McGill, Charles Herbert (sold)

Charles Herbert McGill (March 21, 1866 - April 7, 1941) was an American printer and publisher. Born in St. Peter, Minnesota, McGill moved with his parents to St. Paul, Minnesota at the age of four, after his father, Andrew Ryan McGill, accepted a position as a private secretary to Minnesota Governor Horace Austin. McGill attended high school in St. Paul and joined the National Guard at fifteen as a member of Company D, First Regiment, Minnesota National Guard. He remained in the military for twenty years and attained the rank of captain. McGill first entered the printing business after his father acquired the St. Peter Tribune and moved back to St. Peter to become city editor. McGill ran the paper for his father until it was sold in 1887. After the sale of the Tribune, McGill moved back to St. Paul and bought a job printing company with his school friend Wescott W. Price. The firm grew quickly, having to relocate to larger premises three times in eighteen months, before finally paying to have a building built for the firm in 1889, when the business was incorporated as the Price-McGill Company, and by this time a third partner, Robert H. Merriam, had joined the company. Not only did the firm concern itself with general printing, but also with book publishing. Mr. Merriam left the company in 1893 after buying his own publishing company in the east. By 1897, Price had also moved on and started his own real estate business. This led to McGill joining forces with Eli S. Warner and his brother Ellsworth C. Warner to form the McGill-Warner Company. In 1898, when the Spanish-American War broke out, McGill returned to the army and was commissioned as a captain. He was named assistant adjutant general of United States Volunteers by President McKinley and was attached to the staff of General Lucius F. Hubbard and served with the Third Division, Seventh Army Corps. McGill never saw combat, as his unit was still in the American South when peace was declared in December 1898. After resigning from the army, McGill returned to St. Paul and resumed his post as general manger of McGill-Warner. The McGill-Warner Company again outgrew its office space and had built a four-story factory building and moved its offices there in 1910. In July 1923, the McGill-Warner Company acquired the Pioneer Company, another printing firm, and reorganized as the McGill-Warner Company of Delaware. McGill became a vice president of this new firm, which was recognized as the largest printing firm in the northwest. While maintaining his position as first vice president of the McGill-Warner Company, in 1912 McGill reorganized the Cootey Company of Minneapolis and became its president and general manager. McGill also grew this company and became a major success, and by 1920 it was recognized as one of the larger lithography firms in the country. McGill married Anna Routh on October 25, 1890, who passed away on April 1, 1895. McGill remarried with Julia Hubbard on June 5, 1900, who also passed away before McGill, on December 24, 1913.