Hires To You headerThe Illustrated History of Hires Root Beer

1875 

IT HAPPENED IN…1875

A March 1, 1875 civil rights act guaranteed blacks equal rights in public places and prohibited their exclusion from jury duty.

The first Kentucky Derby was run at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky.

Thomas Adams of Brooklyn, New York, manufactured the first chewing gum.

Charles Elmer Hires and Clara Kate Smith, a daughter of Charles Sheppard Smith and Rebecca Jane Keyser Smith, were married January 5, 1875.  Charles Sheppard Smith was a prominent Philadelphia merchant.  Clara Kate Smith was born September 3, 1852 and died October 6, 1910. 

Charles Elmer Hires and Clara Kate Smith Hires were the parents of six children:

  1. Linda Smith Hires (born 1878, A.B. Wellesley College 1903, architect)

  2. Rebecca Keyser Hires (born 1883, died 1884)

  3. John Edgar Hires (born 1885 in Camden, NJ, consulting engineer and VP Charles E. Hires Company 1909-1949, died January 23, 1951)

  4. Harrison Streeter Hires (born May 31, 1887, BA Haverford College 1910, VP Charles E. Hires Company 1923-1948, died 1962)

  5. Charles Elmer Hires (born April 27, 1891, graduated Haverford College 1913, Charles E. Hires Company 1913-1950)

  6. Clara Sheppard Hires (born 1897, B.A. Cornell University 1928, botanist, died 1980)