Dr. Charles Eldredge was a son of Captain Eldredge, of Brooklyn, Conn., a brave officer of the Revolution, and his wife, Lucy (Gallup) Eldredge. He was born in Brooklyn, Conn., July 31, 1784, and died in East Greenwich, R. I., September 15, 1838, and his remains were interred in the burying ground on Baptist Meeting House Hill, but later they were removed to St. Luke's Cemetery. He studied medicine with Dr. Thomas Hubbard, of Pomfret, Conn., attended medical societies at the University of Pennsylvania, and for one season at Pennsylvania Hospital. He came to East Greenwich, a man of twenty-nine years, strong in physique and mind, and devoted to his profession. He was a disciple of Dr. Rush, the eminent professor of medicine under whom he sat at the university, but he was not a blind follower of any school. He kept in touch with all advance in matters of the medical profession, adopting all that his judgment approved, and rejecting the sensational and untrue. He was a skilled surgeon, called upon in all critical cases for miles around, although it was his pride to avoid rather than to perform heroic operations. He often spoke with pardonable satisfaction of the many limbs he had saved by careful treatment, when amputation seemed the proper treatment. He was one of the original members of the Rhode Island Medical Society, was its president from 1834 to 1837, was an honorary member of the Connecticut Medical Society; and in 1835 received the honorary M. D. from Yale College.
Such was his medical career and it was most honorable. But his influence was far reaching, his interest extending to all town institutions and affairs. He was one of the founders of the Protestant Episcopal church of which Rev. Mr. Waldo was rector, he living to be a centenarian and being elected chaplain of Congress, passing his one hundredth birthday. He was a trustee of Kent Academy, one of the original members of the Society for the Promotion of Domestic Industries, and was useful in all things. Dr. Eldredge married Hannah Child, daughter of the Revolutionary soldier. They were the parents of two sons: Charles Child and James Henry, and of a daughter, Lucy Gallup, their second child.
