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CHARLES HENROTIN, one of the ablest financiers of the pre-eminent, commercial city of Chicago, that municipality the undertakings and successful achievements of whose citizens astound the conservatives of the East and the Old World, is a worthy son of a noble father. He is the eldest of the surviving children of Dr. Joseph F. Henrotin (see biography in this volume), and was born in Brussels, Belgium, April 15, 1843. He was in his sixth year when the family arrived in Chicago, and his first attempt at learning was made in the public schools of the city. He subsequently attended other schools and the University of Notre Dame, Chicago. He went abroad with his parents in 1856, and entered the Athenæum of Tournai, Belgium, from which he was graduated in 1860.

In the spring of 1861 he became a permanent resident of Chicago, and shortly after took employment as clerk in the Merchants’ Loan and Trust Company Bank. It was his intention to enter the Union army as soon as he was of age, but after the death of his elder brother he was persuaded by his parents to remain at home. He applied himself to business with such diligence and ability that he was elected Cashier of the bank in 1867, to succeed Lyman J. Gage, who then went to the First National. Mr. Henrotin continued to fill this position to the satisfaction of his employers and the public, enjoying the confidence and friendship of all with whom he had business or social relations, until he decided to engage in business on his own account, in 1877.

He then opened a private bank, dealing extensively in stocks and bonds. Many enterprises of very large local importance owe much of their success to his judicious management and assistance. He has ever shown himself a public-spirited and generous citizen, and has borne an active part in many undertakings of great moment. He was one of the workers, and gave financial assistance, in locating the World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago, and served as a Director of the corporation which carried through that hitherto unprecedented enterprise. Many large syndicate operations of recent years have been negotiated by Mr. Henrotin, among which may be mentioned the purchase of the Union Stock Yards and several Chicago breweries by English capital.

The action of Mr. Henrotin in the financial crisis of the city in 1877-78 entitles him to the grateful remembrance of all good citizens. When a large amount of city scrip had been declared illegal, and the credit of the municipality was in grave danger, he wrote a letter to Comptroller Farwell, offering to take all the scrip, regardless of kind or amount, at 92, upon which its market value immediately jumped from 85 to 93. Mr. Henrotin made good his offer, and carried also the defaulted coupons of the city bonds for a year, until arrangements could be made to redeem them.

In 1876 he was appointed Belgian Consul, to succeed his father, who had held that position nineteen years, and is still fulfilling the duties of that office. During the same year he was appointed Turkish Consul, to succeed William E. Doggett. In 1888 he was knighted by the Belgian King for valuable services rendered his Government, and served as Honorary Commissioner, representing that Government at the World’s Fair. In 1892 he was promoted by Turkey to be Consul-General to the Northwest, and received the decoration of Commander for services rendered to that country and its citizens.

Mr. Henrotin is a member of the Chicago and New York Stock Exchanges and of the Chicago Board of Trade. He also holds membership in social, literary and other clubs, among the most prominent of which are the Union, Bankers’, Germania and Contributors’. He enjoys the companionship and co-operation of a noble and intelligent wife, who holds prominent positions in many social and woman’s clubs. She was Vice-President and Acting President of the World’s Congress Auxiliaries, of which C. C. Bonney was President. She received many compliments of high order for her services in that connection, being especially mentioned and decorated by the Turkish Government, and received an autograph portrait, engraved for the occasion, from the Queen of Belgium. She is now President of the Federated Women’s Clubs of the United States, having a membership numbering sixty-five thousand. The wedding of this couple occurred September 2, 1869, the bride being Miss Helen M. Martin, a native of Portland, Maine, daughter of Edward Byam and Sarah E. (Norris) Martin, of Portland, of English descent. They are related to Sir Edward Byam, of England, and to the Choate and Norris families, noted in two hemispheres for intelligence and refinement. Three sons complete the family of Mr. Henrotin, namely: Edward Clement, Charles Martin and Norris Bates.

Source: Album of Genealogy and Biography, Cook County, Illinois with Portraits 3rd ed. revised and extended (Chicago: Calumet Book & Engraving Co., 1895), pp. 33-34

CHARLES HENROTIN was born in 1844, in Brussels, and settled in Chicago in 1848. His father, Dr. Henrotin, who in the early days was known in the neighborhood of Chicago as "the French doctor," had been for many years a surgeon in the Belgian army, and from 1857 to 1876 held the position of Belgian Consul in Chicago.
Young Henrotin entered the Chicago high school in 1856, and afterward studied in his native country, attending the University of Tournai, from 1856 to 1861,when he returned to Chicago, and entered the employ of the Merchants' Loan andTrust Co. In 1866 he was elected cashier of that bank, as successor to Mr. L. S.Gage, who became vice president of the Fret National Baal of .Chicago. In the great fire of 1871 the books and papers of the Merchants' Loan&Trust Company were lost, and Mr. Henrotin accomplished the remarkable feat of reestablishing all the amounts of the bank, and satisfying all the demands of its customers without any interruption of its regular business, and without loss to the hank, all of which he did within three weeks from the time of the fire.
In 1876, Mr. Henrotin resigned his position as cashier to engage in his present line of business, viz.: banking and brokerage. At the caused, his time was devoted principally to the introduction into the Chicago stock market of counted bonds a business which from 1876 to 1883 assumed enormous proportions. He also rendered notable service to the city and county in successfully handling nearly all of their loans made at that time. He bought the Cook County Court House 5 per cent loan of $1,900,000, and took practically all the city script, which, in bar then embarrassed position, had to be issued for current expenditure.
Mr. Henrotin's ability as a financier had by this time become pretty widely known and confidence in him well established. It only required the insight, tact and daring of his next enterprise to give him a name as a financial leader throughout the country. We refer to his splendid work in the creation of the Chicago Stock Exchange, which has been so great a source of convenience and profit to the commercial and financial institutions of Chicago and has won a more than national repute. Chicago had long needed just such a commercial medium, and now that it bas proven so signal a success a large share of credit must be given to Mr. Henrotin, to whom was due its original conception and subsequent realization. He was elected its first president in 1880 and his own successor in 1881. In 1886 he was again made president and in 1889 and 1890 was elected a third and fourth time. Mr. Henrotin is also a member of the New York Stock Exchange.
One of the numerous ventures in which he was foremost was the building of the Chicago Opera House of which company he has been vice president since its origin. The panorama of the Battle of Gettysburg was also secured to the city through his influence and sold by him to a syndicate of Chicago capitalists. Of late years he has been largely interested in Chicago horse and cable railway matters and is a director in the North Chicago Street Railway Company.
Within the last few years Mr. Henrotin has devoted much time to managing English syndicate business in the West. He was the American broker in the successful placing of the securities of the Chicago Brewing and Malting Company, and the Junction railways and Union Stock Yards and the Milwaukee and Chicago breweries securities amounting in the aggregate to some $38,000,000. In the organization of the London&Chicago Contract Corporation he took the leading part, being for a time the official broker of this corporation, as well as of the City of London Contract Company, of England.
In 1878, Mr. Henrotin was appointed consul to Belgium to succeed his father, and, with the sanction of the Belgian Government, was also appointed consul for the Ottoman Empire, both of which positions he still retains. He has distinguished himself by his very fine and exhaustive reports on the export and import trade of Belgium, and in 1889, in recognition of valuable consular services, he was knighted by the King of Belgium, with the decoration of "Chevalier of the Order of Leopold." And in 1893 he was also decorated with the order of Commander of the Medzidie and promoted to the rank of Consul General of Turkey for the Northwest. He has been for the last two years a director of the World's Fair, occupying a position on several leading committees.
In politics Mr. Henrotin is a Democrat, not at all inclined to partisanship, but a very liberal minded and unbiased thinker. He is socially active as a member of the Chicago, Union, and Washington Park Clubs, of the Germania Mannerchor, and the Nineteenth Century Club. In his domestic life Mr. Henrotin has been especially felicitous. Mrs. Henrotin, who is the daughter of Mr. E.Bryan Martin, a descendant of the English family of Byam Martins, and a residentof Maine, is a lady of unusual talent and attractiveness. Highly educated, possessed of unusual literary tastes and habits, she is conversant with both theGerman and French languages, from the latter of which she has made severalimportant and valuable translations. She is a member of many societies of women,filling many offices. Through her exertions the work of industrial education among the teachers was taken up and she has done much in various wave for theadvancement of her sex. Mm. Henrotin has been a very prominent member of theWoman's Club, Chicago, and of the Fortnightly and Nineteenth Century Clubs, andis probably the finest extemporaneous woman speaker in Chicago. She has giventhe work of the Kitchen Garden Association her personal attention ever since its organization. With Mrs. Patter Palmer, Mrs. Henrotin went to Washington, D. C., to speak before the National Council of Women, to present the claims of theWoman's Board of the Columbian Exposition for recognition. She was vicepresident of the woman's branch of the World's Congress Auxiliary and among theleading spirits in the work and she has gained a world wide reputation incarrying it to a successful end. She was also chairman of the general committee, which bad general supervision of all branches of the work. Many valuable essays from her pen have gained a wide circulation. Mr. and Mrs. Henrotin have threesons, Edward. Charles and Norris.

Source : (collective work) : A Biographical history, with portraits, of prominent men of the great West; Chicago, Ill.: Manhattan Pub. Co., 1894, 724 pgs.