Charles Storm Hazeltine, M. D., has for a number of years been prominent in the city of Grand Rapids and Kent county. He is a native of Jamestown, N. Y., was born October 1, 1844, and is a son of Dr. Gilbert W. and Caroline (Boss) Hazeltine, the former of English and the latter of German extraction, and but American born.

Dr. Gilbert W. Hazeltine was one of the most eminent physicians and surgeons of his part of the country, and was demonstrator of anatomy in Philadelphia and New York City; he was prominent in his profession and as a local historian, and after an active practice of medicine for over half a century, died, full of years and honors, in 1891 or 1892, his wife having preceded him to the grave in 1856. Of their four children, Dr. Charles S. is the eldest and he and his brother, Robert W., a chemist in Michigan, are the only survivors. The parents were members of the Episcopal church, but up to within two years of his death the father had been an agnostic. In politics he was a republican.

Dr. Charles S. Hazeltine was primarily educated in the Jamestown academy, which he attended until eighteen years old, and then entered the medical department of the Michigan university at Ann Arbor, where he took his first course in medicine; he then attended the Albany (N. Y.) Lying-in hospital for four months, and then returned to Jamestown, and practiced for about eighteen months. He then relinquished the profession and engaged in the retail drug business in Jamestown, which he successfully continued until November, 1872; but his native town proved to be too limited a field for a person of the doctor’s ambition, and he sought the advantages afforded by the city of Grand Rapids, Mich.

Here, for a short time, he was employed in the wholesale saddlery and hardware trade in the Brown, Smith & Co. establishment, but the drug trade better suited his taste, and in 1875 he formed a partnership with the late Charles N. Shepard in the wholesale drug trade, under the firm name of Shepard & Hazeltine, which name was later changed to Shepard & Hazeltine & Co. The business was prosperous from the start, and at the death of Mr. Shepard a joint stock company was formed, which was later incorporated as the Hazeltine, Perkins Drug Co., with capital stock of $150,000, and of this company the doctor has been president since its organization, it being now the most extensive concern in its line in the state of Michigan. Dr. Hazeltine was first joined in wedlock in Jamestown, N. Y., with Miss Ella Burwell, who bore him two children—Eliza Irene, the wife of George B. Douglas, a capitalist of Cedar Rapids, Ia., and Madison B., of Chicago, Ill. Mrs. Ella Hazeltine was called away in 1873, and for his second helpmate the doctor chose Miss Anna O. Fox, who was born in Lowell, Mass., and is a daughter of George H. Fox, a wealthy manufacturer at Lowell and Boston. To this second marriage, which took place in Chelsea, Mass., September 16, 1875, have also been born two children—Fannie D. and Delia H. The family are members of St. Mark’s Episcopal church, in which the doctor has been for many years a trustee, as well as an earnest worker in St. Mark’s hospital.

In politics Dr. Hazeltine is a gold democrat, and in September, 1893, was appointed by President Cleveland as consul to Milan, Italy. This is one of the most important consulates in the kingdom, but was not sought by the doctor, yet he was induced to hold this position one year longer than he expected, and resigned in 1895, to return to his important business duties in Grand Rapids—those of president of the Hazeltine, Perkins Drug Co., and director of the Grand Rapids National bank, the latter of which he has held for several years.

The doctor has one of the handsomest homes in Grand Rapids, situated on John street hill. He stands high in the Masonic fraternity, being a knight templar and a shriner, and he is also a member of various social and literary clubs.