SCALES, Charles, b. 1851; 1905 Bio, Gunnison County, Colorado http://files.usgwarchives.net/co/gunnison/bios/scalesc.txt --------------------------------------- Donated September 4, 2001 Transcribed by Judy Crook from the book: Progressive Men of Western Colorado Published 1905, A.W. Bowen & Co., Chicago, Ill. --------------------------------------- Charles Scales Making his own way in the world from the age of ten years, and by industry and frugality steadily forging ahead since then, Charles Scales, one of the leading fruit-growers of Delta county, living on a fine and productive ranch of twenty-two acres and a half one mile west of Paonia, has built his fortunes well and wisely, and what he has is wholly the product of his own enterprise and business capacity. He is a native of England, born on June 27, 1851, and the son of William and Celia (Cawsin) Scales. His father was a soldier in the English army thirty-four years, stationed a part of the time in Canada. The parents then returned to their native land, where the father died in 1869 and the mother in 1893. They had five children, three of whom are living, two of them in England. One son was born in Canada in 1843 and died very young. Another was born on the Atlantic ocean in 1845, and died before the end of the voyage, living only five days. In 1861 Mr. Scales began to make his own living, serving as a butcher's boy, and maintaining his connection with the trade for a period of thirty years. In 1879 he started for San Francisco, landing at New York city on July 4th, and at his destination on the Pacific some time afterward. In April, 1880, he shipped as a butcher on an Australian steamer, on which he made ten trips between California and that country. Afterward he located at Excelsior Springs in Clay county, Missouri, where he followed his trade for ten months, then moved to Kansas City, in the same state, and there worked at it six months longer. In the spring of 1883 he came overland to Pitkin, Colorado, and on his arrival here at once began butchering again, living there fourteen years and carrying on a prosperous business in his line twelve years of the time. In the spring of 1897 he moved to the North Fork valley, taking up his residence on the ranch which has been his home ever since, and which he bought in 1894, and that year settled his family on it. They began making the needed improvements while he continued his business at Pitkin. Of the twenty acres of which the ranch was originally composed he has set out sixteen in fruit, and he has since purchased two and one-half acres more, and now has five acres in alfalfa. The greater part of his orchard is in apples, but he has two acres in peaches, from which he gets a net income of about six hundred dollars a year, the apple trees being not yet in full bearing order, but all are steadily enhancing in value. Mr. Scales was married on April 14, 1887, to Mrs. Mary L.C. Johnson, a native of Mississippi and the daughter of Zedekiah and Sarah (Frost) Bassham, the former born in Tennessee and the latter in Mississippi. They moved to Arkansas in 1856, and there they passed the rest of their lives, the mother dying in 1859 and the father in 1862. The latter was a soldier in the Confederate army in the first years of the Civil war, and was taken ill at the battle of Springfield, dying from this illness in September, 1862. They had eight children, only three of whom are living. Mr. and Mrs. Scales have one son, Charles B.L., now fifteen years old (1904). Mr. Scales belongs to the order of Odd Fellows fraternally, and in church affiliation is a Seventh-day Adventist. In political activity he is independent. =================================================== Contributed for use by the USGenWeb Archive Project (http://www.usgenweb.org) and by the COGenWeb Archive Project USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access.