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| LeFevre, Owen E. Owen E. LeFevre Owen E. LeFevre, recently one of the Judges of Our District Court, is a native of Ohio. He was born August 6, 1848, in the village of Little York, Montgomery County, of that State. From the district school in Little York, and the graded schools of Dayton, he entered the preparatory department of Antioch (Ohio) College. He was there a student until May 4, 1861, when the 154th Regiment Ohio Volunteers was organized. Though but a boy, he enlisted in that regiment and shared its fortunes until it was mustered out of service in the autumn of that year. In 1868, Judge LeFevre entered the Junior year in the University of Michigan where he graduated in the classical course with honors in June, 1870. He was engaged during the ensuing two years in teaching school, devoting his available time to study of the law. In 1872 he was admitted to practice by the Supreme Court of Ohio; he then entered the law office of John A McMahon and George W. Houck, two noted Ohio lawyers at Dayton, and remained with them until the summer of 1873, when he came to Denver and immediately began the practice of his profession. Judge LeFevre established his home in the then suburban town of Highlands, now a beautiful division of Denver. In 1875 he was elected Attorney for Highlands, and re-elected in 1876. In 1885 he was chosen its Mayor, and at the close of his term received the indorsement [sic.] of a re-election to that position. He was next called to the office of Attorney for Arapahoe county by the County Commissioners. He received the merited indorsement [sic.] of a re-election, and to this was added a second re-election, making three terms of diligent service in that important and arduous position. In 1892 he was elected Judge of the County Court, on the Republican ticket. It was in that year that the political upheaval occurred which placed the entire State administration in the hands of the Populists under Governor Waite. Nevertheless, Judge LeFevre was elected by a large plurality. In 1894, before the expiration of his term on the county bench, he was elected one of the Judges of the Second Judicial District--Arapahoe county. Our Courts are rarely confronted by a dearth of business, and therefore our judges are, of necessity, busy, hard-working men. During his service on the county bench, Judge LeFevre so systematized the order of things in the Court by his energetic, effective disposition of its business, as to relieve it of its crowded and often congested condition, and introduce an innovation in its history. On the higher bench, as on the lower, his record was that of an able, impartial jurist of unimpeachable integrity--"a just Judge" in the endless and intricate controversies of his fellow-men. In politics Judge LeFevre is a consistent, steadfast, conservative Republican. He is a believer in his party and its principles, was long one of its capable and successful leaders, and is still one of its safe and trusted advisers. Upon his retirement from the District bench in January, 1901, he resumed practice of his profession. Judge LeFevre married Miss Eva French, of Troy, Ohio, June 28, 1871, the day on which she was graduated from the Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware in that State. They have one child, a daughter, born in 1884. They continued their residence in Highlands until 1896 when they occupied their present fine home at 1311 York street. It is adorned with what is perhaps the most choice collection of modern French paintings in Colorado, and is a center of art, literature and music. Judge LeFevre is a lover of books, and his home library, in which he has gratified his inclinations, is one of the best in the city of Denver. History of Denver, with Outlines of the Earlier History of the Rocky Mountain Country, Jerome C. Smiley, editor, (c) 1901, p. ___ |
| Lindsey, Benjamin Barr Benjamin Barr
Lindsey
Benjamin Barr Lindsey, County Judge for Arapahoe county, was born in Jackson, Tenn., November 25, 1869; the son of L.T. and Letitia (Barr) Lindsey. His father located in Denver in 1878, the family following about a year later. When twelve years of age he was sent to Notre Dame University near south Bend, Ind., where he remained two years, and where, at the age of thirteen, he had won a gold medal for superiority in public speaking. In 1884 he went thence to his birth-place, lived on his grandfather’s farm, and attended the Southwestern University at Jackson. There he won a second gold medal for superiority in public speaking; all the other contestants having been his seniors by from five to eight years. In 1887, when seventeen years old, the business reverses and ill-health of his father required him to leave the University and return to Denver where, soon after, his father died. Having been the elder of four children, though yet a mere boy, the burden of responsibility for and support of the family then devolved upon him. Notwithstanding this termination of his University course, Judge Lindsey, having resolved to fulfill his intention to become a lawyer, entered the law office of Hon. R. D. Thompson in the capacity of office-boy, and devoted all his spare time to the study of law. His earnings during that period were increased by employment in the mornings as a route carrier of newspapers for one of the Denver dailies, and in the evenings at janitor work in one of the large office buildings. With the help of a younger brother aged fifteen, the family was thus provided for and he was enabled to prepare for admission to the Bar. Immediately after his admission in 1893, Judge Lindsey engaged in practice of his profession. In 1896 he formed a partnership with Senator Fred W. Parks, under the firm name of Lindsey & Parks, and which soon became prominent among the law partnerships of younger members of the County Bar. This relation successfully continued until, in January, 1901, Judge Lindsey was appointed County Judge for Arapahoe county, to succeed Hon. R.W. Steele, who had resigned in consequence of his election in the preceding November to the Supreme Court of the State. A Democrat in politics, Judge Lindsey became influential in the councils of his party in 1899, and soon won recognition of his merits. In that year Governor Thomas appointed him Public Administrator, a position he relinquished to accept the higher honor conferred by his party when he was appointed to the County Bench - generally regarded as the most important nisi prius Court in the State. In the Democratic convention in the autumn of 1900, and that consisted of over 800 delegates, he had, though but thirty years of age, come within fifteen votes of being nominated as a candidate for District Judge. Judge Lindsey is now the youngest Judge in the State of Colorado. Unmarried, he resides with his mother and a younger brother, upon whom he continues to bestow the care and solicitude that have been his since boyhood. History of Denver, with Outlines of the Earlier History of the Rocky Mountain Country, Jerome C. Smiley, editor, (c) 1901, p. 538 |
| Loveland, Francis W. Francis W. Loveland
Francis W. Loveland, son of
W. A. H. Loveland, was born at Brighton, Ills., July 24, 1859. With his
father’s family he came to Colorado in 1860, has resided in the State
since that time, and for ten or twelve years has been a citizen and
business man of Denver. Educated at Michigan University, he entered the
law department of the University of Denver in which he was graduated.
He was then admitted to the Colorado Bar but has never engaged in
practice; having studied law for the advantages it would give him in his
business affairs. History of Denver, with Outlines of the Earlier History of the Rocky Mountain Country, Jerome C. Smiley, editor, (c) 1901, p. 898 |