The Herefordshire Community Foundation, a local independent charity sets up personally-named funds for companies, individuals and families. This means that doners are able to support a cause, or an area of their choice at much less cost than setting up a stand alone charity, and their latest is the Charles and Anna Saunders Fund.

The income from this endowment will be used for charitable projects in Herefordshire.

Charles Saunders was born in a labourer’s cottage at Penrose Green Farm, just south of St Weonards, in 1890. He attended the National School at St Weonards and eventually moved to Pontypool where he lived and worked. He emigrated to the United States in 1913, following his brother, Albert, who was a Presbyterian Minister.

Charles joined the US Army to fight in the Great War, which automatically secured his US citizenship. When serving in France during the War he met US Army nurse Anna Crouse from Upper Sandursky, Ohio. They were married after the war and moved to Boulder, Colorado so that he could attend the University of Colorado. Ever the entrepreneur, Charles bought, restored, and sold Victorian homes in Boulder to support his family and pay for his university education.

Charles and Anna had three children and eventually the family moved to Houston, Texas. They lived through the Great Depression, struggling financially as Charles sold cemetery plots and Anna taught piano lessons. They often wondered where their next meal would come from.

In 1942 Charles and Anna bought a rundown cemetery in Houston. For the remainder of their lives they poured their time, effort, energy and business earnings into Brookside Memorial Park. Charles died in 1959 and Anna in 1986. Brookside became a very successful, highly-regarded business and it was sold by the family in 1997.

Charles and Anna were hard working, diligent, thrifty, entrepreneurial and humble people. All of those character traits were formed in Charles as he grew up in Herefordshire and he was always appreciative of his roots there. Now Charles and Anna’s grandchildren and great grandchildren have created the Charles and Anna Saunders Fund to honour them. Their goal is to assist the foundation in its philanthropic work in Herefordshire as much of the family’s success originated from its connection to the county.

For more information about the Herefordshire Community Foundation and the funds and grants it awards visit www.herefordshirecf.orgSee this week’s paper for more stories like this, available in shops and as a Digital Edition now.