Charles Nickolas Kessler (1874-1957) collected and maintained a personal library and artifact collection of Montana history.

Charles Nickolas Kessler was born on 7 July 1874 in Montana to Nickolas Kessler and Louisa Ebert. In 1891 he began working at his father’s Montana brewery. He later attended a Chicago school where he was involved in the pioneering of scientific brewing methods. He graduated from the school in 1895 after which he returned to Montana and assumed the presidency of the brewery. He was an officer and founding member of the United States Brewers Association and was actively involved in the anti-prohibition movement.

Charles N. Kessler also collected and maintained a rather large personal library and artifact collection of Montana history because of his love for the area. In 1905 he married Sarah Hewett. The family lived in Helena, Montana until 1923 when they moved to Los Angeles where Charles worked as an insurance salesman. In 1933 they returned to Helena for a time to reopen the brewery, although they maintained their home in California simultaneously. Charles N. Kessler died in Los Angeles on 25 October 1957.