Butch Cassidy and my Great Grandpa

"A Visit to Colton" by Kerry R. Boren

A VISIT TO COLTON

Colton, Utah, is the kind of town which my late father used to say was so small that the town sign might read "Entering Colton" on one side and "Leaving Colton" on the other. It is nothing more than a run down service station, with 1950's style pumps, attached to a weathered old house in the middle of nowhere on State Road 6 in central Utah. Colton lies about halfway between Spanish Fork and Price, just a little northwest of Robbers Roost.
 

The only business accorded the run down gas station stems from travelers who find themselves short of gas to make it into Price, or those who want a few snacks and a restroom before continuing their journey. There is a local clientele who return to the station to pass the time of day and hear the tales of the station’s proprietor, an old gentleman named Dennis Finch.
 

The interior of the place is filled with antiques and "home stuff", as Mr. Finch calls it. On the counter are several photos in old frames. One of the photos shows a young woman with a pet bear; the other shows three rather dignified looking men from a bygone era. Mr. Finch is more than happy to talk about them.
 

His parents were Charles Harold Finch and Etta Elizabeth Elmer. His mother was born 28 November 1906 in Payson, Utah, a daughter of Orrin Elton Alma Elmer and Sylvia Estelle Jones. They were married 5 November 1929.
 

"Thi s is a picture of my grandma when she was only eighteen," he says, picking up the picture of the young woman with the bear. "Four years after this picture was taken in 1928, my mother homesteaded this land and built this store in 1932 [his math was a little off; she would have been 22 in 1928]. Her pet bear was the main attraction to bring in customers. People came from miles around to see this big old bear who was taller than a man when he stood on his hind legs, but as gentle as a puppy. But he looked so big people were afraid of him, so my folks kept him in a cage outside. This was a great benefit to my dad, because whenever he got drunk and my mother kicked him out of the house, he would curl up with the bear in the cage outside. But over the years people poked and prodded at the bear in the cage so much that he became so mean my mother and father could no longer keep him. They gave him to a man who had several bears that lived free up in the Uintah Mountains, away from the cruelties of people."
The old man added the story of his mother’s pet porcupine which she rescued from a bear trap, and which became so friendly to her that it followed her around like a dog. She could pet its nose, he said, but if anyone else tried, they ended up with a hand full of quills.
 

"T his building has been moved twice from where it originally stood," he said. "When this town was originally founded it stood on the other side of the highway at the bottom of the hill." He points to a painting on the wall and continues, "You can see how it looked back then. When they decided to move the road up here, the store and house were torn down piece by piece and rebuilt where that big parking lot is out front. It stayed there for years until they built the new highway and once more my folks disassembled it and rebuilt it where it is now. They added two more sections to the house this time; this part and the kitchen was the original house and store, while the other end of the house was that of an old abandoned house and the middle was all new."
 

The old man talks about his grandfather, Orrin Elmer, with great reverence. He calls him "Horrin," perhaps with a remnant of an English brogue.
"My family moved to this area looking for the American dream, like so many before them. My grandpa Horrin grew up next to Robert Leroy Parker, better known as Butch Cassidy. Back when the town was on the other side of the highway at the bottom of the hill, my grandpa Elmer owned the motel and was the local sheriff."
 

He grabs up an album from beneath the counter and displays a picture of Orrin Elmer wearing his sheriff’s badge and sixshooter, standing in front of the old hotel.
 

" Even though Butch and my grandpa were on opposite sides of the law, they stayed good friends. Whenever Butch came into town, Grandpa would give him a room and stable his horses. They knew each other all their lives."
 

Or rin Elton Alma Elmer was born 16 January 1873 in Payson, Utah, a son of Henry Elmer (1841-1928) and Sarah Ann Beckstead (1851-1944) [Orrin Elmer is a distant cousin of co-author Lisa Lee Boren, who is a descendant of the Becksteads]. Henry Elmer, who was born 7 March 1841 in Sand Prairie, Adams County, Illinois, came to Utah among the early Mormon pioneers with his parents and settled in Payson, Utah. The Peteetneet Town Book has the following interesting notation:
 

" The early Payson locals believed that Payson had the first free schools after the territorial legislature passed a bill to allow cities to levy a tax to build and support public schools. Schools were held in homes before that time. Henry Elmer and Eddie Dixon both said they once attended school in William Wrightman’s home at 307 W. 400 N. in Payson. Text books that were used in these schools were the Bible, Websters blue-pack speller, McDuffy’s Primer, Ray’s Arithmatic [sic], and classics."
 

Henry Elmer was an Indian War Veteran, having fought in Utah’s Black Hawk War in 1865. He died in Payson 14 December 1928.
Orrin’s mother, Sarah Ann Beckstead, was born 14 March 1851 at Traitors Point, Pottawattamie County, Iowa, a daughter of Sidney Marcus Beckstead and Ann Sophia Rollins. Her father accidentally killed himself on 7 August 1864 when she was only 13. He had climbed aboard his horse in Nebraska and in reaching down for his rifle caused it to discharge, killing him instantly.
 

Orri n Elmer married Sylvia Estelle Jones on 6 December 1893 at Manti, Utah, when he was 20 and she was 17. They eventually had four children: Sylvia Ann, Cora Pearl, Etta Elizabeth, and Arthur Elmer. Orrin Elmer died 13 November 1962 in Provo, Utah.
 

"Sho rtly after the house was rebuilt for the third time," Mr. Finch continued, "a man came to the door and walked slowly up to the counter. My mom asked, ‘Can I help you, sir?’, and the man slowly looked left and right. He then pulled out a small hand gun and said to her, ‘This is a robbery, give me all your cash!’ My mom only laughed because she thought the man was carrying a toy gun. She grabbed it and took it from the man’s hand and said, ‘This is a nice toy. How do they make it look so real?’ The man grabbed the gun back from my mom and opened it to show her that it was a real gun. He was so shocked at her behavior that he never did rob the store. He turned and walked out the door. In those days, most guns were large; my mother had never seen a small handgun before.’
 

The old man finally gets around to telling the story that is of the most interest to us.
 

"It must have been about 1931 [more likely 1932, when the store was built] when a man came into the store and asked my mom if Horrin Elmer was around. She asked why he wanted to know and he said he was an old friend and wanted to see him again after being away for many years. She directed him to the bear cage outside where my grandpa was playing with the bear. The man went out and my mom saw the two men shake hands real hard and kind of hug one another, and they stood and talked for a long time. The man stayed for supper and afterward my grandpa and him talked again for a long time. Then he climbed into his car and drove away.
 

"Aft er the man was gone, my mom asked grandpa who the man was, and he said, ‘Why, that was Butch Cassidy, my old boyhood friend.’ But he told her she should never tell anyone who he was because he might still be arrested for his crimes. My mom thought it was strange that her day, who was a sheriff, would protect a wanted man from arrest, but she never told anyone who the man really was."
 

Denn is Finch has proof of his claim that Orrin Elmer and Butch Cassidy were friends. He displays the photo of Butch Cassidy, Ronald Wall, and Orrin Elmer taken together during one of their reunions, and he will show it to anyone who wants to hear his story about how Butch Cassidy stopped by for a visit.
 

There is an interesting aside to the above story. Lauri Massey, a cousin of Orrin Elmer, was also cousin of the Lewellen family who operated a service station at Soldier Summit, a few miles northwest of Colton. The Lewellens have a photograph of their ancestor standing with Butch Cassidy in front of their gas station at about the time he visited Orrin Elmer. Today, the once bustling town of Soldier Summit is virtually a ghost town, with only a two room jail and a few original outbuildings still standing. It was here near the turn of the last century that Butch Cassidy met with Uinta County, Wyoming, Sheriff John Ward to discuss turning himself in for amnesty.