Charles Henry Waterhouse was born on September 21, 1822, in Portland, Maine, to Charles and Eliza Waterhouse. He married Elizabeth S. Gould, and they had at least two children: Charles, born around 1845; and Flora, born around 1868. They lived in Providence, Rhode Island, and Waterhouse worked as a jeweler. They moved to Attleboro, Massachusetts, in the early 1850s, and by 1860, he owned $600 of personal property. By 1870, he was working as a silversmith in Providence, and he owned $500 of personal property. He moved to Chicago, Illinois, in the 1870s, and he died sometime after 1880.