Born in Springfield, Ohio in 1818, Charles Cavalier moved to Carmel, Illinois at the age of seventeen. After a few years he pulled up stakes and headed west. He settled in Red Rock, Minnesota, six miles south of St. Paul, but soon relocated to St. Paul where he opened a shop in 1845. He sold out in 1847 to start the town’s first drugstore in partnership with a doctor. However, he was a restless soul. In order to move on to other adventures, he sold his share of the drugstore to the doctor.