Charles Carow

His father moved to New York in 1793 and, later, partnered with Robert Kermit, owner of the Red Star Line, to form a shipping line.^[9] As Kermit had no children of his own, Charles and Robert developed an almost paternal relationship.^[10] Carow attended Columbia College with the class of 1844 but did not graduate.^[11] He was a member of the Peithologian Society.^[12]

After his father's death in 1850,^[13] Carow was taken into partnership with Kermit as Kermit & Carow, to carry on the business of general ship-owning, commission, and commercial trading.^[14][15] After Kermit died in 1855, Carow became the owner of The West Point until 1867 that shipped cargo and passengers between Liverpool and New York.

On June 8, 1859, Carow was married to Gertrude Elizabeth Tyler (1836–1896) at Norwich, Connecticut. Gertrude was a daughter of Emily (née Lee) Tyler and Daniel Tyler, a Union general in the American Civil War. While residents of Manhattan, the Carows were next door neighbors of Theodore Roosevelt Sr. on East 20th Street. Together they were the parents of three children:

• Robert Kermit Carow (1860–1860), who died in infancy.
• Edith Kermit Carow (1861–1948),^[16][17] who married U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt in 1886.^[18]
• Emily Tyler Carow (1865–1939), who died unmarried in Porto Maurizio, Italy.^[19]

Carow died in New York City on March 18, 1883.^[20] After a funeral at St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery, he was buried in the church's graveyard.^[21] In 1927, his daughter Edith bought the Gen. Putnam Inn in Brooklyn, Connecticut, which was the ancestral home of the Tyler family.^[22]