James M. Pace was the oldest son of Harvey T. Pace, and was a lawyer and business man. He was public-spirited and progressive and was ever ready and willing to do anything that would promote the welfare of the city of Mount Vernon and of the county and state. He was elected to many offices of trust and confidence. He was the first Mayor of the city of Mount Vernon, Illinois, the first County Superintendent of Schools of Jefferson county, which position he held for eight years, having been twice elected to this office, and was Master in Chancery' of this county, Police Magistrate of Mount Vernon, Illinois, and was for about twenty years a member of the Board of Education of Mount Vernon, a portion of the time being its president, and was a member of a board which maintained a seminary here for four years, of which Rev. Thomas H. Herdman, who afterwards was president of McKendree College, at Lebanon, Illinois, was principal. When County Superintendent of Schools he held the first teachers' institute in Jefferson county and was largely instrumental in establishing the graded schools in Mount Vernon He was a charter member of the Knights of Pythias Lodge in Mount Vernon, and was a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He did as much as any other person in securing the building of the first railroad in this county, being now the Louisville & Nashville Railroad. It was strongly opposed and was submitted to a vote of the county. He contributed of his own means and time in assisting to carry the proposition, and did so from no motive whatever except for the general good of the community. He had surveyed at his own expense a railroad route from Mount Vernon to Benton, in Franklin county, which substantially now forms a portion of the Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad. His life was an unselfish one-generous, kind and courteous to all-and he was permitted to live to see these enterprises for which he so faithfully and earnestly labored all consummated demonstrating the correctness of his foresight and judgment, having departed this life July 18, 1907, at the age of eighty years. He named Eleanor C. Vaught, a daughter of Thomas F. Vaught, who was a merchant of Shawneetown, Illinois, and also County Clerk of Gallatin county, Illinois. She, from her kind and gentle manner and disposition, was suitable companion for her husband and they were permitted to round out life's day in this county, whose history they had assisted in making and upon which they had left their impress for the good and elevation of the community in which their lives had been chiefly spent and together they entered life's evening twilight, the portal to perpetual day, she having departed this life February 16, 1907.