The Life and Times of Charles H. Gallup

By Bill Kleppel

One of the most prominent citizens from Gilded Age Poughkeepsie was Charles H. Gallup. His photography studio was lauded by some as the best, not only in this city, but the entire Northeast.

He enjoyed his business immensely. However, to think of Gallup as just another inquisitive tinkerer with a hobby and a dream would be grossly mistaken. His photos have survived to give us a glimpse of Poughkeepsie from over 100 years ago.

Looking back at the frenetic life and times of Charles H. Gallup is a bit more complicated than that.

The man had a past. To sum him up with one word is impossible… An academic, a machinist, a railroad employee, a librarian, a fireman, part owner of a sugar plantation in Cuba, a sailor of yachts and other seafaring vessels, an automobile enthusiast, a gun club member, and a renowned photographer with a wildly successful business would describe him better. Yet, he seemed more enigmatic than that.

Charles was born in Monticello, New York, on November 17, 1852. His father, Henry Gallup, was the principal of the Monticello Academy, a private school in Sullivan County. Charles graduated from Monticello’s schools. He excelled in mechanical engineering. He was also interested in railroads and sailing, and had a passion for navigating steamboats, sloops, and ice boats. One of his yachts participated in the first Poughkeepsie Yacht Club Regatta. He was also a member of the Poughkeepsie Gun Club.

His early working career began on the railroads for the postal service as a weighing clerk. In 1877, he was accosted by a burglar in the mail car while the train was just outside of Rochester, New York. After the villain lunged at Gallup with a knife (cutting his arm and stabbing a book in his coat’s breast pocket), he pulled out his service revolver and fired. It missed the robber but made him jump from the train just before his co-workers were about to grab him.

Charles’ life changed dramatically during the same year of 1877, when his sister, Ella Gallup, married a wealthy businessman from Cuba, Jose Manuel Godinez, who went by J.M. Godinez’s family owned a 3000-acre sugar plantation in Calimete, Cuba, about 70 miles from Havana.

Even though J.M. decided to move to Poughkeepsie (attending Eastman Business College), he was still very much in charge of supervising the production of sugar on the island. J.M. and Charles would forge a close relationship and become partners in the sugar enterprise. In the 1880 US Census, 221 Mill Street in Poughkeepsie would house Charles, his parents, his sister, Ella, J. M., and Charles nephew, Francisco.

After working for two years as an assistant librarian at the Poughkeepsie City Library, Charles would put his background in mechanical engineering to good use. In September of 1879, Charles sailed from Brooklyn with what was called a beam engine, and a sugar mill that weighed approximately 180 tons! The device was necessary for refining massive amounts of sugar.

For the next five years, Charles would spend most of his time living in Cuba. He’d occasionally sail back to New York on steamships to spend time with family. His brother-in-law and sister, Ella, would spend their winter months in Havana with Charles, overseeing the work on the plantation.

Charles and the Godinez family were involved in the final years of the most productive era for the Cuban sugar industry. Cuba was the world’s largest exporter of sugar for much of the 19th century. The peak period spanned from about 1840 to 1880.

The industry also relied heavily upon massive amounts of slave labor.

During the 1840s alone, there were approximately 400,000 slaves in Cuba; about one third of the island’s entire population. Slavery wasn’t abolished in Cuba until 1886. The Godinez Plantation was in Matanzas Province. Matanzas was a hotbed for sugar production. It was also known for its reliance on, and brutality of, enslaved people.

Whether or not the plantation owned by the Godinez family was complicit in this crime isn’t known by the author at this time (there might be a future addendum to this post).

When living in Poughkeepsie, Charles was a member of the Davy Crockett Hook and Ladder Co. located at 228 Main Street. In April of 1884, while still in Havana, Charles rushed toward a raging fire in a three-story building. He and others attempted to rescue as many occupants of the building as possible. A local news report praised the exploits of Mr. C.H. Gallup:

“At the moment of going out for the last time from the burning house, having rescued a child, servant, and gentleman, the floor that he had just quitted caved in with a crash. We extend our congratulations to the brave American.”

In July of 1884, months after his heroic exploits during the Cuban fire, Charles was mentioned in a news article, sailing the sloop yacht Ma Belle. It cruised from Long Island Sound to Block Island, and then off to New York City to greet nine friends including “three ladies” … Gallup was very much the well-heeled young bachelor at this time, and others were taking notice.

It was his mother, in 1885, who informed him that the Seeley Photograph Gallery at 292 Main Street was for sale (basically telling him to come home and settle down!). In June of that year, Charles purchased the store. The Poughkeepsie Eagle stated the operation under Seeley, “had been practically run into the ground.” The store had an interesting history behind it, having been owned at an earlier time by S.L. Walker, one of the first noted daguerreotypists (an early type of photographer) in the city (and a friend of Samuel F. B. Morse).

Gallup added a large amount of capital to this project, as well as hiring some of the most talented photographers in the region. He quickly transformed the old studio into a success. He would eventually add other shops in Fishkill, New York; Holyoke, Massachusetts; and Danbury, Connecticut.

At 41, Charles finally decided to settle down and get married. His wife-to-be was the 16-year-old Edna Eggleston. Edna was the daughter of the roadmaster of the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad, Orlando W. Eggleston. The pageantry of the wedding was described in detail within all the local newspapers.

Orlando would eventually get hired by Major George W. Goethals of the U.S. Army Engineers to help supervise in the completion of the Panama Canal… Orlando was three years younger than Charles.

C.H. Gallup & Co. would flourish well into the early 20th century. However, before the end of the 19th century, Charles and his in-laws, the Godinez family, were desperately embroiled in the Cuban Revolution of the 1890s. In late December 1895, the Godinez sugar plantation in Cuba was overrun and destroyed by rebels fighting Spanish forces.

Some of Gallup’s photos were used by the Poughkeepsie Courier. They produced illustrations of the plantation and areas close by, to give the reader a better idea of what the battlefield looked like.

The rebels would be aided in their revolutionary cause by the United States during the Spanish American War, which started in April of 1898. Some of J.M. Godinez’s sisters fled on the last steamship out of Havana (the Saratoga), the day before the United States declared war on Spain.

Charles eventually sold the company to his long-time business partner, Frederick A. Smith, in March of 1914. After the sale, Charles’ fascination with automobiles led to another short career at the Fiat Company.

His vague and mysterious obituary on July 13, 1917, claims he died at age 64 after an operation for internal injuries received while employed at Fiat. It also references Gallup’s suffering from, “several years with chronic disease of the heart and lungs."

There are many questions that can be asked throughout the life story of Charles H. Gallup, including ones right up to his death. Quite a few of them would be taken to his grave, never to be answered.

References

• “An Exciting Contest.” Com, Buffalo Weekly Courier, 28 Mar. 1877, www.newspapers.com/image/494841504/.
• “Miss Ella Gallup.” Com, Poughkeepsie Eagle News, 26 Jan. 1877, www.newspapers.com/image/114131128/.
• “1880 United States Federal Census.” Com, www.ancestry.com/search/collections/6742/records/1525989?tid=&pid=&queryId=a723897b-7c0a-4489-bce8-e0e714d39438&_phsrc=bIx2380&_phstart=successSource. Accessed 20 May 2026.
• “Off To Cuba.” Com, Poughkeepsie Eagle News, 24 Sept. 1879, www.newspapers.com/image/114891560/.
• Limited, Alamy. “An Engraving Depicting a Beam Engine, a Type of Steam Engine, Suitable for Working Sugar Mills or Similar Heavy Machinery. Dated 19th Century Stock Photo.” Alamy, www.alamy.com/an-engraving-depicting-a-beam-engine-a-type-of-steam-engine-suitable-for-working-sugar-mills-or-similar-heavy-machinery-dated-19th-century-image235029770.html. Accessed 20 May 2026.
• Lossing, Benson  John. “Sugar Plantation in Cuba, Harper’s Monthly Magazine (January 1853).” Wikimedia Commons, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=163378623. Accessed 20 May 2026.
• “A Brave Act: A Poughkeepsie Fireman Abroad.” Com, Poughkeepsie Eagle News, 5 Apr. 1884, www.newspapers.com/image/114060722/.
• Levinson, Sandra H. “Cuba - Slavery, Sugarcane, Caribbean | Britannica.” Com, www.britannica.com/place/Cuba/Sugarcane-and-the-growth-of-slavery. Accessed 21 May 2026.
• “C. H. Gallup & Co..” Works – C. H. Gallup & Co. – Artists/Makers – eMuseum, art.nelson-atkins.org/people/10755/c-h-gallup--co/objects. Accessed 21 May 2026.
• “Wedding Bells : Gallup - Eggleston.” Com, Poughkeepsie Daily Eagle, 21 Sept. 1893, www.newspapers.com/image/114089030/.
• “The Cuban War.” Com, The Poughkeepsie Sunday Courier, 5 Jan. 1896, www.newspapers.com/image/1048267226/.
• “Death Comes To Chas. H. Gallup.” Com, Poughkeepsie Eagle News, 17 July 1917, www.newspapers.com/image/114061940/.