People

: Marion George Bowman; He was born to George Wallace Bowman and Nancy “Nannie” (Cutter) Bowman in Palisade, Colorado. His dad was a fruit farmer, the inventor of the Fruit Gathering Bag (Bowman picking sack), founder of the Palisades National Bank, and founder of the United Fruit Growers Association. His mother was a homemaker. US Census records show the family living in west Palisade. He graduated from Palisade High School in 1923 and the University of Denver in 1930. He served in the US Army Air Corps in 1930-31 and as a pilot in the Civil Air Patrol from 1941 to 1953. Marion married Helen Maher in Grand Junction on November 16, 1937. Like his parents, he was a fruit farmer in West Palisade, where he and Helen lived with their two children. According to Marion in his January 1984 interview with the Mesa County Oral History Project, he was involved in the creation of the Mesa County Peach Administrative Board, a fifteen-member elected body that sought to ensure fair pricing and payment for peach growers. He and other growers lobbied the Colorado Congress for a law allowing the creation of this board of control. He was a member of the Palisade Lions Club and the Shriners. His hobbies were flying and music.

: Marion Julian Echternach; He was born in Peckham, Oklahoma to John A. Echternach and Mary (Farquharson) Echternach. His father was a farmer and a school teacher and his mother was a homemaker. The family visited Palisade, Colorado in 1907, when Marion was seven. They moved there in 1909, after their Oklahoma home burnt to the ground in a blaze which spread to the rest of the town. Marion’s elder brother Bill had moved to Palisade prior to that time. In Palisade, the family lived on a fruit farm. Marion became a paper boy and also worked a milk route. He attended local schools. He helped his brother, Merle, on a ranch in Weisner, Idaho in 1917. In 1919, went to school in Quincy, Illinois. He married Ruth Johnson on September 20, 1920 and became an electrician that same year. In 1922, he bought a farm in partnership with his father-in-law. He bought an orchard in partnership with Ed Johnson in 1930. He moved a great deal for electrical work in the 1940’s, working for defense contractors in plants. After the war, he helped wire nuclear power plants and nuclear missile silos. After a major heart attack, he retired from electrician work and concentrated on growing peaches. He died of a heart attack while driving a tractor in his Palisade orchard. He was a Mason and an Elk.

: Marion Moore; Dudley Mitchell's great-great grandmother, mother of Phoebe Ann Robinson.

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