhon store, next cast of the Dinsmore one. Charles Sewall was the son of Dr. Samuel G., and married Jeanette Jewell, daughter of Mrs. Angeline (Hartwell). After eight years of telegraph duty he removed to New York where he died Mar. 25, 1905, and his wife the following day. Coburn, Louise Helen. Skowhegan on the Kennebec. Skowhegan, Me., 1941.
He was author of The Future of Long-Distance Telephoning and Wireless Telegraph: its origins, development, invention, and apparatus.

He retired as a captain from a 26-year career in the Navy. He was a veteran of World War II and the Korean War and saw action in the battles of Saipan, Taiwan and Iwo Jima during World War II. He received several commendation medals. He graduated from Dartmouth College, Hanover, N.H., with a degree in history and political science.⁶

CHARLES SEWALL
Charles Sewall, who died yesterday morning at his home. No. 320 West Eighty-first-st., was one of the most prominent fire insurance men In the United States. He was especially prominent In the fire insurance business in this city, and in connection with the Tariff Association, in the work of which he took a leading part. He was a member of the Committee of Fifteen, which has for the last few months been at work on the reorganization of that association, and at the time of his death was the sole manager for the United States of the Commercial Union Assurance Company of London.
The fact that he was seriously ill was known, to only a few until last week. He was last at his office about five weeks ago, and exhibited little physical evidence of his trouble. He had been told by his physicians how grave his condition of health was and was greatly depressed mentally. He had, however, at that time a hope of recovery. About ten days ago his symptoms grew alarming and dropsy set In. On Monday night of last week he sank so low as to arouse the fear that he would die then, but the physicians were able to revive him. He died at 12:20 o'clock yesterday morning.
Mr. Sewall was born on August 9, 1848, in Brooklyn. His father was Henry F. Sewall, whose noted collection of prints and engravings was sold last year to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Henry F. Sewall was at one time a member of the old New-York firm of Grinnell, Minton & Co., East Indiamen. Charles Sewall was a direct descendant of Samuel Sewall, who was the first Chief Justice of Massachusetts. He attended school in New-York, and at an early age went into business as the representative of the Pacific Mall Steamship Company at Aspinwall, Panama. He soon returned to New-York, and entered the office of the Liverpool and London and Globe Insurance Company. He displayed aptitude for the business, and became assistant secretary in 1874. In 1878 he resigned and was made joint manager with Alfred Pell of the United States branch of the Commercial Union Assurance Company of London. In 1883 he was made the sole manager. He was also made president of the New-York Commercial Union Assurance Company when that was organized. He was one of the prime movers in the agitation last summer for the organization of a tariff association in New-York, and had since performed much work in aid of the movement. As an underwriter he held a high place in the estimation of managers, agents and brokers.
Mr. Sewall devoted himself almost entirely to business, and had few outside interests. He was a Republican, and a member of the Union Club, the Downtown Association, the New-York Athletic Club and the Westchester County Golf Club. Ho leaves a widow, daughter and three sons.
The Tariff Association and the directors of the Commercial Union Assurance Company both held meetings yesterday, at which tributes were paid to Mr. Sewall’s memory, and resolutions of condolence were adopted. The funeral will take place to-morrow at Mr. Sewall's home, and the burial will be in Woodlawn. New York Tribune, 30 December 1898.⁷

The funeral of Charles Sewall, engineer of the Newport Water Works, was held Saturday St. George's Church. The Rev. Nelson W. Bryant, rector of the church, officiated. A Masonic funeral was conducted by members of Eureka Lodge of Masons of Portsmouth, of which he was a member. The bearers, all past masters of the lodge, were Arthur A. Sherman, William B. Anthony, Arthur Smith, Gordon MacDonald, Alfred Hall and Henry Daval. Burial was in the family plot in the Island cemetery. Members of Excelsior Lodge of Odd Fellows also attended, the deceased having been a member of Fall River Lodge of that order.⁴

MOUNT LEBANON, Pa. - Charlie Sewall, who was president of Robert Morris College for 23 years and pushed the school's basketball program into NCAA Division I, has died of a heart attack. He was 77.
Sewall collapsed Monday night in the garage of his suburban Pittsburgh home and died later at St. Clair Hospital.
He took over as president at Robert Morris in 1967 and converted the school to a four-year college two years later. He also pushed for a tougher sports classification to help promote the school.
"I think we were the only school that jumped from junior college athletics right into NCAA Division I," said Joe Shank, a Robert Morris professor. "Charlie saw the wisdom of having the public understand what we were through our sports programs."
Sewall, a native of Weymouth, Mass., got polio at age 12 and spent much of the next two years in an iron lung. The disease robbed him of self-confidence, but his parents pushed him to activities and alleviated his dread of competition.
He taught for 14 years at Burdett College, a business school in Boston.
In 1970, his dress code at Robert Morris prompted one student to sue. Sewall required students to keep hair above their collars and forbade sideburns, saying businesses wanted to hire neat people. Sewall said he was "fed up with drugs, beards, dirty hair, body odor and childish tyranny." A judge upheld the dress code.⁵

WISCASSET - Town Clerk Charles S. Sewall, 82, died in his sleep at his home here last night. He was a former principal of Wiscasset Academy and a former selectman.
Mr. Sewall was graduated from Bowdoin College in 1897, and the next year was elected to the first of three terms on the Wiscasset Board of Selectmen, the beginning of many years of public service to the town. He was named principal of Wiscasset Academy in 1910 and served for many years. He had been elected town clerk annually since 1951.
Mr. Sewall was a botanist, and made two expeditions with Cmdr. Donald B. MacMillan to the Arctic, a subject on which he used to lecture. He was a Mason, and a charter member of Garrison Hill Chapter, OES. He had been an active member of the vestry of St. Philip's Episcopal Church more than 50 years.⁵