John C. Charlesworth, of Mesa county, residing on the Mormon mesa in Plateau valley, is a native and a product of the West, born, reared, educated, married and engaged in business in various parts of the country in this section.
He first saw the light of this world in Millard county, Utah, in 1852. He is the son of Thomas and Alice (Barrows) Charlesworth, both natives of England, the father born in London and the mother in Sheffield. At the age of eight years the father went to sea as a cabin boy and the hazardous but infatuating life upon which he had entered held his interest and kept him employed until he was nineteen; and during this period he visited many parts of the globe, and had the opportunity to observe and study mankind under a great variety of circumstances.
In his young manhood he came to the Untied States and settled in Ohio, where he wrought as a brick-maker, a craft at which he had previously acquired some facility. In 1844 he moved to Utah and is now living in Millard county, that state, actively engaged in farming. His wife died there in 1896, at the age of seventy-three. Their offspring numbered twelve, of whom John was the fourth. He was educated in his native county, remaining at home with his parents until he was eighteen, then starting out in life for himself as a farmer there, and this occupation he followed in that neighborhood five years. At the end of that period he went to Arizona, and for six months conducted successfully the operations of a flourishing vineyard; but desiring a different kind of occupation as a farmer, he moved to Idaho, where he followed farming in general and raising stock for three years. His next employment was as a ranch-man and stock-grower in Wyoming, which kept him busy for two years. He then came to Colorado and located on the excellent ranch which he now occupies on Mormon mesa, in Mesa county; and on this property, which he has greatly improved, he has ever since conducted a prosperous and profitable business as a general farmer and stock man. He was married in 1873 to Miss Mary Ann Ferguson and they have thirteen children, Mary E., Francis, John M., Alice, Ellen, Gilbert E., Delroy, William, Leslie E., Lester E., Opal L., Violet and Amy.
Source: Bowen, A. W. Progressive Men of Western Colorado. Chicago: A. W. Bowen & Co., Publishers. 1905.