Charles Roser
Charles Martin Roser, also known as C. M. Roser, was an Ohio-born businessman, real estate developer and philanthropist who helped shape parts of Florida. He started in a cheese business in Wellington, Ohio, and then made candy and cookies in Kenton. The cookie business made him very wealthy, and some credit him with inventing the Fig Newton or the machinery for making it, though Nabisco has not confirmed this. In the early 1900s he moved with his wife Ruth to St. Petersburg, Florida, where he built hotels, an office building and a cafeteria, and ran the C. M. Roser Real Estate office at 695 Central Avenue. He funded a nurse’s home at Mound Park Hospital and built the first building for Mercy Hospital. He created Roser Park in St. Petersburg by carefully buying land, paved its streets with brick, and donated land for a school and parks. He also helped develop Anna Maria Island in Manatee County as the Anna Maria Beach Company partner with George Wilhelm Bean, building a pier in 1911 to bring visitors and starting Roser Memorial Community Church in 1913 in memory of his mother. Today Anna Maria is a residential and vacation community, and Roser Memorial Church still serves residents.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 03:15 (CET).