Charles "Carl" Koepke was born on 22 June 1825 in Germany. Charles immigrated in 1851 to the United States. He left Germany to avoid the military draft of that day. According to his granddaughter, Florence Balser Dalton, he "especially believed in the freedom of his adopted home and wanted all of us to be all out Americans." He married Wilhelmina Stuedeman. Charles and his wife adopted Elizabeth Louise Frederike Krueger, the daughter of his friend.

Charles purchased property in Dunkirk, Chautauqua County, New York, on 1 February 1860 for $215. On 21 August 1862, while a resident of Chautauqua County, he enlisted in the Union Army. He served in Company G of the 112th Regiment of New York Infantry as a private throughout the Civil War. He was discharged at Raleigh, North Carolina, on 13 June 1865. After the Civil War, Charles farmed in Chautauqua County, residing at Dunkirk and Smith's Mills. He suffered from chronic rheumatism and piles, which he had contracted during the war. After the death of his wife, he lived at Hanover, Chautauqua County, New York, with his daughter Elizabeth and her husband Philip Balser. He moved to Frontier County, Nebraska, with them.