Charles Augustus Brinley was born on August 23, 1847, in Hartford, Connecticut.

In 1865 and 1866, he became part of a U.S. Army expedition to survey roads for wagons in Arizona and California. As an amateur photographer, he was assigned to photograph the terrain. He was considered a pioneer in this field. After the termination of the expedition, he returned to the East where he graduated from the Sheffield Scientific School, Yale University in 1869 and did post-graduate work in metallurgy and chemistry. In 1871, the Arizona Territorial Legislature commissioned him and two others to prepare and publish a pamphlet on the resources of Arizona (pastoral, mineral and agricultural). In 1872, he became the superintendent of the Midvale Steel Works in Philadelphia. In 1882, he became a manager at Franklin Sugar Refineries in Philadelphia and then the Managing Director and President of the American Pulley Company. He was a member of many groups, e.g., Society of Mayflower Descendants, Society of Cincinnati, Sons of The American Revolution, Rittenhouse Club, Philadelphia, and Cricket Club.

In 1877, he married Mary Goodrich Frothingham. He died on March 2, 1919, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.