Charles City

      city, seat (1854) of Floyd county, northern Iowa, U.S., on the Cedar River, about 30 miles (50 km) east-southeast of Mason City. The site was a campground for the Winnebago (Ho-Chunk) before it was settled in 1850 by Joseph Kelly from Monroe, Wisconsin, who named it for his son; it was called Charlestown and St. Charles before receiving its present name in 1860. The McGregor and Sioux City Railroad arrived in the early 1870s, increasing the town's population. In 1902 residents Charles Hart and Charles Parr produced one of the first gasoline traction engines for agricultural and industrial use.

      The city is a railroad junction and a trade centre, and its manufactures include food products, veterinary pharmaceuticals, and chemicals. Near Nashua, about 10 miles (16 km) southeast, is the Little Brown Church in the Vale (1864), where many couples are wed each year; it was made famous (1857) by William Savage Pitts in his song “The Church in the Wildwood.” Inc. 1869. Pop. (1990) 7,878; (2000) 7,812.

      county, eastern Virginia, U.S., in the Tidewater region, southeast of Richmond, between the Chickahominy and James rivers which unite at its southeastern border. One of Virginia's eight original shires, it was formed in 1634 and named for Charles City at Bermuda Hundred (Chesterfield County). It has some of Virginia's oldest and most historic plantations, notably Berkeley, Westover, Greenway, and Shirley. At Berkeley or Harrison's Landing, where some claim the first Thanksgiving was observed on Dec. 4, 1619, is the ancestral home of Benjamin Harrison, signer of the Declaration of Independence, and of two U.S. presidents—William Henry Harrison (9th) and Benjamin Harrison (23rd). During the Civil War, Berkeley was headquarters (1862) of Union General McClelland, and while quartered there Maj. Gen. Daniel Butterfield composed the bugle call “Taps.” The county courthouse (1730) is in the hamlet of Charles City (the county seat), and Greenway, immediately to the west, is the birthplace (1790) of John Tyler, 10th president of the U.S. At Shirley, Ann Hill Carter, mother of Confederate general Robert E. Lee, was born and there she married “Light-Horse Harry” Lee.

      The county is tied to Richmond economically, and truck, dairy, and poultry farming are the main pursuits. Area 204 square miles (528 square km). Pop. (2000) 6,926; (2007 est.) 7,166.