Charles Edward Rushmore (December 2, 1857 – October 30, 1931) was an American businessman and attorney for whom

Mount Rushmore The Mount Rushmore National Memorial is a National Memorial (United States), national memorial centered on a colossal sculpture carved into the granite face of Mount Rushmore (, or Six Grandfathers) in the Black Hills near Keystone, South Dak ...

is named.

Biography

Born in New York City, he was the son of Edward Carman Rushmore and Mary Eliza (née Dunn) Rushmore, of

Tuxedo Park, New York Tuxedo Park is a village in Orange County, New York, United States. Its population was 645 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Kiryas Joel–Poughkeepsie–Newburgh metropolitan area as well as the larger New York metropolitan area. Its name ...

. In 1885 Rushmore came to the

Black Hills The Black Hills is an isolated mountain range rising from the Great Plains of North America in western South Dakota and extending into Wyoming, United States. Black Elk Peak, which rises to , is the range's highest summit. The name of the range ...

of South Dakota to check the titles to properties for an eastern mining company owned by James Wilson following the 1883 opening of the Etta tin mine. How Mount Rushmore came to be named after Charles is subject to contradictory recounting, but the

United States Board of Geographic Names The United States Board on Geographic Names (BGN) is a federal body operating under the United States Secretary of the Interior. The purpose of the board is to establish and maintain uniform usage of geographic names throughout the federal gover ...

officially recognized the name in June 1930, five years after Rushmore donated $5,000 () towards

Gutzon Borglum John Gutzon de la Mothe Borglum (March 25, 1867 – March 6, 1941) was an American sculpture, sculptor best known for his work on Mount Rushmore. He is also associated with various other public works of art across the U.S., including Stone Moun ...

's sculpture. The memorial was dedicated by President

Calvin Coolidge Calvin Coolidge (born John Calvin Coolidge Jr.; ; July 4, 1872January 5, 1933) was the 30th president of the United States, serving from 1923 to 1929. A Republican Party (United States), Republican lawyer from Massachusetts, he previously ...

on August 10, 1927, though Rushmore was ill at the time and could not attend the event. Rushmore was a member of the

Phi Gamma Delta Phi Gamma Delta (), commonly known as Phi Gam and sometimes written as FIJI, is a North American social fraternity with 139 active chapters and 13 colonies across the United States and Canada. It was founded at Jefferson College, Pennsylvania ...

fraternity and a

Freemason Freemasonry (sometimes spelled Free-Masonry) consists of fraternal groups that trace their origins to the medieval guilds of stonemasons. Freemasonry is the oldest secular fraternity in the world and among the oldest still-existing organizati ...

. He was married to Jeanette E. Carpenter. He was a senior partner in the firm Rushmore, Bisbee, and Stern. He died in New York City on October 30, 1931.

Notes

References

1857 births 1931 deaths American lawyers People from Tuxedo, New York 19th-century American businesspeople {{SouthDakota-stub