People
Collection for person entities.
Pages
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- Lenora Watson
- A fourth grade teacher at the first Lowell School in Grand Junction, Colorado.
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- Lenore Watkins
- Fourth grade teacher at the Lowell School in the early 1900's.
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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).