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rights for coal mining as well as use of portions of the surface lands for operating the Acme Coal Mine. <br />Ten acres of the property were also previously deeded to Catherine Arendt and Frank Carveth. <br />John Leigh (1848-1905) appears to be a colorful personality and was well-known in the area as a cattle <br />rancher and investor. An 1898 article in the Louisville Times reported that John Leigh was accused of <br />trying to murder Mickey McNyland, a Front Street saloon owner. Another article from 1902 notes John <br />Leigh following an employee who had taken proceeds from beef sales and threatening him with a <br />butcher knife. However, he appears to be an astute businessman and ran a butcher shop on Front Street. <br />John Leigh was killed suddenly in 1905 when his horse was startled and he was thrown from the buggy. <br />Shortly after his death, it was revealed that he had a wife and four children in England, while also <br />maintaining a common-law marriage with Julia Hamilton Leigh in Louisville. Julia Leigh was his business <br />partner and helped run the butcher shop. They had a daughter, Margaret, born in 1901. Julia sued <br />Leigh's estate and English wife, Ann Leigh, for $20,000 but was eventually only able to claim $8,000 for <br />her share of her investment in the butcher shop. <br />Edward Hodgson (1870-1952) emigrated from Cumberland, England as a small boy. His family lived in <br />Colorado and came to Louisville in the 1880s. He met and married Mary Kroell in 1892. Mary Kroell <br />(1873-1947) was born in Pennsylvania. Her family moved to Louisville around 1885. Edward Hodgson <br />was a foreman and later a superintendent with the Rocky Mountain Fuel Co. and worked at various <br />mines in Boulder and Weld counties. While perhaps a steadier temperament than John Leigh, Edward <br />Hodgson was actively involved on behalf of mine -owners during the Long Strike from 1910-1914 and <br />several Louisville Times articles recount his actions during shootouts at the Hecla Mine and encounters <br />with strikebreakers. <br />In 1901, John Leigh sold the property south of Hutchinson to Edward Hodgson for $150. It is unclear <br />whether Edward and Mary built the house on the property but they are listed in the 1900 census as <br />owning a farm in Louisville while Edward worked as a mine operator. It is possible that the Hodgsons <br />farmed and worked at the Acme Mine with their four oldest children. The Hodgsons eventually had ten <br />children and may have outgrown the house on Grant. After selling the property to Emma Denton in <br />1906, they continued to live in Louisville until 1920 when the family moved to Erie. They are listed in the <br />1920 census as living in a "coal mining camp" in Louisville which was most likely at the Hecla Mine. <br />Emma C. & William F. Denton, 1906-1912 <br />Emma and William F. Denton purchased the land from the Hodgsons in 1906. Emma C. VanKleeck (1857- <br />1942) grew up in Iowa and married William F. Denton in 1876. They moved to Denver in 1879 and it <br />could not be verified what work William did until they moved to Louisville. The 1910 Census does note <br />Emma and William Denton living at an unnumbered house on Grant Ave. where William worked as a <br />farmer and watchman (possibly for the neighboring Acme Mine). The 1909 Drumm's Map shows Emma <br />Denton owning 15 acres and P.H. Murphy owning 5 acres of farmland in the area that is today the <br />Cedarwood Park subdivision. <br />