Charles Andrew Ahrens was an industrialist, businessman and bookkeeper born July 11, 1827 in Hohen-Wesdt, Holstein, Germany. He emigrated to Berlin (now Kitchener) in 1851 at the age of 24. He began working as a bookkeeper at Louis Breithaupt's tannery 1857. He later worked for Beardmores in Toronto for 5 years. On April 16, 1854, Ahrens married Henrietta Charlotte Roth, who had emigrated from Germany to Preston, Ontario in 1852. Together they had twelve children. The family lived for a time in Port Elgin, where Charles operated a general store, in partnership with a Mr. Kinzie. Upon their return to Kitchener, Charles worked as bookkeeper for the Hepburn Shoe Factory. Charles was also the clerk and treasurer for the town of Berlin and in 1886 he was a Town Councillor. In 1879 he opened his own shoe store, and later a factory, C.A. Ahrens Shoe Co., which operated across from the Walper Hotel on Queen Street South. By the early 1900's, the shoe factory was a thriving and eventually taken over by Ahrens' son, Charles August.The company was purchased by Savage Shoe Co. in 1949. Charles Andrew died on August 18, 1903 following a series of strokes and was interred at Mount Hope Cemetery in Kitchener, Ontario.

The Schneider and Ahrens families were closely connected by friendship and marriage. Helena, one of the twelve children born to Charles Andrew and Henrietta Ahrens married J.M. Schneider, the founder of J.M. Schneider, Inc. The families also shared an active interest in the Swedenborgian Church and holidayed together in Grand Bend, where the Ahrens family had a cottage.