USA > Colorado > History of Colorado; Volume II > Part 76
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I Jaton
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Oliver W., who also makes his home in Lincoln; Jesse J., of this review; Elizabeth, Albert G. and Mrs. Anna Laura McReynolds, all of Lincoln; and Chauncey, living in Silver Creek, Nebraska. Mrs. Almeda Maurer made her home at Silver Creek until her deathı on May 10, 1918.
In his youthful days Jesse J. Laton became a pupil in the public schools of Lincoln and after mastering the branches of learning taught in the high school there he came to Colorado and matriculated in the University of Colorado, from which he was gradu- ated in 1902. He had come to this state in 1894 and subsequent to his arrival became con- nected with the Colorado Transfer Company of Cripple Creek, with which he was associ- ated for three years. He then entered the University of Colorado in 1897 and devoted the succeeding five years to the study of law, winning his LL. B. degree as a member of the class of 1902. During the succeeding four years he served as freight and passenger agent with the Erie Railroad Company and the Colorado & Northwestern Railroad Company. He entered upon the practice of law in 1906 and has since devoted his attention to the profession, in which he has displayed marked ability, resulting in notable progress and success. In 1906 he was also called upon for public service, being chosen to represent his district in the lower house of the state legislature, his election coming to him as a can- didate on the republican ticket. He gave thoughtful and earnest consideration to the vital questions which came up for settlement during his connection with the general assembly. In January, 1909, he was appointed assistant district attorney under Willis Elliott and occupied that position for four years. In 1912 he was a candidate for congress but was not elected. He served as secretary of the senate during the twentieth general assembly and he is a well known figure in political and public circles of the state, having exerted considerable influence over public thought and opinion.
Jesse J. Laton was married in Boulder, Colorado, June 26, 1902, to Miss Anna Lee Payne, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. C. H. Payne, who were pioneer residents of Boulder. Mr. and Mrs. Laton have one child, Doris Mary, born in Denver, June 12, 1907, and now a pupil in the public schools of the city.
Throughout his professional career Mr. Laton has held to high ethical standards and enjoys the full confidence and regard of his fellow members of the legal fraternity, with whom he is identified as a member of the Denver City & County Bar Association, the Colorado State Bar Association and the American Bar Association. Fraternally he is connected with the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. His religious faith is indicated by his membership in the Methodist Episcopal church. His life has ever been actuated by high and honorable principles and has been fruitful of good results in many connec- tions. He has in his possession a popular vote of thanks which was tendered him for his invaluable assistance in connection with the enlargement of the university and especially in relation to his efforts for the medical amendment. This document was written at the request of the board of regents of the University of Colorado and signed by the secretary of the board, Frank H. Wolcott. Throughout his life Mr. Laton has been characterized by a progressive spirit that has been manifest in his active cooperation in all movements relating to the material, social, political, intellectual and moral progress of city and state.
SAMUEL FREDERICK DUTTON.
Samuel Frederick Dutton is president of the Albany Hotel Company of Denver and in this connection has become owner and manager of one of the finest hostelries of the west. He has been very successful in his business career rising by hard work and close attention to business from the foot to the top of the ladder. Moreover, his ideas concerning hotel management and conduct have been an inspiration to hotel men throughout the country.
Mr. Dutton was born February 14, 1869, at Sherman, Chautauqua county, New York. His father, Frederick L. Dutton, also born at Sherman in the year 1835, was a descendant of an old Connecticut family of English and Irish ancestry. The family was founded in the new world at a very early period in the colonization of America, settlement being made in Hartford county, Connecticut. Later repre- sentatives of the name removed to New York and afterward to Michigan and other western states. The ancestral line is traced back for many generations in England the Duttons being direct descendants of Oliver Cromwell. The town of Manchester. England, was originally founded by three brothers of the name of Dutton and descendants still claim ownership or title to valuable property at Manchester. The great-great-grandfather of S. F. Dutton was Moses Dutton, who participated in the
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Revolutionary war, and a great-uncle of Samuel F. Dutton took part in the War of 1812 and in the Seminole war. His father, Frederick L. Dutton, was reared and edu- cated in Sherman, New York, and when a youth of seventeen years began learning the blacksmith's trade, which he followed for fifty-two years. In 1904 he removed from Sherman to Denver, Colorado, where he has since lived. He has now retired from business and is enjoying the fruits of a well spent and industrious iife. He was for many years chief of the Sherman Fire Department and was very active in civic matters. On severing his connection with the fire department the citizens of the town presented him with a loving cup in appreciation of his splendid service. His wife bore the maiden name of Mary A. Sixbey and was born in Michigan but belonged to one of the old families of the Empire state of English lineage, early established in western New York. Mrs. Dutton passed away in Denver, Colorado, in 1910 at the age of sixty-eight years. The family numbered three sons, of whom Herman Charles, the eldest, is now deceased. The youngest is Frank R. Dutton, associated with his brother in the management of the Albany Hotel.
The second son was Samuel F. Dutton, who pursued his education in the Sherman Academy at Sherman, New York, and at the age of fifteen years started out to provide for his own support. He was first employed at selling newspapers, handling the Buffalo Times, and he has the distinction of selling the very first issue of that paper in Sherman, New York. From his earliest youth, however he was interested in hotels, the activities of the hotel lobby having an irresistible attrac- tion for him. Obtaining his father's consent, he became a bellboy in the Grand Hotel at Point Chautauqua, New York, and from that minor position worked his way up through all branches of hotel service, acting as porter, cook, etc. He next went to the Crescent Hotel at Eureka Springs, Arkansas, where he was employed as storekeeper, and remained there for several years. During the World's Colum- bian Exposition in Chicago he was connected with the Clifton House of that city and later went to Montgomery, West Virginia, as manager of the Montgomery Hotel. In the winter of 1894 and 1895 he removed to Denver, where he became storekeeper for the Albany Hotel, and from this position advanced to that of steward, eventually became assistant manager and afterward manager. In 1904 he organized and incorporated the Albany Hotel Company, was elected its president and has since been in that position. He is today one of the well known hotel men of the country. In 1898 he had acted as manager of the National Hotel at Peoria, Illinois. From 1899 until 1903 he was superintendent of the Harvey system of eating houses. All these various positions brought him wide experience and from each experience he learned the lessons therein contained. When he took over the Albany Hotel it con- tained one hundred and twenty rooms. It now has three hundred and sixty rooms, the improvements made amounting to about seven hundred and fifty thousand dol- lars. Regardless of the expense incurred, many improvements have been made in The Albany and few hotels are superior in service and appointments. In fact, The Albany has the reputation of being one of the best equipped hotels in the country, affording all modern conveniences to the traveling public. Its location is an admi- rable one in the center of the business district of the city and of its three hundred and sixty rooms, three hundred are supplied with bath and there is every modern convenience. Mr. Dutton has been prominently identified with various associa- tions that have been organized by hotel men. For three years, beginning in 1896, he was president of the Rocky Mountain Hotel Men's Association and in 1907 entered upon a two years' term as president of the Denver Hotel Association, while in 1909 he was chosen to the presidency of the Western Hotel Men's Protective Asso- ciation. In 1910 he aided in organizing the American Hotel Men's Protective Association, of which he served as president for the first two years. This association has offices in Chicago, New York, Denver, San Francisco, and Atlanta, Georgia. Its purpose is to warn hotel proprietors against deadbeats and crooks and to apprehend and convict such men and it has already accomplished effective work, protecting the leading hotels of the country against those who would evade paying their bills. For ten years he served as the vice president of the Hotel Men's Mutual Benefit Association. He has closely studied hotel conditions and has done much for the benefit of those engaged in the business through his efforts in these different organi- zations.
On the 10th of May, 1893, in Chicago, Mr. Dutton was married to Miss Jessie Breese, a native of Sarnia, Canada, and to them have been born two daughters, Eva Alice and Winifred Wilson. Mr. Dutton finds his chief diversion in mountain climbing and outdoor life. He is also well known in club and fraternal circles of the city. He belongs to Elks Lodge, No. 17, of Denver and he has membership in
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the Denver, Lakewood Country, Rotary and Ad Clubs and in the Civic and Commer- cial Association. He is a director of the Tourists Bureau and for years was a director of the Chamber of Commerce of Denver. Mr. Dutton figures as one of Colorado's prominent citizens. He is actuated by marked devotion to matters of civic welfare and generously aids any movement or project for the upbuilding of Denver, his state, or the west. As a member of the Chamber of Commerce he has done effective work in advancing city welfare and as a director of the Denver Con- vention League he gave valuable aid and assistance in securing national meetings and conventions for Denver. He has a very extensive acquaintance among men of prominence throughout the country and is thus able to exert marked influence in connection with public-spirited activities. He is himself very liberal and generous, is always affable, and his many sterling traits of character as displayed in busi- ness and social life have gained for him the highest regard of those with whom he has been brought in contact.
H. W. GRIFFITH, D. D. S.
Dr. H. W. Griffith, successfully practicing in Ault, was born in Appleton City, Missouri, March 10, 1890, a son of J. L. and Elizabeth L. (Jefferies) Griffith, the former a native of Pennsylvania, while the latter was born in Illinois. The father is a salesman and for the past ten years has resided at Payette, Idaho.
Dr. Griffith was reared and educated in his native city and in Aberdeen, South Dakota, where he attended high school, while for a time he was also a high school pupil in Payette, Idaho. He then took up the study of telegraphy, at which he worked for nine months and at the end of that time turned his attention to mer- cantile pursuits, in which he was active for five years. He next entered the Uni- versity of Denver, where he took up the study of dentistry and was graduated with the class of 1917. He then opened an office in Ault, where he has since practiced, being the only dentist of the city. He is accorded a liberal patronage and his pronounced skill and ability enables him to handle in a most efficient manner the work that comes to him. He has the mechanical skill and ingenuity so necessary for successful dental practice, combined with a comprehensive knowledge of the scientific principles which underlie his work. His office is well equipped with the latest devices and accessories and the steady growth of his business indicates the in- creased confidence of the public in his powers.
On the 25th of December, 1914, Dr. Griffith was married to Miss Ruth Wright and they have one child, Calvin. Fraternally Dr. Griffith is an Odd Fellow and is serving as financial secretary of his lodge. He also has membership with the Modern Woodmen of America. His political allegiance is given to the republican party. Along strictly professional lines he has connection with the Colorado State Dental Association, the American Dental Association and the United States of America Preparedness League of American Dentists. He is a young man of marked energy, of laudable ambition and of highly developed powers. Anxious to win success, he does not let business, however, monopolize his entire time and thought but finds opportunity to aid and cooperate in measures for the general good and stands for all those interests which are most worth while as factors in good citizenship.
BOSWELL PRESTON ANDERSON, M. D.
Dr. Boswell Preston Anderson, who enjoys the distinction of having been the first physician to practice in Colorado Springs and is now the oldest doctor in years of practice in the state of Colorado, was for many years engaged in the general practice of medicine and surgery but has now largely retired from professional cares although he still acts as the physician for the State Deaf & Blind Institute, which position he has held since the inception of this institution in 1874. Moreover, Dr. Anderson was the founder of the Glockner Sanitarium and also the St. Francis Hospital. For forty-five years he has been a resident of Colorado Springs and is not only highly honored by the profession and the general public here but is known throughout the state as one of the preeminent men in his line of occupation. His experiences encompass the periods from the primitive be- ginning of medical practice in this state to the present-day high development, and there- fore there are included in his life's work many interesting experiences.
DR. BOSWELL P. ANDERSON
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Virginia numbers Dr. Anderson among her native sons, his birth having occurred in Charlottesville, August 13, 1847, and he has therefore passed his seventy-first birthday. After having completed his rudimentary and preparatory education he decided upon the practice of medicine as a life work and in preparation therefor entered the University of Virginia, from which he was graduated with the class of 1868. Previous to this, how- ever, he had served in the Confederate army, having seen active duty in Mosby's command, which he had joined in August, 1863, and with which he continued until the end of the war, making a creditable military record by his valor and loyalty to the cause which he espoused. In 1869 he arrived in Colorado and has since made his home within the borders of this state. At that time he took up his abode in Denver, then a small frontier town whose rapid growth could hardly be foreseen, and there he established his principal home, although he traveled at various periods through different parts of the state largely for the benefit of his health. In 1872 he removed to Colorado Springs and this city has since remained the field of his medical activity as well as his home. He began the practice of medicine in 1874 and for many years devoted his time and energies to general practice but also held official positions in connection with his profession, as indicated above, and also was for the first ten years of the existence of the Colorado Midland Railroad chief surgeon for that corporation. There is great credit due him for his incessant endeavors in order to establish the Glockner Sanitarium and the St. Francis Hospital, both institu- tions having proven of great benefit to the people of Colorado as well as to many who have found relief there, coming from all parts of the country. The State Deaf & Blind Institute, in which he has always taken the greatest interest, has much benefited by his labors and many remarkable cures are accredited to him in this connection. For over forty-five years he has been connected with the state institution.
Dr. Anderson was married in St. Louis, Missouri, in January, 1879, to Miss Sarah D. Durkee and they became the parents of the following children: Laura, the wife of John Dallett, of New York; Margaret Preston, the wife of Samuel Pierce, of Boston, Massa- chusetts; and Eleanor, at home.
Dr. Anderson has ever maintained the highest professional standards and has pur- sued his course in thorough accord with the rigorous ethics established by the profession. He has ever taken a deep interest in medical organizations, thoroughly appreciating the value and benefit of institutions of this kind. He is a member of the El Paso County Medical Society and also has belonged for many years to the Colorado State Medical Society, of which he served as president, his election to the office being ample proof of his high standing among his colleagues. Fraternally he is a member of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, and at the El Paso Country Club he frequently passes a pleasant hour in the open. The weal and progress of his community have ever been close to his heart and he has readily given of his means, time and effort in order to promote public measures of value in Colorado Springs. He is deeply interested in historical matters, particularly as regards the records and lore of the southland and especially the state of Virginia, and is a life member of the Virginia Historical Society. Since this country has entered upon the great war for democracy he has ably assisted in promoting valuable government measures and has given the most convincing proof of his thorough American patriotism by upholding all campaigns and drives which have been instituted by the administration in order to firmly establish the principles and ideals of democracy upon the face of this earth.
HON. CHARLES H. LECKENBY.
Colorado has been signally favored on the whole by the class of men who have occupied her public positions, for they have been capable and loyal to the trust reposed in them and have earnestly endeavored to further those interests which are of value to the commonwealth. Enjoying the well deserved trust and confidence of his fellow citizens, Charles H. Leckenby has been called to the position of auditor of state and is now serving in that capacity, while for a long period he has been a recognized leader in democratic circles. He is also well known as the proprietor and editor of the Steamboat. Pilot, published at Steamboat Springs, Colorado.
A native son of Nebraska, he was born in Alda on the 5th of November, 1872, his parents being Albert J. and Aminda (Cobb) Leckenby. The father was born in Allegan county, Michigan, while the mother's birth occurred in Barry county, that state. In young manhood Albert J. Leckenby enlisted for service in the Civil war as a member of the Second Missouri Cavalry and was with the army through-
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out the entire period of hostilities. He served with honor and credit and rose to the rank of non-commissioned officer. After the close of the war he removed west- ward to Nebraska, settling near Alda, where he resided until 1884, when he took his family to Alabama, where he engaged in agricultural pursuits, operating a plantation there until 1888. In that year he came to Colorado and is still living at Steamboat Springs at the advanced age of eighty-two years. His wife also survives. To them were born six children-all sons.
Charles H. Leckenby, who was the third in order of birth, attended the public schools of Alda, Nebraska, and afterward started out in the business world as an employe in a newspaper office, holding the position of printer's devil. He worked his way upward through the various branches of the business until he had thoroughly learned the printer's trade in principle and detail and had become acquainted with every phase of the newspaper business. He finally purchased the paper on which he had been first employed, known as the Steamboat Pilot, published at Steam- boat Springs, Colorado. This he still owns and edits and has made it a most creditable journal of general interest by reason of its free discussion of vital questions and its clear presentation of news items. While residing at Steamboat Springs, Mr. Leckenby was elected mayor of the city and served in that position for several terms, his administration being characterized by much that was beneficial to the city. He sought at all times to further public progress and improvement and his work in that direction was of great worth. He has also been called to various other public positions, having been appointed clerk of the district court, in which capacity he served for eight years. He served as secretary of the senate in 1912 and 1913. He has likewise been secretary of the state democratic central committee and has done everything in his power to advance the interests of his party and insure its legitimate success. In 1916 he was chosen for the office of state auditor, in which position he is now most capably serving.
On the 3d of August, 1898, Mr. Leckenhy was married to Miss Laura De Witt at Leadville, Colorado, a daughter of Samuel H. and Nettie De Witt, who are now residents of Anaheim, California. Mr. and Mrs. Leckenby have four children: Marian, who was born at Steamboat Springs and is a graduate of the high school; Maurice, who was also born at Steamboat Springs and is a high school graduate; Albert, whose birth occurred in the same place and who is now attending school in Denver; and Betty Ann, who was born in 1915.
Mr. Leckenby is a Master Mason, a member of Elk Mountain Lodge, No. 139, at Steamboat Springs, and is identified with the Woodmen of the World. His political allegiance is given to the democratic party and it has been through that field of activity that he has become widely known throughout the state. He occupies an enviable position in journalistic circles and he has discussed through the columns of his paper and from the platform many of the vital questions and issues of the day, his clear utterances and logical reasoning doing much to influence his auditors. His religious faith is that of the Christian Science church.
WALTER H. HAMILTON.
Walter H. Hamilton is a native son of Huerfano county and is now filling the office of county commissioner, in which connection he is putting forth earnest and effective effort to advance public welfare and promote the interests of the com- munity which he represents. He was born near La Veta on the 9th of October, 1876, and is a son of James G. and Annie E. (Sager) Hamilton. The father was a well known stockman and was one of the first settlers in Huerfano county, where he took up his abode in 1867. He, too, served at one time as county commissioner, filling the office eighteen years ago, and he made a most excellent record in that position. He was always prominent in public affairs, cooperating heartily in plans and movements for the general good. He was also a successful business man, wisely and carefully directing his interests, so that prosperity in substantial degree came to him. The family were among the pioneers here and Mr. Hamilton con- tinued a valued resident of the community until his death, which occurred on the 6th of June, 1918. His wife has also passed away.
Walter H. Hamilton was the fourth in order of birth in their family of eight children. The public schools afforded him his educational privileges and after attending the local schools he continued his studies in the public schools of Pueblo, where he pursued a high school course. Later he became the active assistant of
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his father in stock raising and has continued in the business. He is well known as one of the prominent cattlemen of his section of the state and has fifteen hundred acres of land. He has brought his ranch under a high state of cultivation and improvement. There is a large cultivated area, with grazing land as well, and upon the place are substantial improvements indicative of the progressive spirit of the owner. Mr. Hamilton and his father were pioneers in the raising of Hereford stock in this section and have always handled cattle of high grade.
In January, 1898, Mr. Hamilton was united in marriage to Miss Effie Carver. They are well known in the community, having an extensive circle of friends in La Veta and in other sections of the county. In his political views Mr. Hamilton is a democrat and upon the party ticket was elected in 1916 to the office of county commissioner for a four years' term. He is making an excellent record by the hearty cooperation which he gives to well defined plans and measures for the general good. He is fond of outdoor life and is deeply interested in the welfare of the state and its development. As a business man and citizen he is widely and favorably known and he stands as a high type of American manhood and chivalry.
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