L. M. Pace, a prominent hardware merchant of Whitewater, was a pioneer railroad agent of Kansas. Mr. Pace was born in Weldon, Ill., June 16, 1858, and is a son of Robert A. and Isabelle (Mason) Pace, both natives of Cumberland county, Kentucky. Robert Pace was a son of John and Lucy (Alexander) Pace, natives of Henry county, Virginia. The Pace family are of old Virginia stock, and was founded in the colony of Virginia in 1665, and is of English origin. John Pace was the founder of the Pace family in Virginia, and so far as known, all members of the Pace family in America are descendants from him. John Pace, Jr., son of John Pace, the founder of the family in this country, was employed in the early days in Virginia as an overseer of slaves on a plantation. Three of the descendants of John Pace served in the Revolutionary war.

L. M. Pace, the subject of this sketch, first came to Butler county in charge of the commissary during the construction of the Missouri Pacific railroad, which was built through Towanda, and he was the first station agent at that place. Towanda was a little frontier town at that time and an Indian trading post had been located there for a number of years, conducted by J. R. Meade. Mr. Pace was agent at Towanda for three years, when he went to Peabody and entered the employ of the Rock Island railroad as station agent, and remained there three years, and in 1892 came to Whitewater as station agent for the Rock Island road. He remained in the employ of that road until 1899, when he engaged in the hardware business at Whitewater in partner-

ship with C. B. Dein. Ten years later Mr. Pace purchased his partner's interest in the hardware business, and conducted it at the old stand until 1913, when he moved his stock into the building formerly occupied by the Neiman Hardware Company. His son, Walter R. Pace, is now associated with him in business, and Mr. Pace has succeeded in shifting most of the detailed management of the business to the junior member of the firm. The Pace hardware store carries one of the best stocks of general hardware to be found in the county, and they are also extensive dealers in all kinds of farming implements and machinery.

Mr. Pace was married at Towanda, Kans., October 12, 1887, to Miss Florence Wait, a daughter of Clark and Hannah (Putnam) Wait, natives of New York, and early settlers of Towanda, Kans. The Putnam branch of the family traces its ancestry back to Gen. Israel Putnam of Revolutionary fame. Clark Wait died in 1903, and his wife preceded him in death a number of years, she having passed away in 1875.

To Mr. and Mrs. Pace have been born one child, Walter, born in 1893, Enterprise, Dickenson[sic] county, Kansas. Walter was only three years old when the family came to Whitewater, so for all practical purposes, Whitewater is his native town. He was educated in the public schools of Whitewater, including the Whitewater High School, after which he took a course in a Wichita business college, when he entered the hardware business at Whitewater with his father, as above stated.

L. M. Pace is a member of the Masonic lodge, the Modern Woodmen of America, and his political affiliations are with the Democratic party.

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