A. R. Mollette

Among the progressive lawyers of this state none is more universally esteemed than A. R. Mollette, of Alamosa, the county attorney of Archuleta county, who was born on March 31, 1868. in Wisconsin, the son of Jacob S. and Annie (Grandaw) Mollette. who lived for a time in Misouri but made their home finally in Denver. Colorado, coming to this state in 1879. Their marriage occurred on May T. 1867. in Wisconsin. The father was a native of Pennsylvania, and by trade a wagonmaker and millwright. In his younger manhood he was a Democrat, but the Civil war made him a Republican. For that memorable contest he enlisted in Company F, Thirty-second Wisconsin Infantry, and served to the close of the war. He was the father of six children, five of whom are living. A. R., George, Edward, Mrs. E. C. Schutt and Emily, the last named living in Nebraska, the others in this state.
A. R. Mollette is a self-educated man, earning by hard labor in the mines the money wherewith to pay his expenses at school and through the law department of the Denver University, from which he was graduated with honors and the degree of Bachelor of Laws. For a time after his admission to the bar he practiced in Denver, and later was associated in practice with Ben Wade Ritter, of Durango. the foremost lawyer in southwestern Colorado, then moved to Pagosa Springs, Archuleta county, where he resided until June 1, 1904, when he removed to Alamosa. He has a large general practice and has been connected with some of the most important mining cases in the state, among them the late suit of Sadie C. Smith against the Commodore Mining Company, of Creede. involving seventy-five thousand dollars damages, and in which he was counsel with Wolcott, Vaile & Waterman, of Denver. He is local attorney for the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad and also for the Pagosa Lumber Company in Archuleta county. For two years he was connected with the office of George D. Johnstone, district attomey for the ninth judicial district, at Aspen, and made a good reputation in all his official transactions. He has one of the largest law libraries and best appointed offices in the San Luis valley, and in all his forensic efforts shows that he has it for use and uses it. In 1902 he was appointed county attorney for Archuleta county, and to this office he has been twice appointed since, the last time after his removal from that county, which speaks well for his administration of that office. He was also city attorney of Pagosa Springs for two years. Fraternally he is a Mason of the Knights Templar degree and a Shriner, and politically an ardent Republican. On May 13, 1891, in Denver, he was married to Miss Rose M. Graham, a native of Illinois reared in Kansas. They have two children, their daughter Netta M. and their son Wallace G.

A. R. MOLLETTE.