Charles H. Fales, born on November 16, 1868, in St. Joseph, Missouri, served as postmaster of Fort Pierre, South Dakota. His parents, Richard P. and Mary F. Fales, relocated to Fort Pierre in 1881, where his father worked as a blacksmith until his death in 1898. Charles worked for stock growers before opening his store in 1894, remaining involved in the cattle industry. A dedicated Republican, he became postmaster in 1897. He was active in the Masons, attaining Scottish Rite degrees, and was a member of the Knights of Pythias.
Charles H. Fales, who is now incumbent of the office of postmaster at Fort Pierre, is a native of the state of Missouri, having been born in the city of St. Joseph, Buchanan County, on the 16th of November, 1868, and being a son of Richard P. and Mary F. (Striblin) Fales, the former of whom was born in Indiana and the latter in Missouri. The parents of the subject came to Fort Pierre in 1881, and here the father continued to reside until his death, on the 30th of August, 1898, at the age of fifty-five years, his vocation here having been that of blacksmith. His widow still resides in Fort Pierre, and of their six children, four are living at the present time. The subject of this sketch received his early educational discipline in the public schools of his beautiful native city, on the shores of the Missouri River, and was fifteen years of age at the time of the family removal to what is now the state of South Dakota, where he was reared to manhood. From the age of fifteen until 1894, he was in the employ of various stock growers in this section, and he then opened his present store in Fort Pierre, and has built up a prosperous business, while he has continued to be identified with the cattle industry from the time of establishing his store to the present, being the owner of much good land in this County. He is a staunch advocate of the principles of the Republican Party, to whose cause he has given his support from the time of attaining his legal majority, having cast his first presidential vote for Harrison and having been an active worker in the party ranks. In 1897 he was appointed postmaster at Fort Pierre, and has ever since continued in tenure of this office, whose affairs he has administered to the satisfaction of the local public. He is well known throughout the County in which he has maintained his home for more than a score of years, and his friends are in number as his acquaintances. He is a Mason, being identified with Hiram Lodge No. 123, Free and Accepted Masons, and has attained to all the Scottish Rite degrees, being a member of Oriental Consistory No. 1, at Yankton, and also of the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine at Sioux Falls. He is also a member of Capital City Lodge No. 37, Knights of Pythias.
Source: Robinson, Doane, History of South Dakota: together with mention of Citizens of South Dakota, [Logansport? IN] : B. F. Bowen, 1904.