Per http://www.accessible.com/amcnty/DE/Delaware/delaware34.htm
(Scharf, Thomas J., History of Delaware, 1609-1888. Volume Two- pp. 749-759.)

THE CHARLES WARNER COMPANY is the successor of one of the oldest transportation
and general business houses in Wilmington, and its commercial value to the city
has been incalcuable. For about a hundred years the present location upon the
Christiana at the foot of Market Street has been the business home of this firm
or its immediate predecessors of the same family. The records or accounts prove
nothing anterior to 1794 as connecting the business with the transactions of the
present company, but it is well known that the commercial history of the house
extends through a hundred years. The wharf was the fourth one built in the city
and was owned first by one Robinson, who, before the Revolution, commanded
vessels from this port, but afterwards declined a sea-faring life, became a
shipping merchant of some note, and dying, left a widow from whom William Warner
purchased the property. The earliest information we have of the family in
Wilmington shows that John and William Warner and their father Joseph were
engaged in the West India trade, and that the last-named was also a silversmith
by trade. He was a descendant of one Skippwith, who came to America with William
Penn and is believed to have been the first of the family in Wilmington. His son
William married a daughter of Joseph Tatnall, who was thus the maternal
grandfather of Mr. Charles Warner. Of this ancestor, Miss Montgomery, in her
"Reminiscences of Wilmington," says; "Joseph Tatnall was the most distinguished
of those worthy men whose memories deserve notice in this community, and the
rising generation ought to be informed that Mr. Tatnall was a true patriot. He
alone dared to grind flour for the famishing army of the Revolution at the risk
of the destruction of his mill."

The general wholesale and transportation business in which John and William
Warner were engaged certainly as early as 1794, and which was in all probability
a direct outgrowth or continuance of the enterprises in which they were
associated with their father, was carried on by them without interruption until
about 1820, when the senior brother was appointed United States consul to
Havana, and then it passed into the hands of William as sole proprietor. The
firm had been sorely pressed for means during the War of 1812*15, but maintained
its credit and activity and passed successfully the only threatening period the
house has ever known.

In 1837 Charles Warner was taken into partnership with his father, under the
firm-name of Charles Warner & Company, and in 1845 William died, leaving his son
the entire responsibility of the large and rapidly-growing business.

Up to this time the transportation facilities of the house were such as two
small sloops afforded. They sailed between Wilmington and Philadelphia, making
four trips per week. In 1846, Mr. Warner completed the first steam packet, which
he named, in honor of his father's old friend, the "E.I. Dupont;" but the
enterprise proving immature, she only remained upon the route one season. The
sloops "Fame" (the name, by the way, of one of the earlier Swedish ships) and
the "Mary Warner," each of about sixty tons burden, were placed upon the line,
and they continued to perform the service of four trips per week until 1866,
when they were found to be inadequate, and were replaced by the barges "Anna"
and "Mary," each of one hundred and twenty-five tons, which were towed by steam
tugs and formed a daily line between this city and Philadelphia.

Prior to this time, in 1860, the proprietor took into partnership his nephew, E.
Tatnall Warner, and the firm-name again became Charles Warner & Co.

At the close of 1868, Charles Warner, who had seen many years of active business
life, and under whose skillful and energetic management the house had led a
career of constantly-increasing prosperity, retired in favor of his son, Alfred
D. Warner. Since his retirement Charles Warner has resided continuously in
Wilmington.

The business was continued under the old name until 1885, when an act of
incorporation was obtained creating "The Charles Warner Company" of which E.
Tatnall Warner was elected president; Alfred D. Warner, vice-president and
treasurer; and E. Andrews, secretary.

Such in brief has been the history of this house; but it remains to give a few
facts concerniag the growth of its business. And in this connection we may state
that the traffic between Wilmington and Philadelphia had so increased that still
larger craft than the "Anna" and "Mary" were demanded, and they were superseded
by two barges, the "Coleta" and "Minquas," each of two hundred and fifty tons,
or double the capacity of their predecessors. Another large enterprise of the
firm was the establishment of the Electric Steamship Line to New York, for which
Charles Warner & Co. had laid the foundation in 1866. The charter of the
Wilmington Steamship Company of Delaware, of which Warner & Co. and William M.
Baird, of Philadelphia, were the promoters, was passed in 1869, and in the
following year the Wilmington house which we have under consideration purchased
Mr. Baird's interest, and in turn sold a part interest to George W. Bush. In
1870 a favorable arrangement was made with the Delaware and Raritan Canal
Company, enabling the establishment of a safe and advantageous inland route.
This line, on which three, and sometimes four, steamers plied, proved reasonably
profitable to the projectors and of vast advantage to the city, encouraging as
it did by its facilities of cheap transportation, the development of numerous
extensive manufactories, and especially, perhaps, the iron industry. The line
was only discontinued in 1886, its usefulness having been in a large measure
neutralized by rail-road extension.

The growth of the firm's various lines of business has been most gratifying. In
the single item of anthracite coal, of which it is interesting to note this
house brought the very first to Wilmington, just after the opening of the
Schuylkill mines, about 1830, the increase in tonnage has been immense. The bulk
brought to the city now is fully seventy times as great as that which was
annually handled twenty years ago. While its transportation and coal interests
may be considered as constituting the greater part of its business, the company
also makes specialties of hydraulic cement, sand, coke and lime, and handles
them in large quantities,* of the last-named article taking the product of
thirty-two kilns. It owns the Philadelphia and Wilmington Propeller Line, better
known as Warner's Propeller Line of freight vessels.