Dr. Kire Le Clare Clock came to Fort Lupton, probably early in 1910, where he established the Clock Pharmacy and a medical practice. I wonder if the man on the right in the picture is Dr. Clock. He was born in 1864, so when the picture was taken, he would have been about 46 years old.
Clock, an 1889 graduate of Barnes Medical College in St. Louis, was accompanied upon his arrival in Lupton around 1910 by his wife, Julia M. (Page), and their daughter, Louva Clair. Dr. Clock and Julia were married on January 5, 1888, in New Orleans, and Louva was born March 1, 1889, in Franklin County, Iowa. Around 1898, the family left Iowa for Colorado, where Dr. Clock set up a practice in Pagosa Springs, and by 1906 they had moved to Greeley, where Louva enrolled at the Colorado State Normal School (now the University of Northern Colorado). In August of 1910, Lauva married Lupton resident Raymond Moore Jeffers.
The Clocks became grandparents on November 9, 1913, when Lauva gave birth to a son, Avery Dean Jeffers (who would become a well-known chiropractor in the local area). Thirteen days following Avery’s birth, Dr. and Mrs. Clock divorced, and Dr. Clock moved to California to set up practice in Los Angeles.
It appears from Census records that, subsequent to her divorce from Dr. Clock, Julia and her son-in-law, Raymond Jeffers, became co-owners of Clock Pharmacy. By 1930 she had retired. She was regularly involved with the Fort Lupton Thursday Afternoon Club and PEO, and was a member of the Order of the Eastern Star. She also enjoyed stays at the family cabin at Riverside on the South St. Vrain. Julia died May 3, 1934, at age 67 and is buried at Hillside Cemetery.
Dr. Clock’s life ended tragically. As stated earlier, he had established a practice in Los Angeles following his 1913 divorce from Julia, and resided in Los Angeles until at least 1916. In about the fall of 1918, he accepted a position as physician for the Victor-American Fuel (coal) Company near Walsenburg and had a home in the nearby Ravenwood mining camp. On April 23, 1920, the Greeley Tribune reported in a front page story that Dr. Clock had taken his life at Ravenwood the previous day, using chloroform.
REFERENCES: (Except when otherwise noted, all reference sources are located at www.ancestry.com )
- Colorado County Marriage Records and State Index, 1862-2006
- Colorado Divorce Index 1851-1985
- Directory of Deceased American Physicians, 1804-1929
- Greeley Tribune issues dated 4/23/20, 2/8/30, 3/11/30, 4/7/30, 4/15/33, 8/12/33, and 5/8/34 (www.newspapers.com )
- Journal of the American Medical Association, Vol 74, issue 2 dated May 1, 1920 at https://archive.org/details/journalamericanm74ameruoft (Google Books).
- New Orleans, LA, Marriage Records Index 1831-1964, from Crawford Family Tree.
- Page Family Tree.
- U.S. City Directories
- U.S. WW I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918
- U.S. WWII Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947
- 1895 Iowa State Census
- 1900 U.S. Census
- 1906 Greeley City Directory
- 1910 U.S. Census.
- 1914 California Board of Medical Examiners Registers of Licensed Physicians, 1901-1939.
- 1920 U.S. Census
- 1931 Fort Lupton Phone Directory (private collection)
