Charles was born on April 1, 1810 at Newburyport, Massachussets, United States. He was the son of Prince and Hepzibeth or Hepzibah (Patch) Stetson, a descendant of Robert Stetson, probably of England, who emigrated to America before 1634. His father was a tavern-keeper in that city, and in 1824, when he entertained Lafayette, young Charles acted as valet de chambre to the distinguished guest.
In 1829 the famous Tremont House in Boston, then newly built, opened its doors with Charles Stetson, then nineteen years of age, as clerk and bell-boy. The Astor House in New York was completed in 1836, and Astor first leased it to the Boydens of Boston, owners of the Tremont House.
Stetson was appointed a quartermaster-general of New York State on the staff of Governor Washington Hunt in 1851, and was known thereafter as "General" Stetson - a title which he used to best advantage as Mine Host. All celebrities who visited New York in the middle of the nineteenth century stopped at the Astor and were greeted by Stetson as if they had been guests in his own home. A sumptuous dinner to the Prince de Joinville at the Astor in 1840 was long considered a milestone in the city's history. Louis Kossuth addressed hordes of admirers from its windows in 1851.
Room No. 11 was long the New York home of Thurlow Weed, and many a political deal, many a "slate" was arranged there.
But notwithstanding Stetson's genius and hospitality, the Astor House was gradually outmoded by newer and larger hotels, and when he gave up its management in 1868 it was losing its fashionable preeminence. His son Charles operated it until 1875.
During the last twenty-five years of his life, Stetson lived in quiet retirement. His home was at Swampscott, Massachussets, but he died at the home of one of his eight children in Reading, Pennsylvania.
For nearly thirty years Charles Augustus Stetson was the proprietor and literally the host of the Astor, probably the most famous host and hostelry in America at the time. The Astor house was the scene of all the great public dinners of those times, and the regular resting-place of congressmen from the eastern states in going to and returning from Washington. During the civil war General Stetson showed many acts of kindness to soldiers on their way through New York, and he was publicly thanked by Governor John A. Andrew, of Massachusetts.
Quotations: "A hotel keeper, " he declared, "is a gentleman who stands on a level with his guests".
He was married to Lucy Ann Brown of Newburyport on March 14, 1832.
