The Person:
Frederick Walter Pitkin
"Frederick Pitkin was born in Manchester, Connecticut. He graduated cum laude from Wesleyan University in 1858, and earned a law degree from Albany Law School in 1859. Following graduation, he moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin to establish the law firm of Palmer, Hooker, and Pitkin. In 1872, he resigned from the firm due to illness, and set sail for Europe in search of a cure.
Returning to the United States in 1874, he settled in southwestern Colorado, where his health stabilized, and resumed his career as an attorney. In addition, he invested in the mining industry. Utilizing his contacts in the mining industry, he announced his candidacy for Governor of Colorado in 1878, and won. During his two terms as governor, he dealt with a number of crises including the railway feud involving the Atchison, Topeka-Santa Fe, and the Denver-Rio Grande rail companies. He ordered the suppression of the Ute Indian uprising at the Milk Creek Battle or Meeker Massacre in 1879. In 1880, he declared martial law during the mining strike at Leadville. He was an unsuccessful candidate for U.S. Senate in 1882.
Following his retirement from public office, he settled in Pueblo, Colorado, and resumed his law practice and mining business. He died in Pueblo and was buried in Riverside Cemetery in Denver, Colorado. Later, his remains were moved to Fairmount Cemetery in Denver, Colorado.
He and his wife, Fidelia James of Lockport, New York, had three children. Robert James Pitkin, Florence Pitkin, and George Orrin Pitkin." (from (
visit link) )
The Place:
Pitkin County
"Pitkin County is one of the 64 counties in the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2010 census, the population was 17,148. The county seat is Aspen. The county is named in honor of the late Colorado Governor Frederick Walker Pitkin. Pitkin County has the seventh-highest per capita income of any county in the United States.
Pitkin County is included in the Glenwood Springs, CO Micropolitan Statistical Area, which is also included in the Edwards-Glenwood Springs, CO Combined Statistical Area.
In its early history Pitkin County favored the Democratic Party, for whom it voted in every election between 1896 and 1916, being among the few Western counties to support Alton B. Parker in 1904. After that, it followed the trends of the nation until being narrowly carried by losing candidate Thomas E. Dewey in 1944. Pitkin subsequently remained Republican-leaning until the growing ski resort community drew its residents to the liberal George McGovern – rejected by a majority of the electorates of all but 129 other counties – in 1972. Since the 1980s, Pitkin has turned powerfully Democratic due to the threat posed by over-development, plus the need for affordable housing and alternative mobility solutions. The last Republican to carry the county was Ronald Reagan in 1984, and George H. W. Bush in the following election is the last Republican to gain a third of the county’s vote.
In this modern era, Pitkin has also frequently been one of the leading counties for leftist third-party candidates, being the fourth-best county for Eugene McCarthy in 1976, and the third-best for John B. Anderson in 1980." (from (
visit link) )