Charles Daniels
Born: March 24, 1885
Died: August 9, 1973
Married: Florence Goodyear
Children: Frank Henry Goodyear Daniels
Charles Meldrum Daniels was an American competition swimmer, eight-time Olympic medalist, and world record-holder in two freestyle swimming events. Daniels was an innovator of the front crawl swimming style, helping to develop the "American crawl".
He started coming to the Adirondacks at age 15, staying at the Hiawatha Lodge on Stony Creek Ponds where he hiked, paddled and swam. He attended Dwight Prep school in New York City where he was captain of the school's basketball team, did the high jump, and ran the mile and half mile with the track team. His coach there, Philip Seixas, ran a summer camp on Bluff Island on Lower Saranac Lake, and Charles was a camper there in 1902.
Daniels began his racing career around the age of 18 with the New York Athletic Club (NYAC) in 1903, where he was mentored by Hall of Fame Coach Gus Sundstrom. At the 1904 Olympics in St. Louis, Missouri, he became the first American to win a gold in an Olympic games swimming event, winning gold medals in the 220-yard and 440-yard freestyle races. From 1904 until he retired in 1911, he won Amateur Athletic Union Championships 31 times. In 1905, he posted 14 world records in a four day period. From 1907-11, he established seven world records of several distances in three countries.
He retired from competitive swimming in 1910, and bought 5,000 acres in the Adirondacks mountain range. There he built Sabattis Park which featured a 9-hole golf course for his personal use. After several prior business ventures, he founded and operated one of the few silver fox farms in America, on his land in the Adirondacks.
He moved to California in the late 1930s, and served as a Lieutenant in the Navy during WWII.