Charles Dean Long was born on June 14, 1841 on a farm in Grand Blanc. After attending the district school, he went to Flint to finish high school. His plans were to attend the University of Michigan to earn a law degree, but those plans were suspended when the Civil War broke out. Charles enlisted as a private in Company A, 8th Michigan Volunteer Infantry Regiment. The regiment was involved in many battles while Charles was in the Company, all of them in South Carolina and Georgia.

On April 16, 1862, the troop engaged with the Confederate Army at Wilmington Island, just outside Savannah, Georgia. During the affair, 11 Union soldiers were killed and 34 wounded. One of the wounded was our own Charles Long. A bullet went through his hip, and another bullet hit his left arm. The arm required amputation above the elbow, and the bullet in his hip remained lodged in his groin for the rest of his life, a wound resulting in chronic pain that required dressing twice a day. He was discharged from service and returned to Flint, where he apprenticed in law under Oscar Adams during the summer of 1862. Long was elected Genesee County Clerk in 1864, serving four terms until 1870. In May of that year, despite not having any formal education, Charles was admitted to the Michigan bar.

From 1874 to 1880 he was elected three times as Prosecuting Attorney for Genesee County. Because of the name he made for himself, Charles was given the task to supervise the U.S. Census for 30 Michigan counties. A lifelong Republican, he was also a member of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), serving as its Michigan department commander in 1885.

Charles Long’s judicial career reached its apex when he was elected to the Michigan Supreme Court in 1887, a position he held until his death on June 27, 1902 from complications related to his war injury forty years prior. Many glowing words were given in memoriam of Charles D. Long, a judge and civil servant whom the Grand Blanc community was proud to call its own. He is buried in Glenwood Cemetery in Flint, Michigan.