Pace Pix|Pace Network home page

Richmond Pace grave

Posted August 2005

This is a photo of the grave of Richmond Pace, born in Clarke County, Alabama in 1813, son of John and Elizabeth (Jones) Pace. The grave is in Hillcrest Cemetery, the oldest cemetery in the city of Temple, in Bell County, Texas. It was long thought that Richmond was buried with his second wife's family in Vashti, Texas, Clay County, in north Texas in 1892 (nowhere near Bell County). I found the graves of his second wife Mary Ann (Taylor) and a couple of sons and grandchildren in Vashti some years ago, but did not find a stone for Richmond. After checking the tax records for Newton County, Mississippi, I came to the wrong conclusion that Richmond had never left Newton County and was probably buried on his home place, or simply never had a marker. He shows up on the tax records in Newton up until 1892, and his widow Mary Ann and family show up on the 1900 census for Newton County, Mississippi. The second family left for north Texas a few years after the turn of the century, a good decade after the death of Richmond; case closed. Or so I thought.

A few weeks ago I found the Web site for Hillcrest Cemetery in Temple and was browsing through the transcriptions, looking for other ancestors I knew were buried there. It was no surprise to find the graves of a few of my pioneer ancestors (Clarks, Wilders), but I was floored to see the listing for Richmond Pace. Richmond did have a couple of nephews who lived in Bell County; William J. Pace (buried in Hillcrest) and James Willis Pace, and a niece, Mary Pace (buried in Hillcrest), all children of Richmond's brother James Dempsey Pace. He also had a couple of grandchildren living there; my great grandfather W. L. Pace (his photo is posted on Pace Pix) and W. L.'s sister Sue Jane (Pace) Pilgrim. These grandchildren were from his first family with wife Harriet; the children of John M. Pace and Nora Delaney McClendon. Son John, a Civil War veteran, died in 1867 back in Mississippi. W. L. and Sue Jane had families of their own, so Richmond had several great-grandchildren as well in the Temple area.

Did 80 year old Richmond Pace go out to Bell County, Texas for a visit, only to fall ill during some Texas blue norther? Or was he out there for another reason? One mystery solved opens a door to another.
Richmond Pace and family are recorded in the book "Pace: Your Family and Mine", page 139 and is mentioned in Bruce Howard's "Our Colonial Ancestors," page 239. The photograph of Richmond Pace's grave was taken
6 August, 2005.

http://www.rootsweb.com/~txbell/cem/hillcrest/

But there is more to this story. Right after I took this photograph a car pulled up several yards away. A couple got out and started to browse through the graveyard. Up until then, I had been alone. This is a large cemetery, and I was in the old section. I waved, they waved back, and I finished taking notes. The man walks up, asks me if I know who's grave this is, and I reply, "Sure. Richmond Pace... he's my great great great grandfather." The man says, "Mine too."

I think I went pretty slack-jawed at that point. He introduces himself, "I'm Jeff Humphrey. I descend from his son John Micajah Pace and.." I interrupt, "Nora Delaney McClendon. Me too." Well, we shake hands and begin to compare notes. Jeff descends from the Sue Jane Pace Pilgrim family. He and his friend came down from Dallas to Waco for a visit and decided to drive to Temple to see this grave on the spur of the moment. He had found it a few years ago. They asked if I was from Temple. "No," I said," I live in Houston. I just decided to come up this weekend to see Richmond's grave. I found it posted on the internet a few days ago." Now we were all pretty amazed. Temple is in central Texas. Houston is near the coast, 185 miles to the south east. Dallas is in north Texas, 130 miles north east of Temple. I had been in this cemetery for thirty minutes, and another great great great grandson of Richmond Pace shows up. Same generation, about the same age, same interest in this family's history. Cue up the music from The Twilight Zone. I'm sure it was just as strange for him to find me there at the very grave he was looking for.

But this was all strange in a very good way, and it was great to meet a cousin I knew nothing about, and stand in front of our ancestor's grave for a moment and share that moment.

Bob Webb : robert.r.webbNOSPM@sbcglobal.net

Richmond Pace, born April 8, 1813, died Dec. 19, 1893 For 60 Years a (consistent) member of the Babtist Church Asleep in Jesus, blessed sleep from which none ever wake to weep.