People

: Charles Edward "Ed" McCormick; He was a mayor of Grand Junction, a member of the Colorado House of Representatives, and a recipient of the Medal of Freedom for his work as an operations analyst for the armed forces. He was born in Trampealeau, Wisconsin to Charles James McCormick and Martha Olive (Churchill) McCormick. His father was a farmer and his mother was a homemaker. They moved to Grand Junction in 1910, when Charles Edward was six. He attended Grand Junction High School and Colorado State University, where he studied electrical engineering. While in college he was a member of the Pi Delta Epsilon, A.I.E.E., the Collegian staff, and the Silver Spruce staff. He graduated in 1928. According to Richard “Dick” Williams, McCormick was the owner of the McCormick Sound and Equipment Company. He had great ability with cameras, sounds systems, and other electronic equipment, and developed a portable public address system that was used for tennis matches, rodeos, and other events. He also installed the first commercial address system in the area when the Lincoln Park football stadium was built in the early 1930’s. *Some of this information comes from the obituary of Charles McCormick (Daily Sentinel, April 20, 1997, p. 3C) **Photograph from the 1928 CSU yearbook

: Charles Edward Burg; He was born in Grand Junction, Colorado to Charles and Susan M. Burg. His father was in a US Army regiment stationed in Montrose, Colorado to monitor the Ute in the late 19th century, and Charles Edward grew up hearing stories about the Ute. He grew up on a cattle ranch on the Roan Creek, near De Beque, and later became a cowboy and horse breaker himself, working with people such as Dave Knight and his half-brother, Charley Chittenden. He also bought and acquired land and cows, at one point owning over 3,500 acres in his ranching operation. While Burg was in some fist fights, he says that his fights “were over range or water… livelihood,” and not for the love of fighting.

: Charles Edward Thomas; An early resident of Antlers, Colorado, just East of Rifle. He was born in Iowa, and came with his parents to Colorado at a young age (at or before 1900). He was a farmer.

: Charles Elmer "Charlie" Adams; He was the publisher of Grand Junction, Colorado's The Daily News in the 1920’s, and possibly earlier. He was born in Kansas and US Census Records show him living in Gunnison, Colorado by 1885. He married Meta (Gibbs) Adams in Gunnison County in 1893. The 1900 Census shows him living in Gunnison, and his occupation as editor. By 1910 he was living in Montrose and his occupation was listed as Publisher. The Daily News was Grand Junction’s first newspaper and a strongly Republican one. Adams was friends with Walter Walker, publisher of The Daily Sentinel and a staunch Democrat. It was rumored that during one confrontation between the two, one of them was going to cut the others neck tie off. After selling The Daily News to the Sentinel, Adams bought the Sentinel’s old press. He moved the press to Delta and bought The Delta Independent. Adams often returned to visit Walker. He is buried in the Gunnison Cemetery.

: Charles Elmer "Charlie" Benson; He was born on Parachute Creek, in Garfield County, Colorado, to Arcadeous Benson and Bertha (Gardner) Benson. His father was born in Kentucky and his mother in Wisconsin. They had both moved to the Western Slope by at least April 28, 1895, when Colorado marriage records list their marriage. They were farmers. When Charles was ten years old, his father acquired a homestead “on the mountain” (possibly on Battlement Mesa). Charles grew up in Parachute and on the homestead, where the family had a small beef cattle operation and a larger dairy cattle operation. He married Ruth Funk on May 11, 1929, when he was twenty-three years old. The 1930 US Census shows them living with Charles’s family, with Charles a partner in his father’s dairy farm business. In 1940, Charles and Ruth lived on a farm with their four children near Grand Valley (the name of Parachute at the time). They sold their ranch to Union Oil in 1957 and moved into town. He died at the age of eighty-five and is buried in Parachute’s Russey-Hurlburt Cemetery.

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