 Bill Axton in his high school yearbook photo, Denver, CO Updated: Jan 31 Today's story takes us back in time, but not too far. I want to tell you about William "Bill" Leroy Axton and the unsolved(?) burglary at gunpoint in Gilpin County, Colorado that involved a tavern owner who happened to also be the county treasurer. Bill was born Feb. 27, 1923 in Pueblo, CO to Guy and Edith Electa (Carr) Axton. This makes him my 1st cousin twice removed. He was the second of four children. Guy built some of the roads in Colorado that are pretty impressive engineering feats. For instance, the road that goes from Gunnison to Crested Butte and Cimarron Pass to Montrose, CO. His dad had built roads before him and he started helping when he was only 9 years old. Their big road building company started in Pueblo then moved/expanded to Denver and up to Cheyenne. 3 generations of Axtons built a lot of the roads in the state. In an effort to not white-wash our history, I want to also point out that they were not building these roads all alone. I have in my notes that Guy had said "200 miles, 200 negroes." Engineer corps and road crews were segregated even though they were working on the same road. It was dangerous work and deaths were not uncommon, especially over those mountain passes. Bill's mother, Edith Electa (Carr) Axton, was the daughter of Bessie May (Moore) Carr and the oldest of 9 children (though 3 died as babies). She was also the only one with a different father though we don't think her or the other kids knew that growing up. Her birth father was a man from Pueblo with the last name of Bigelow. He and Bessie divorced soon after marrying and Electa was still really young with Besssie married her second husband, Thomas J. Carr. There was no official adoption as no paperwork was really necessary at that time. She just took the Carr last name and that was that. But let's get back to Bill. He enlisted in the Army in 1943 when he was 20 years old to fight in World War II. He served in the Infantry and about 8 months after enlisting was injured in battle from an artillery shell. (This may have been while he was on a ship that was hit by a torpedo by a German ship. Later Bill hired a chef that he eventually learned had been on the German ship that had his his own.) He damaged his lower leg and had nerve damage and paralysis from what sounds like the knee down. Bill was discharged due to his injury and was awarded a Purple Heart. He went on to study music and graduated from the University of Denver's Lamont School of Music as a singer. I want you to remember that Bill Axton was a professional trained opera singer as we go through this story because it makes it all the more wild! In addition to singing with the Central City Chorus, he also sang at a couple of the taverns in town including the Glory Hole. The Glory Hole Tavern was owned and operated by Emmy Wilson who was herself a singer. She has a fascinating story too, but I'll just share this link with you if you want to read more about her and the Glory Hole. When she got sick and had to sell the tavern, she sold it to her friend, our Bill Axton.  The back room of the Glory Hole Tavern from a 1959 postcard. Bill Axton owned the tavern at this time and had really "spiffed up" the place. Owning a tavern must really help you to get to know the people around town, because Bill was appointed (and later elected to) County Treasurer. Of course, it helped that he'd also worked in banks and the U.S. Mint in Denver.
Gilpin County in 1967 was not a highly populated place, Black Hawk and Central City being the largest towns there. The 1970 census shows only 1272 people for the entire county (it's almost three times that today). As such, they didn't have any banks, so the county treasurer's office would frequently cash checks for folks. This meant that they kept more cash in their vault than one might expect for such a small population. On the morning of January 20, 1967, Bill Axton was in the vault counting the money as he often had to do. He usually had his German Shepard with him, but today he'd left him at home. He later said that had he had his dog with him, none of the next events would have ever happened. Bill said that two men with guns came into the vault and one of them pointed a gun at him and told him to put his hands up. Bill did so while he stood up. They punched him in the stomach and hit him over the head with the gun knocking him unconscious. He said he didn't recognize the men, but they looked to be in their 30's and wore blue jeans. Not a lot to go off of. The county clerk found Bill's glasses on the floor of the office when he came in to work that morning. The vault, which had two doors - an interior and an exterior one - and could not be locked from the inside, was closed up and locked. The county clerk and deputy treasurer opened the door and found Bill still unconscious. His feet and hands had been tied with an extension cord that had likely been in the office prior. He was gagged with his own handkerchief. Police didn't know who to look for. In a town so small, we can assume that Bill would have recognized at least one of the men had they been local. Apparently no one had seen anything suspicious. It was assumed the two had skipped town. Four days later, Axton was found in his apartment with a bullet in his chest. He had attempted suicide, but the bullet had missed his heart and his dog had alerted a passerby when he was acting strangely outside. He was taken to a hospital in Denver and survived the attempt. But why had he tried to take his own life? Police said it was because he had actually staged the robbery himself and from that moment Bill Axton became the prime suspect. Bill did admit to knowing more than he'd originally said. He knew the first names of people who were trying to blackmail him. I'm still not sure exactly what they were blackmailing him for, but he said that four months prior to the robbery, he'd paid $3000 of his own money and $15,000 from Gilpin County's funds over the next couple of months to pay off these blackmailers. He had told them that a routine audit of the books would be happening soon which then led to the gunpoint robbery where they got another $12,000. Bill Axton was charged with embezzlement and pled no contest. Although the county money was already paid back through insurance, he also agreed to reimburse Gilpin county. He also had to agree to sell the Glory Hole. He avoided jail time and received only probation (5 years) due his lack of a record, his war service, his background in music, and his previous employment positions. (Note: While researching this story, I also found that a couple years prior to this, he had refused to pay certain taxes for the Glory Hole as he felt the laws written for the collection of those taxes exempted his establishment. His case went to the Colorado Supreme Court. He didn't win the case there, but it was sent back to lower courts and I'm not sure what the final outcome was.) All in all, someone or some group got away with $27,001.25 from Gilpin County, and if Bill Axton is to be believed, another $3,000 from him personally. That would be worth over $250,000 today. Police believe they caught and charged at least one of the men responsible, but for the remainder of his life, Bill swears that he did not take that money. He says that he was framed because he had rooted out corruption in the treasurer's office and someone didn't want that getting out. For the rest of his life, he had a scar on his forehead from where the gun had hit him. William Leroy "Bill" Axton passed away at the age of 81 on July 24, 2004. If he didn't stage a robbery, who got away with this crime? Afterword: Although 1967 wasn't all that long ago in the scheme of things, no one in our family that I'd talked to about this knew about it. Maybe they just weren't quite old enough, or maybe folks just didn't talk about it. (Waiting to hear back on my grandad about it.) I actually learned of this story in a recent post/article in the Weekly Register-Call. It was written by David Forsyth. You can read that article here.
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I wanted to share another one of my favorite photos with you. This one is of my great-great grandfather, Albert A. Kidder.  In the late 1930s he had a shoe shop where he did repairs at 105 S Fremont Ave. in Los Angeles, CA - which no longer exists now due to lots of new (i.e. since the 1940s!) buildings as well as the construction of the I-110. He lived about 4 miles away at 1627 W. Adams Blvd. - a road that does still exist although the building does not. It may have been an apartment building as his wife, Grace, was managing one at the time. Perhaps a wise reader knows? There is more we know about Albert, but one thing we cannot say for sure is what the A. in this middle name stood for. Even his children could not agree! My great-aunt Lovie (his daughter, Celesta) swore his middle name was ALBERT. My great-grandfather, Aunt Lovie's brother, insisted that it was ADALBERT. I have not yet been able to find any documented evidence from when he was alive of him using more than just "A." His death certificate says "Albert" but that's a form that a family member would have filed on his behalf once he had departed. Unless someone can show me some proof, this one may just remain a mystery! P.S. For fun, I colorized the original photo. Enjoy!  I wanted to share one of my favorite older family photos. This one is for my Hasstedt/McGinnis family, though you may well have seen this photo before.  John Luther McGinnis and Julia Margaret Hasstedt are here with their five oldest children. In the back is my great grandmother, Grace Edith McGinnis. The four boys are Grant, Loyd, Virgil, and Martin. Julia may well have been pregnant with the next child - there would eventually be nine!
At the time of this picture they lived in Sheridan County, Kansas near Grainfield. Julia's parents, Jacob Hasstedt and Julia Katherine Henning were both immigrants from Germany. They spoke both German and English in their household, but the younger Julia only spoke English with her children. In fact, I was told a story about how Julia's brother, Rudolph (Rudy) would often speak in German with Grace and teasingly rib her for not understanding it. I just love Julia's Edwardian pompadour. And Grace's careful ringlet curls. And Virgil's baby blond curls. It may be difficult to tell here, but John has blue eyes and was tall - according to his 1918 draft card. He worked as a mechanic for a time but eventually took a position as janitor at the Ordway School. He was apparently much beloved. In addition to printed photos of various ages, my collection includes some negatives. I found a small bag of medium format negatives that I have not seen printed photos for. Regular flatbed scanners are great for "reflective" materials like printed photos and documents, but they are not meant for scanning negatives or slides. Unless you have a specialized one, which I decided I really needed for this project due to the huge box of slides and several envelopes of negatives I now how. I decided to test out the capabilities of my new scanner with this potentially difficult film, and this is what I got:  William Oaks Coleman, Bessie Martha (Carr) Coleman, and two of their sons - probably Gene and Jim. About 1928. While the photo itself is out of focus, I'm really pleased to have a more-or-less intact negative that is over 90 years old. One of the reasons for this project is to preserve images like this that will certainly be lost to time. Film negatives typically start to break down after about 40 years, depending on the conditions it's stored in. Now let's take a look at the photo itself! I was pretty sure the woman was my great grandmother, Bessie Martha (Carr) Coleman, but I did have to verify this with my mom first. I only ever knew my grandmother when she was older! The happy man next to her is my great grandfather, William Oaks Coleman. He's probably happy because he's standing in front of a very nice car - more on that in a moment. The children, we think, are two of their boys, Gene (Thomas Gene Coleman) and Jim (James Lee Coleman). They were both named after boxers as their dad enjoyed the fights so much. Take a look at grandma's shoes! It was the first thing I noticed about the photo. Her feet were a size 9 in women's, but she would only ever buy size 8 because 9 was considered "big feet." She just got used to stuffing them in, I guess. Now, back to that car. My husband is really good at identifying cars and did some research for me to try to accurately date this photo. He said that it most closely matches a Buick Master between 1925-1929. This would line up well with the ages and birthdays of the kids, especially if you know that W.O. Coleman had a thing for fancy cars and like to drive them fast. Gene was born in 1926 and Jim came along just a couple years later in 1929. My mom and I are pretty sure the age gap between the two kids in the photo fits that well while the other brothers' age gaps just don't fit. Where was their oldest brother Stanley, then? Maybe he was off playing with the other 8-10 year old kids and just couldn't be bothered for a photo? Another fun thing to do with black and white photos is to run them through a colorizer. These computer programs use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to turn the original photo into a color one. I did that for this one just out of curiosity. They're not 100% right all the time and it really depends on which program you use. For instance, the first time I did this, the outfit on the youngest child was pink. This one looks more blue. (In either case, the colors weren't gendered as they are today until about the 1940's so it's not a good indicator when you're trying to identify people in photos this old!)  I wanted to provide an update for my Kidder family out there. First, a little background. John T. Barrick was born in 1808 in Virginia. For some reason, he spent much of his impressionable youth living with his aunt in Ohio instead of his parents, Russell M. Barrick, Sr. (1777-1862) and Mary Timberlake (b. 1784) who lived in Kentucky. His aunt raised him with Quaker ideals, so when he returned to his father's home and was given the plantation, he refused. He could not accept a gift which included slaves, so he returned to Ohio and became a carpenter and joiner.  James T. Barrick, founder of Janesville, Iowa Around 1840 he moved to Iowa and began a habit of opening up new saw mills wherever he went. The third one he built was in Bremer County, IA which was the first mill in the county. He also had a farm and built the first frame house in the county. In 1849, James T. Barrick founded the town of Janesville, Iowa. It was named for his beloved wife, Jane M. McPherson (1809-1884).  Jane M. (McPherson) Barrick, founder and namesake of Janesville, Iowa  It is said that tunnels were built under that town of Janesville to shelter and move people escaping slavery. The story goes that John Barrick was so passionate about the issue, he ensured their safety and escape through these tunnels. It should be mentioned that while the house Barrick built and lived in no longer stands, the basement and foundation of his house does and a new home has been built over top of it. (Information about the house came from Peggy Coleman who went with a few other family to visit Janesville some years ago.) If he did have a tunnel connecting his own home to other homes in the area, one might be able to see evidence of it in that basement. But I should also caution that "tunnels under the town" is a very widely spread urban legend throughout the United States and is most often unable to be validated. As the founder of a town, one does gain some notoriety, albeit if only locally. John T. Barrick's story is told in a book titled "The Janesvillians, Volume II, 1974-1999." There is a Volume I as well, but at the time it was published, they had not identified all his children. Which brings me to my update. I was on the hunt for Volume I of this book. The Volume II copy I had said that one could purchase additional copies through the Janesville City Clerk's office so that's where I started. Eventually I was directed to the library (which is being renovated) and had a chat with THE librarian. She told me that they do not have any additional copies of Volume I (it having been printed in 1974, 125 years after the town's founding), but that she often has people wanting one. They are planning to release a Volume II to commemorate the 175th anniversary of the town and are considering a reprint of Volume I. Anyone that is interested should subscribe to the library's newsletter for updates on the project. It might be nice for them to know that there is more interest as well, so you might want to shoot them an email too! Every year at the end of July, Janesville celebrates their founding with a local festival aptly named for our their town and our ancestor: Janesville Days. Comment below if you'd like to take a big ol' family fieldtrip to Iowa one year. Maybe we could join the parade!  Updated: Jan 15, 2022 I have another for everyone this morning. I'm pretty sure this is a Coleman family, or rather, several Coleman families. But I am not positive about identifying anyone except my great grandparents.  It really is a spectacular photo. Do you see the little boy in the front right with his toy gun and hat? The other boys look a little jealous. I don't know the date nor the place, but I bet some Coleman cousins can pick out a few people they know here! I believe my grandfather, Miles "Happy" Coleman is missing from this photo on account of him being in the military at the time. Stanley, the oldest of the Coleman boys, is also missing from the photo. He was most likely behind the camera since the rest of his family is in attendance and, as his son Dale said, "He wouldn't miss a gathering like that!" Please use the numbers below when identifying folks!  1. Mike Coleman 2. John Coleman 3. June (Littrell) Coleman 4. William Oaks Coleman 5. Bessie Martha (Carr) Coleman 6. Jim Coleman 7. Gene Coleman 8. Jack Coleman 9. Jeannie (Adams) Coleman 10. Dale Alan Coleman 11. Donna (Hall) Coleman 12. Dorothy Lee (Kellogg) Coleman 13. Linda Eileen Coleman 14. Patricia June Coleman 15. Nancy Coleman 16. Sherry Coleman 17. Gary Dean Coleman 18. Donald Bruce "Donny" Coleman 19. Peggy Diane Coleman 20. William Kent "Bill" Coleman 21. Larry Gene Coleman There are also two people that I thought would be impossible to identify - between Bessie Coleman (#5) and Jim Coleman (#6), but Dale think it's Jim's wife, Donna holding Jan and he's probably right about that! Thanks to Linda's eagle eye and Dale's footwork, we think the most likely location of this photo was right outside of Gene and Donna's house in Westcliffe, CO. They lived in this house in the mid-1950's so the timing works out too! Dale took the photo below and I changed it to black and white to as closely match the original as possible. The trim has been painted, the siding has been updated to vinyl and the windows have likewise been updated.  Let's start with a mystery! At least, it's all very mysterious to me, but I'm hoping others will be able to set it straight! I have a small collection of black and white photos from what appears to be a family reunion. Based off of one of the photos, it looks to be at Ten Sleep, WY. I know that Carrie Faye (Carr) VanArsdall (1912-1998) lived in Ten Sleep in the 1990's. She was also buried there. I only personally know one of the people in the photos: Bessie Martha (Carr) Coleman. She was my great grandmother. I can also identify Bill & Kathy Coleman because there is a note on the back of one photo. That same photo has the date "1986." If you can identify anyone in these photos, please write a comment! Be sure to include the photo number for reference. And if you were there, tell us more about all this! *Note: Since the first posting of this, we've learned from family tipsters that not all these were taken at the same place or time. I have noted those in the descriptions below.  #1  #2  #3: Sisters Carrie Fay (Carr) VanArsdall [lef] and Bessie Martha (Carr) Coleman [right]  #4  #5: Since this gathering seems to have been at Ten Sleep, WY, it's likely that it was hosted by Carrie Faye (Carr) VanArsdall and her husband who lived here at the time.  #6  #7: Robbyn Rae "Robby" Hughes-Smith with Scott Smith. NOTE: Photo NOT taken at Ten Sleep, but at a different family reunion at Joyce Jamison's home in Lakewood, CO.  #8: Sheryl Lee "Sherry" Coleman and Bessie Martha (Carr) Coleman. NOTE: This photo is NOT from the Ten Sleep group. It was actually taken in front of Bessie's house outside of Westcliffe, CO.  #9  #10: Sisters Bessie Martha (Carr) Coleman and Carrie Faye (Carr) VanArsdall  #11  #12: Linda Jamison, daughter of Joyce (Axton) Jamison - likely at Joyce's house in Lakewood, CO.  #13  #14: Sherry Hughes. NOTE: Photo NOT taken at Ten Sleep, but at a different family reunion at Joyce Jamison's home in Lakewood, CO.  #15: Robbyn Rae "Robby" Hughes-Smith with Scott Smith. NOTE: Photo NOT taken at Ten Sleep, but at a different family reunion at Joyce Jamison's home in Lakewood, CO.  #16 - Kathy and Bill Coleman. NOT taken at Ten Sleeps. Photo is from home of William Oaks Coleman and Bessie Martha (Carr) Coleman outside of Westcliffe, Colorado. Also appear in photo #17.  #16 - Kathy and Bill Coleman. NOT taken at Ten Sleeps. Photo is from home of William Oaks Coleman and Bessie Martha (Carr) Coleman outside of Westcliffe, Colorado. Also appear in photo #16.  #17  #18: Carrie Faye (Carr) VanArsdall  #19: Believed to be George Franklin "Ford" Carr, wife Alice, daughters Debbie and Beverly  My grandad, Miles "Happy" Coleman pushing me on the swing in his yard in Custer County, Colorado. The little guy is my cousin, Jason Coleman, and the dog was named Prince. The first post of any blog should include some explanation of the site's beginnings. So here we are.
I'm Shannon Hames. And since this is a genealogic-based project, I'm also the daughter of Robert B. Smith and Pamela (Coleman) Smith, and grand-daughter of Robert L. Smith, Sharon (Austin) Conley, Miles "Happy" Coleman, and Donna (Kidder) Coleman. I have an academic background in anthropology (including ethnography and research), but I currently work in communications for a tech company. I started this project after inheriting a large collection of photos, negatives, slides, and family historical documents from my grandparents. In an effort to preserve the history and be able to share with any other family members that may value these things, I'm in the process of digitizing the collection. It may or may not be important to mention that I also have a background in photography including photo processing, restoration, and, yes, digitizing photo collections. As far as I could tell, however, there is no perfect solution in sharing a digital collection with a broad group of family members, many of which are yet unknown to me. I wanted to have something that is searchable, easily (and freely) accessed, and the ability for others to comment - especially as many photos included unidentified people. Also, since this is an on-going project, I wanted to be able to start now and continue adding to the collection and allowing others to come along on the ride with me if they'd like. There are, of course, limitations to this style of sharing. The biggest one, I think, is that if someone would like to download a photo for use anywhere offline (like printing), the photos on each post are not high enough quality. I will have to think of a more long-term solution to that, but in the meantime, I'm happy to share the full resolution photos that ARE suitable for printing to anyone that asks. I can also share an entire collection - just let me know! This project is meant to be shared. Please help me spread the word to other family members - especially if they have an interest in our family history or if they may be able to help identify some of the unknown people in photos. I'm also very open to ideas on how to make this better, so don't be shy! *Note: This blog was originally created on a different website. When I decided that I needed more storage for all these photos, I had to recreate the blog. The first 12 posts were migrated over. |
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