People

: Leonard Larkin Raber; Pharmacist at Fruita Drug Store. Mesa County pioneer. Larkin graduated from the College of Pharmacy at Valparaiso University and worked as a druggist around Indiana for two years. He moved to Colorado for health reasons around 1903, and to Fruita, Colorado around 1906. He owned and operated a fruit farm for three years before resuming his career as pharmacist, first in Las Animas, New Mexico, then back to Fruita, where he managed a store for C.D. Smith. He later bought the C.D. Smith Drug Store and changed the name to the Fruita Drug Company. He ran the store until his retirement in 1945. He was a charter member of the Fruita First Baptist Church, helped in its construction, and was a volunteer in the church.