Charles Bennett Palmer was born on February 19, 1844 in Springfield, New Hampshire, the son of Bennett Palmer and Velina Snow. As a youth he came to Wisconsin where he settled in Berlin with his widowed mother and sisters. At fourteen he became an apprentice of the Berlin Courant, working there until 1861 when he enlisted as a private in Company D of the First Wisconsin Cavalry. In this capacity Palmer was a scout in southwest Missouri and Arkansas and with the help of George W. Clayton, another employee of the Courant he published a paper, the Cape Girardeau Eagle. Palmer returned to Wisconsin briefly and then reenlisted in the First Wisconsin Heavy Artillery. Palmer served with this unit in Kentucky and was discharged on August 30, 1865 as a second lieutenant.
Shortly after the end of the war he entered Antioch College which he attended from 1865 to 1868. Later Palmer became principal of the public schools at DeGraff and Yellow Springs, Ohio. He was also a member of the board of education at Beatrice, Nebraska, and editor and publisher of the Beatrice Express. He also founded and edited the Nebraska Teacher. In 1877 he joined the faculty of the University of Nebraska, later becoming a professor of geology and zoology. At one time he served as acting president of Antioch College. Palmer was active in local and civic affairs, and he was a member of the board of education and the city council of Columbus, Ohio. During the 1880s Palmer led a small colony of Ohio people to Alachua County, Florida where they attempted unsuccessfully to develop the community of Orange Heights. In later life Palmer became a minister of the Universalist Church in Kansas City. His wife, Minerva Kiefer Palmer, died on July 22, 1899. Charles Palmer died on March 2, 1909 at the Army and Navy Hospital in Hot Springs, Arkansas.
