History

Charles W. Upton was born in 1862, a native of Sterling, Macomb County.  His home there is now known as The Upton House, located in the Sterling Heights Complex next to the Sterling Heights Library and police station at Utica and Dodge Park Roads.  He worked on his father's farm until he was twenty-one, when he received a 100 acre farm in Washington Township.  He lived there until 1897 when he moved to the Rochester area.  In Rochester, C.W. was known as a "first-class auctioneer."  It was said, "his services are in constant demand during the season…he conducts the cyclone insurance business and is a wide-awake, all-around hustler."  In June 1905, C.W. sold his old home on Highland Avenue and held an auction that Saturday and Sunday to sell off all his household goods such as parlor chairs, tables, carpets, and beds and moved into a new home in the Rochester area. 

In 1908, C.W. Upton started his business on the corner of West Fifth Street (now called University) and Oak Street.  The location was previously home to the Monroe Cart Company.  The Cart Company was in business around 1890 and was primarily confined to the manufacture of Monroe carts, farm wagons, stools, chairs, and other vehicles.  The carts were sold all over the U.S. and even South America; the chairs were also very popular.  C.W. Upton's company, on the other hand, was known primarily as a coal dealer.  He was a colorful character, adorning the canopies of his wagons, and later his automobiles, in plaid.  With the arrival of the telephone, if customers asked the operator for number twenty-five, they would be greeted with, "C.W. Upton Wood and Coal Company." 

Around 1915, Upton's nephew Roy and son-in-law Arthur Dillman joined the company.  After Roy returned from World War I in 1919, the company moved to its new location on 543 Main Street.  Roy and Arthur bought C.W.'s interest in the company; Roy concentrated on customer needs as well as building projects while Arthur handled the financial aspect of the business.  In the 1950s, the company became Dillman & Upton, and today is considered one of Rochester's last remaining local businesses started in the early twentieth century.  The company was involved in the construction of almost every building project in Rochester, from Matilda Dodge Wilson and Alfred Wilson's Meadow Brook Farm and Hall to the homes of ordinary Rochester citizens.  The old site on West Fifth Street is now Jerry's Gun Shop.