Christopher Latham Sholes Christopher Latham Sholes Christopher Latham Sholes (February 14, 1819 – February 17, 1890) was an American inventor who invented the QWERTY keyboard, and along with Samuel W. Soule, Carlos Glidden and John Pratt, has been contended as one of the inventors of the first typewriter in the United States. He was also a newspaper publisher and Wisconsin politician. Born in Mooresburg, in Montour County, Pennsylvania, Sholes moved to nearby Danville and worked there as an apprentice to a printer. After completing his apprenticeship, Sholes moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1837, and later to Southport, Wisconsin (present-day Kenosha). He became a
Thomas J. Latham American Civil War. After the war, he was opposed to disenfranchisement. Latham resumed his legal practice in Memphis, Tennessee from 1866 to 1868. In January 1868, he was appointed by Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase as "register of the United States district court in bankruptcy" for Memphis. In 1879, he was appointed by Judge John Baxter as debt receiver of the City of Memphis. Latham acquired the bankrupt Memphis Water Company for US$155,000 in 1880. He served as its president until 1903. Additionally, he served as the president of the Chickasaw Land Company and the New South Coal and Mining