People
Collection for person entities.
Pages
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- Leo Gerald Prinster
- With his three brothers, an owner of City Market grocery stores. He was born in La Junta, Colorado to Joseph Frank Prinster and Millie (Kroboth) Prinster. His father was the owner of a meat market and grocery store. His mother was a homemaker. Different US Census records give the country of Joseph’s birth as Austria, Hungary, and Switzerland. New York ship passenger arrivals show that he arrived from Germany on February 21, 1883, and that he was from Austria. US Census records show Millie Prinster as being born in Austria, although the 1900 US Census has her country of birth as Hungary. He had three brothers, Paul, Frank, and Clarence. Leo learned the grocery and meat business from his father. The 1910 US Census shows him working as a butcher at the age of fifteen. He worked in the family store until he was 19 years old, when he got into the railway business and became a night switch man. He lost his foot in a rail accident and wound up marrying the nurse who helped him through his rehabilitation. Colorado marriage records show him marrying Freda Wilson in Lamar, Colorado on December 28, 1916. He purchased and ran a pool hall before rejoining the family grocery business. In 1924, he moved to Grand Junction to join his brother Paul, who had purchased a share in the City Market grocery store founded two years earlier. Leo took over the bookkeeping and purchasing for the business, and the Prinsters soon purchased it outright. According to Clarence Prinster, Leo was always thinking ahead to the next steps for the company. He did his best to save money and to invest that money in future growth, and was the main force behind the expansion and success of City Market. In 1969, he sold the 14 stores established by the Prinster Family to Dillon & Co. The 1930 Census shows Leo and Freda living with their children at 635 N 6th Street. Freda died in 1932. By 1940, Leo had remarried to Bernice Hatcher of Grand Junction. They lived at 1203 Gunnison Avenue for many years. He had at least one son, Andy. In 1960, he started wintering in Hawaii. According to Mesa County Oral History Project interviewee Al Look, Prinster was friends with Daily Sentinel owner Walter Walker and was known as one of the “financial pillars” in town. He met with Walker and other prominent men once a week to socialize. He gave to political campaigns and for community needs, but insisted on anonymity in doing so. Leo was also friends with Lloyd King, the founder of King’s Grocery (later King Soopers).
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- Leo I. Ryan
- After moving with his family to Plateau Valley in 1907-08, he held the delivery contract with the creamery in Collbran. He delivered dairy products via a stagecoach line to De Beque. He also delivered mail along the route from Collbran to De Beque. With his wife Nelle Ryan, he owned and operated the Plateau City House, a hotel in Plateau City. Father of Lawrence Ryan.
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- Leo John Hill
- Leo John Hill was the first casualty from Steamboat Springs in World War I. Having grown up on a ranch in northwestern Colorado, he enlisted with the Marine Corps in April 1917 and in June was sent to Paris Island, South Carolina for initial training. Attached to the 80th Company, 6th Regiment of that organization and promoted to Corporal, in November he sailed with his unit to France where they were thrown into a gap in the French line at the Marne salient near Chateau Thierry. Following several weeks of heavy fighting, the German advance toward Paris was finally halted, and, on July 18 the Allied Command ordered a huge counterattack. Leo’s unit fought its way into Chateau-Thierry, which had been held by the Germans throughout the offensive. On July 19, 1918, the second day of the allied offensive, Corporal Leo Hill was killed by German machine gun fire. During the thirty-one-day battle leading up to, and including the battle for Chateau-Thierry, the Marines lost 1,062 men killed in action and suffered another 3,615 wounded in action. He was initially interred with other soldiers and Marines at a grave site in France. His remains were later returned to the United States where he was laid to rest at a place of honor in Arlington National Cemetery. The American Legion Post 44 was named in his honor. [Freiberger, Harriet. Homecoming: Soldiers Leave...Veterans Return. Steamboat Springs, CO. American Legion Post 44. 2021]
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- Leo Lyyjoki (Navajo Sam)
- Born in 1931, Leo Lyyjoki (Navajo Sam) was born in Brantwood, Wisconsin. He came to Colorado as a lumberjack in 1975. Lyyjoki is a Finnish name. Navajo Sam was well known in Telluride, Colorado, in the 1980's as "the bearded, rifle-toting mountain man accused of robbing food from hikers." Navajo Sam's camp was located about 25 miles southwest of Telluride. Navajo Sam described himself as "a non-violent revolutionary trying to educate people about the evils of big business, organized crime and 'all war production." Leo eventually moved to Tres Pierdas, New Mexico, where he worked in his trailer park as a security guard for the property owners. He passed away in 2010. Information taken from: https://www.upi.com/Archives/1982/10/08/Navajo-Sam-wants-to-set-the-record-straight/3396402897600/ And from: https://www.upi.com/Archives/1982/11/02/Navajo-Sam-heads-home-to-the-back-country/5432405061200/ And from: http://www.tributes.com/obituary/show/Leo-Lyyjoki-89718229 Links accessed 10/23/2020.
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- Leo Malkin
- Contributor to "Singing the lines of place: A Gunnison Valley Journal," Western student, skier, climber and lover of the valley's wild places. (source: Singing the lines of place: A Gunnison Valley Journal)