General Notes

[basham.ged]
Email David R. McCracken 3/3/2004 <david32@@ev1.net>
Email Wayne M. Smith 3/17/2004 <waynemsmith@@juno.com>
Charles Scales
Making his own way in the world from the age of ten years, and by indu
st ry and frugality steadily forging ahead since then, Charles Scale
s, o ne of the leading fruit-growers of Delta county,  living on a fine a
nd pro ductive ranch of twenty-two acres and a half one mile west of Paoni
a, h as built his fortunes well and wisely, and what he has is wholly t
he produ ct of his own enterprise and business capacity.  He is a nati
ve of Englan d, born on June 27, 1851, and the son of William and Celia (C
awsin) Scale s.  His father was a soldier in the English army thirty-fo
ur years, statio ned a part of the time in Canada.  The parents then retur
ned to their nati ve land, where the father died in 1869 and the moth
er in 1893.  They had f ive children, three of whom are living, two of th
em in England.  One son w as born in Canada in 1843 and died very young. A
nother was born on the Atl antic ocean in 1845, and died before the e
nd of the voyage, living only fi ve days.  In 1861 Mr. Scales began to ma
ke his own living,
serving as a butcher's boy, and maintaining his connection with the t
ra de for a period of thirty years.  In 1879 he started for San Francisc
o, la nding at New York city on July 4th, and at his destination on the Pa
cif ic some time afterward.  In April, 1880, he shipped as a butch
er on an Aus tralian steamer, on which he made ten trips between Californ
ia and that co untry.  Afterward he
located at Excelsior Springs in Clay county, Missouri, where he follow
ed h is trade for ten months, then moved to Kansas City, in the same stat
e, a nd there worked at it six months longer.  In the spring of 1883 he ca
me ov erland to Pitkin, Colorado, and on his arrival here at once began bu
tcheri ng again, living there fourteen years and carrying on a prospero
us busine ss in his line twelve years of the time.  In the spring of 18
97 he mov ed to the North Fork valley, taking up his residence on the ran
ch which h as been his home ever since, and which he bought in 1894, and t
hat year se ttled his family on it.  They began making the needed improvem
ents whi le he continued his business at Pitkin.  Of the twenty acres of w
hich t he ranch was originally composed he has set out sixteen in fruit, a
nd he h as since purchased two and one-half acres more, and now has five a
cr es in alfalfa.  The greater part of his orchard is in apples, but he h
as t wo acres in peaches, from which he gets a net income of about six hun
dr ed dollars a year, the apple trees being not yet in full bearing orde
r, b ut all are steadily enhancing in value.  Mr. Scales was married on Ap
ril 1 4, 1887, to Mrs. Mary L.C. Johnson, a native of Mississippi and t
he daught er of Zedekiah and Sarah (Frost) Bassham, the former born in Ten
nessee a nd the latter in Mississippi.  They moved to Arkansas in 1856, a
nd there t hey passed the rest of their lives, the mother dying in 1859 a
nd the fath er in 1862.  The latter was a soldier in the Confederate ar
my in the fir st years of the Civil war, and was taken ill at the batt
le of Springfiel d, dying from this illness in September,
1862.  They had eight children, only three of whom are living.  Mr. a
nd Mr s. Scales have one son, Charles B.L., now fifteen years old (1904
).  Mr. S cales belongs to the order of Odd Fellows fraternally, and in ch
urch affil iation is a Seventh-day Adventist.  In political activi
ty he is independen t.