Organizations
Collection for organization entities.
Pages
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- Wilkin Sheep Company (Denver, Colorado)
- The largest sheep holding company and market for lambs in Denver, Colorado in the first half of the Twentieth century.
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- Wilkinson Dairy (Mesa County, Colorado)
- According to Richard Williams, who worked delivering milk for the company, C.H. Wilkinson owned and operated a dairy in the Pear Park Area, north of Old Johnson’s Corner, in what later became the Partee subdivision. Wilkinson sold his operation to the Rose Arctic Ice Cream Company, which later became Meadow Gold.
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- Wilkinson Public Library
- San Miguel Public Library District #1 was created in 1975. That’s over 40 years as an official library district, but the history of the library goes back to the mid-sixties when a bookmobile came to Telluride once a week. Around this time, Larry and Betty Wilkinson arrived in town and met with the town’s fire department to request a community library space in the Quonset hut that once stood next to the current elementary school. The Quonset hut library was open two or three days a week, three or four hours a day. The collection consisted of local donations and discarded books from other libraries. The entire donation-only budget went toward coal for heat. In 1974, Larry and Betty approached the San Miguel County Commissioners with a petition of 100 signatures to put a library on the ballot. With voter approval, the first library board of trustees was appointed and Betty was hired as Library Director. Eventually the library outgrew the Quonset hut and Larry went before the town council for permission to use the old stone jail on Spruce Street. With council’s blessing, the town got a grant from the National Park Service and the jail was renovated. Betty and Larry hauled twenty tons of rock that summer in the back of their van, three or four rocks at a time. In 1976, the new library was dedicated at the site of the former town jail on South Spruce Street. By 1984, the old jail was no longer large enough to comfortably contain the library. The library board introduced a bond issue to add on to the old jail and the measure passed by a ratio of three to one. But as the town continued to grow, it became clear that the library required a building designed to hold books not prisoners. In 1997, a town referendum to build the new building passed by a narrow margin of two votes! The Wilkinson Public Library opened in August 2000. The Wilkinson Public Library is named in honor of Larry and Betty Wilkinson, who championed a library in Telluride from its rough Quonset hut inception, through various expansions and into today’s beloved and well-used 20,000 square foot building. Larry served on the Library board through the construction of the current building and still drops by when he is visiting from his home in Montrose. Sadly, Betty passed away in 1988 and Larry passed away in 2018. The WPL is open seven days a week to bring you books, media, computer access, Wi-Fi, and children’s and adult programs. Stop by and see us!
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- William Denison Memorial Library
- Union Church became the William Denison Memorial Library (Library Hall). William Denison came west seeking relief and a cure from tuberculosis, which had stricken him while a medical student at Harvard. Upon his death, the family donated his collection of 1,000 volumes to the settlers, who, "shut out in a great measure from the world, would appreciate good books." ~Steamboat Pilot. 1899 - Due to an acute need for schoolrooms, the library collection was moved to a frame schoolhouse to the east. A devastating fire in 1910 destroyed all but 400 volumes of the book collection. For next several years, the community was without a place to house the library.
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- Williams, Turner and Holmes, Attorneys at Law (Grand Junction, Colorado)
- A law firm begun by lawyer C.L. Watson and one-time attorney general Benjamin “Ben” Griffith in the late 1800’s or early 1900’s, and the oldest continually practicing law firm in Grand Junction. The firm was originally called Griffith and Watson. Silmon Smith joined the firm shortly after receiving his law degree from the University of Denver in 1912. Smith became one of the most knowledgeable and foremost water law attorneys in the country through his work with ranchers, and water law is still a focus of the firm. After Watson was killed in a car crash, the firm became Griffith and Smith. Griffith eventually moved to Colorado Springs, dissolving his role in the partnership. Henry Tupper and Charles Holmes joined Smith in a firm that was called Tupper and Smith, and eventually, Tupper, Smith and Holmes. Holmes and Smith were good friends who invested in oil shale and prospected for uranium together. Smith attributed the financial success of the firm at this time to Charles Holmes, with home he practiced law for forty years. Andy Williams and Warren Turner later joined the firm. With the retirement of Smith and Tupper, the firm became Williams, Turner and Holmes, a name that it maintains to this day.