Charles Elmer Hires

Charles Elmer Hires (August 19, 1851 – July 31, 1937) was an American pharmacist and an early promoter of commercially prepared root beer. He founded the Charles E. Hires Co., which manufactured and distributed Hires Root Beer.

Early life Hires was born on August 19, 1851, to John and Mary Hires in the Roadstown section of Hopewell Township, New Jersey. At age 12, his parents sent him to work as an apprentice at a drugstore owned by his brothers-in-law.

Hires did not drink and marketed root beer as an alternative to alcohol. Following an analysis that suggested there was alcohol in root beer, the Woman's Christian Temperance Union launched a boycott of his product. Hires ran his own analysis and advertised heavily that the amount of alcohol was about the same as in a half loaf of bread. Melrose, the family's estate in Merion Station, Pennsylvania, is now the site of Temple Adath Israel of the Main Line.