Charles V. Fornes

Who was Charles V. Fornes?

Charles Vincent Fornes was a United States Representative from New York. Born on a farm near Williamsville, Erie County, he attended the public schools, and was graduated from Union Academy in 1864. He moved to Buffalo in 1866, taught school in a district school, and then served as principal of a Buffalo public school for three years. He was employed as a clerk for a wholesale woolen merchant in Buffalo and later established a similar business for himself. In 1877 he moved to New York City and engaged in business as an importer and jobber of woolens. He was president of the board of aldermen of New York City from 1902 to 1907, and was trustee and director of several banks and corporations.

Fornes was elected as a Democrat to the Sixtieth, Sixty-first, and Sixty-second Congresses, holding office from March 4, 1907 to March 3, 1913. He declined to be a candidate for renomination in 1912 and resumed his former business pursuits in New York City. He retired from active business in 1926 and returned to Buffalo, where he died in 1929; interment was in United German and French Roman Catholic Cemetery, Pine Hill, Buffalo.