His father George Christian Anthon was a German-American medical doctor who served in the British Army during the American Revolution until the surrender of Detroit in 1796.

George attained the rank of surgeon general, resigned, married the daughter of a French officer, and settled in New York City.

[1] Charles was born there on November 19, 1797,[2] graduated with honors from Columbia College in 1815,[3] and, after studying law at his elder brother's firm,[4] was called to the bar in 1819.

[3] In 1835, he was appointed Jay Professor of the Greek Language and Literature in Columbia College upon the resignation of Nathaniel Fish Moore.

Charles Anthon is famous in connection with the history of the Latter Day Saint movement because of his interactions with Martin Harris in February 1828 concerning a fragment of Joseph Smith's translation of the Book of Mormon.

The import of what I wrote was, as far as I can now recollect, simply this, that the marks in the paper appeared to be merely an imitation of various alphabetical characters, and had, in my opinion, no meaning at all connected with them.

Dr. Anthon was a friend and correspondent of Edgar Allan Poe, who attempted to use their acquaintance to gain a national reputation in literature and journalism as well as publication in 1845 of his collected stories through Harper and Brothers.