Charles returned from the West and, in 1907, in answer to an advertisement, was accepted as herdsman at a large dairy farm in Wawa, Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia. He was put in charge of 500 head of cattle which had been imported from the Isle of Guernsey. Very happy in the land of his forefathers, he later became state dairy inspector and resided in Wawa until his death in April, 1953. In 1935 I accompanied him to his home presumably for a vacation. As I took my first trip down the beautiful Susquehanna Trail into the fertile fields of Lancaster, Oxford and Delaware counties, I was thrilled again and again with the kinship of that part of Pennsylvania to our own beautiful Waterloo County. I could almost feel the challenge the northward journey must have presented to those first early settlers as they saw the possibility of clearing and developing a new land so like their own had once been. Thus it did not seem strange that my vacation should become a three-year sojourn in a land which became very dear to me as I found myself happy and contented in a way of life so similar to that of my own home. Many times since then I have travelled the Susquehanna Trail, never tiring of its beauty and always feeling strongly the link between the past and the present and its relation to my own life.

Mrs. Ophelia Rife A Warm And Tender Tribute By Carol Dunnett, Forty-Fourth [1956] Annual Report Of The Waterloo Historical Society

_______________

Charles Rife

HESPELER - Charles H. Rife died yesterday at his home at Wawa, Pa. Mr. Rife was born in Hespeler, a son of Mrs. Orphelia Rife and the late David Rife. For the past 46 years he has lived in Wawa. Surviving are his wife; his mother, Mrs. O. Rife; two sisters, Misses Margaret and Walker Rife, Hespeler; three brothers, Lester of Orinda, Calif., David of Edmonton and William of Galt. The funeral will be held Friday in Wawa

Kitchener-Waterloo Record 8 Apr 1953