Denver, Colorado 1901 History

Owen E. LeFevre
Little York, Montgomery County, OH
Ann Arbor, MI

Owen E. LeFevre, recently one of the Judges of Our District Court, is a native of Ohio.  He was born August 6, 1848, in the village of Little York, Montgomery County, of that State.  From the district school in Little York, and the graded schools of Dayton, he entered the preparatory department of Antioch (Ohio) College.  He was there a student until May 4, 1861, when the 154th Regiment Ohio Volunteers was organized.  Though but a boy, he enlisted in that regiment and shared its fortunes until it was mustered out of service in the autumn of that year.

In 1868, Judge LeFevre entered the Junior year in the University of Michigan where he graduated in the classical course with honors in June, 1870.  He was engaged during the ensuing two years in teaching school, devoting his available time to study of the law.  In 1872 he was admitted to practice by the Supreme Court of Ohio; he then entered the law office of John A McMahon and George W. Houck, two noted Ohio lawyers at Dayton, and remained with them until the summer of 1873, when he came to Denver and immediately began the practice of his profession.

Judge LeFevre established his home in the then suburban town of Highlands, now a beautiful division of Denver.  In 1875 he was elected Attorney for Highlands, and re-elected in 1876.  In 1885 he was chosen its Mayor, and at the close of his term received the indorsement [sic.] of a re-election to that position.  He was next called to the office of Attorney for Arapahoe county by the County Commissioners.  He received the merited indorsement [sic.] of a re-election, and to this was added a second re-election, making three terms of diligent service in that important and arduous position.  In 1892 he was elected Judge of the County Court, on the Republican ticket.  It was in that year that the political upheaval occurred which placed the entire State administration in the hands of the Populists under Governor Waite.  Nevertheless, Judge LeFevre was elected by a large plurality.  In 1894, before the expiration of his term on the county bench, he was elected one of the Judges of the Second Judicial District--Arapahoe county.

Our Courts are rarely confronted by a dearth of business, and therefore our judges are, of necessity, busy, hard-working men.  During his service on the county bench, Judge LeFevre so systematized the order of things in the Court by his energetic, effective disposition of its business, as to relieve it of its crowded and often congested condition, and introduce an innovation in its history.  On the higher bench, as on the lower, his record was that of an able, impartial jurist of unimpeachable integrity--"a just Judge" in the endless and intricate controversies of his fellow-men.

In politics Judge LeFevre is a consistent, steadfast, conservative Republican.  He is a believer in his party and its principles, was long one of its capable and successful leaders, and is still one of its safe and trusted advisers.  Upon his retirement from the District bench in January, 1901, he resumed practice of his profession.

Judge LeFevre married Miss Eva French, of Troy, Ohio, June 28, 1871, the day on which she was graduated from the Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware in that State.  They have one child, a daughter, born in 1884.  They continued their residence in Highlands until 1896 when they occupied their present fine home at 1311 York street.  It is adorned with what is perhaps the most choice collection of modern French paintings in Colorado, and is a center of art, literature and music.  Judge LeFevre is a lover of books, and his home library, in which he has gratified his inclinations, is one of the best in the city of Denver.