Biddeford History & Heritage Project

Charles Shaw was a Renaissance man who was a successful businessman, statesman, inventor, and patron of the arts. He was born in Sanford on November 5th, 1831, and grew up there on his father’s farm. He attended Sanford schools, and then served as apprentice for a firm of skilful watchmakers and jewelers.

In 1852, Charles Shaw moved to Biddeford and started the firm of Shaw and Clark, watchmakers and jewelers. The partnership with Clark continued for fourteen years, but the business soon changed its focus to the manufacture of sewing machines. They were among the largest sewing machines manufacturers in the country at the time, and they employed more than 6000 workers in five factories.

Although best known for his sewing machines, Mr. Shaw developed other inventions, including a patent for photography that made it possible to reduce the amount of time required for taking a photograph from many minutes to fractions of seconds. At one time he owned a factory that made paper collars, the forerunner of the celluloid collar. Shaw married Sophia Priest of Biddeford in 1852, and the couple had one son, Otis.

A Democrat, Charles Shaw held many public offices while he lived in Biddeford, including councilman, alderman, mayor, State legislator, and Maine Commissioner to the World’s Fair in Paris. Mr. Shaw owned several newspapers, including the Maine Democrat, the Daily Evening Times, and the Western World, a New York paper that was the first in the United States to print regularly in colors.

As a supporter of show business, Charles Shaw built and owned Shaw’s Opera House in Biddeford, and became good friends with such nationally-known entertainers as P.T. Barnum, the circus owner, and Artemus Ward, the humorist. With Shaw as his manager, Ward gave one of his first humorous lectures at the Old City Building in 1862, and often stayed at the Shaw home.

In 1872 Charles Shaw moved from Biddeford to Boston, where he continued his business success as patent solicitor, banker, doctor, and justice of the peace. He also continued his career as theater manager, and for many years was the owner of one of Boston’s most famous amusements, Austin and Stone’s Museum. In The History of Sanford, Maine, author Edwin Emery described Shaw as “a pre-eminently self-made man, whatever he has become or acquired having been solely by his own unaided exertions, his life presenting a striking illustration of what can be accomplished by the proper exercise of integrity, energy and perseverance.”