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Born July 15, 1820, on a farm in northern Trimble County, Kentucky, across the Ohio from Madison, Indiana. Spent childhood at Columbia, Missouri; rode horseback to Indiana University in 1837. In March 1839, transferred to Miami University, also riding there by horse.
Member of the Union Literary Society. According to John Reily Knox, he was the third invited to join Beta Theta Pi. A sophomore at the founding, he was the third president of Alpha Chapter.
Admitted to the bar in 1843. Practiced law at Fulton, Missouri, 1843-61, moved to Mexico, Missouri. Elected State Representative in 1852, 1854, 1858. In 1855, selected one of three to revise and codify the state statues. In 1860 elected State Senator, and in 1862, although the only Senator who voted against Missouri secession put under bonds and subsequently disfranchised because of alleged sympathy for the Confederacy. Apparently withdrew from public life and retired to a farm though the rest of this Civil War. In 1872, elected State Senator. In 1874, elected Governor of Missouri on the Democratic ticket by a majority of some 38,000. Chairman of the Democratic state convention of 1884; member of the board of managers of state lunatic asylum 10 years; president of Mexico Southern Bank for 25 years; trustee of William Jewell College 22 years. Founder of Hardin Female College at Mexico and president of its board for many years, and curator of the University of Missouri. Married Mary Barr Jenkins in May 1844. They had no children. She wrote his biography, Life and Writings of Governor Charles Henry Hardin. He died in Mexico on July 29, 1892. Buried in the Jewell family cemetery at Columbia.
"A bright student, and it didn't take him half the time to get his lessons that it did the others. A cheerful, pleasant, agreeable companion. He could read the New Testament in Greek like English but knew not a word of Latin. They asked me to help him, and in ninety days he was above mediocrity in that language."
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