Charles Macalester II (1798–1873) was a businessman, Presbyterian Church philanthropist, and namesake of Macalester College in Minnesota. Macalester was born in Philadelphia on February 17, 1798; his father was a shipping merchant. As a teenager, he led a company of forty boys who constructed a fort on the Schuylkill during the War of 1812. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania. From 1821 to 1827, he worked as a merchant in Cincinnati, Ohio, before returning to Philadelphia. On Aug. 24, 1832, his father died, leaving Macalester a large estate. Macalester retired as a merchant in 1849, but continued buying and selling securities and real estate.