James Orlando Pace

James Orlando Pace was my grandfather. He was born in 1858. He met grandma Nancy Orphea Boggs in the cotton mill in Utah. She was a little black eyed beauty. They got married and moved to Thatcher, Arizona. This is where my father, James Francis Pace was born October 19, 1896. Grandpa established the Gila Valley Ranch above Virden, New Mexico on the Gold River. The ranch house was a big house that had port holes for defense against the Apache Indian raids. Grandpa and Grandma had 13 children.

The oldest daughter married Freeland Moody and had 3 children. They moved to a different place. She was pregnant. A message came that she had died. Someone told him that her husband hit her in the stomach with a hammer. Grandpa saddled up his hose and headed for her place. He dug her up to see if he could tell how she died, but her body was too decomposed for him to tell. A few weeks later, her husband was killed. Grandma Pace raised her daughter's three children.

Grandpa was a very tough person who demanded honesty out of everyone. There was a kind of feud between the Caspers and the Paces. It started when a Casper lied to Grandpa and Grandpa beat him up.

One time Grandpa was in a bar in Duncan, Arizona, and a guy came in and pulled out his gun and told everyone to dance. Grandpa hit him so hard that it crushed the side of his face in. He lay on the floor in the bar. There was no one to take care of him so Grandpa threw him in the wagon and took him to the ranch, where Grandma took care of him until he got better.

Grandpa also had a freight business where he hauled freight on wagons between Lordsburg and  Duncan.

When he was about 50-51 years old they found him on the trail. his wagon had run over him and crushed his chest. They took him to the ranch where he died. Years later when I was in high school in Duncan, the janitor who knew my grandfather told me that he believed that my grandfather was killed. Grandfather had a running battle with this big Mexican guy named Lonzo. He believed that Lonzo had ridden up behind my grandfather, roped him and pulled him underneath the wagon. It could never be proven because Longo was killed in a knife fight a week later.