Philip Troutfetter Divorce

I finally received the divorce papers for Philip Troutfetter yesterday from the Colorado State Archives. The image that appears on this post is the index card. Those with Colorado family may wish to check out the archives' website as there are many finding aids on it and quite a bit of general research information.

We'll be posting more information about Philip in future blog posts and Casefile Clues columns. There is quite a story behind this man.

Philip Troutfetter's Colorado Divorce

It did not take me as long to find it as I thought.

Regular readers know that I'm searching for information on Phillip Troutfetter, a cousin of mine who owned a newspaper in 1890s Kansas, speculated in land in Colorado, speculated in women in Colorado, worked as a journalist in Cuba, and was involved in mining speculation in Columbia. All before he was supposedly arrested in Boston working as a waiter in a restaurant.

A little searching turned up his divorce in Colorado Springs. The actual records are indexed and are on the index is on the Colorado State Archives website. An email to the archives resulted in the fee for copies.

Philip and Violet are listed as "Troutfitter," which I found with a wildcard search. Thank goodness for those.

Troutfetter is Bagged in Boston

You have to love headlines.

This one comes from a 1902 Colorado's Gazette-Telegraph, which was located on Genealogy Bank. Philip Troutfetter was said to have been involved in the Cuban postal frauds, but it appears that he only associated with one of the men involved and was not actually involved himself. As Genealogy Bank keeps adding papers, I keep running across additional references to Philip and his escapades in Colorado and parts south. This is only a part of the newspaper clipping. The original appears on Genealogy Bank.

Source: Date: 1902-04-11;
Paper: Gazette-Telegraph

Perjury claim in Troutfetter case

It has been a while since I worked on the case of Philip Troutfetter. A search on Genealogy Bank located several new references to Philip's case, including the one shown here. Philip did eventually avoid the charges, but I am not yet certain if the perjury as mentioned here is the reason why or not.

This story just keeps getting better.

Try Genealogy Bank for your own family.

Suing the Railroad in 1897 for Wrongful Death

I knew cousin Frank Troutfetter was killed in a railroad accident in the 1890s, what I did not know was that his parents had sued the railroad for wrongful death. Now I have something else to look for. This was located on Genealogy Bank. They have apparently been adding newspapers recently as this reference was one I had not located when I had searched previously on the site a few months ago.

Paper: Colorado Springs Gazette, 18 November 1897.

Newspaper Ads May Reveal Clues

It seems like there's always something else about Philip Troutfetter I'm finding in a newspaper. This time it's not quite as scandalous as our previous findings, but it does provide a slight clue into his money lending activities before he left Colorado.

This reference was found on Genealogy Bank. I've found several other references to Philip Troutfetter there, but this one was a new one for me. Goes to show you that even the classified ads in a newspaper may yield clues. And it goes to show that OCR searches (such as the ones are at Genealogy Bank) can help a genealogist find things they never thought they would. Now I even have an address for him in 1897.

Date: 1897-05-23; Paper: The Colorado Springs Gazette