Charles Wesley Pace, Jr.

Paonia, Colorado newspaper

People You Know

Valley Pioneer Passes Away

Charles W. Pace, prominent pioneer of the north Fork valley, died, at Harper, Kan., Friday, Jan. 15. The end came unexpectedly and was a severe shock to his sister, Mrs. Rose Campbell, his nephew, Albert B. Campbell, and other relatives and friends at Paonia, to whom he had written in cheerful mood at Christmastime. Funeral and burial were at Harper, the Methodist pastor of that town officiating.

Youngest son of Captain C. W. Pace and Elizabeth Pace, Charles Wesley Pace was born Jan. 1, 1867, at Clarinda, Iowa. Early in 1880 he came with his parents to Pitkin, Colo., as a lad of 13 driving a mule team in the caravan. Three years later he came to the North Fork valley and soon engaged in stockraising and fruitgrowing at Paonia. In 1898 he married Anna Humphry, the couple occupying one of the first dwellings erected in the new town, present site of the McClure drugstore and the Star grocery. After the death of Mrs. Pace, in 1906, he entered the national Forest Service for a year, later returning to horticultural pursuits.

In November, 1908, he married Amy Russell of Pueblo. To them were born three daughters who now are Mrs. Helen Newfarmer and Mrs. Shirley Newfarmer, both of Mountain View, Calif., and Mrs. Margaret Nostrand of Stockton, Calif. For several years he had resided in Harper, where he was engaged as one of two partners in buying and selling fruit.

As one of the early settlers of the North Fork valley Mr. Pace contributed generously of his talent to the community's social life. Altho his visits here in later years were infrequent, he maintained lively interest in the place he knew as home so many years and he made a protracted visit here immediately prior to locating in business at Harper.