Charles G. Dawes - Early Life, Family, and Career

Early Life, Family, and Career

Dawes was born in Marietta, Ohio in Washington County, the son of an Civil War officer Rufus Dawes and Mary Beman Gates Dawes. He graduated from Marietta College in 1884, and from the Cincinnati Law School in 1886.

Dawes was admitted to the bar in Nebraska, and he practiced in Lincoln, Nebraska from 1887 to 1894. When Lieutenant John Pershing, the future Army general, was appointed as a military instructor at the University of Nebraska while attending its law school, he and Dawes became acquainted and formed a lifelong friendship.

Dawes was the great-great-grandson of the Revolutionary War figure William Dawes and the son of Brigadier General Rufus Dawes, who commanded the 6th Wisconsin regiment of the Iron Brigade from 1863 to 1864 during the American Civil War. His brothers were Rufus C. Dawes, Beman Gates Dawes, and Henry May Dawes, all prominent businessmen or politicians. He also had two sisters, Mary B. and Betsy D. Dawes.

In 1894, Dawes acquired interests in a number of Midwestern gas plants, and he became the president of both the La Crosse Gas Light Company in La Crosse, Wisconsin and the Northwestern Gas Light and Coke Company in Evanston, Illinois.

Dawes was a self-taught pianist and a composer. His composition, "Melody in A Major" in 1912 became a well-known piano and violin song, and it was played at many official functions as his signature tune. It was transformed into the pop song "It's All in the Game" in 1951 when Carl Sigman added lyrics. Tommy Edwards' recording of "It's All in the Game" was a number one hit on the American Billboard record chart for six weeks in the fall of 1958. Edwards' version of the song also hit number one on the United Kingdom chart that year. Since then, it has since become a pop standard, recorded hundreds of times by artists including Cliff Richard, The Four Tops, Isaac Hayes, Jackie DeShannon, Van Morrison, Nat "King" Cole, Brook Benton, Elton John, Mel Carter, Barry Manilow, and Keith Jarrett. Dawes is the only Vice-President or winner of the Nobel Peace Prize to be credited with a No. 1 pop hit.