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Glenn Aultman
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When photographer Glenn Aultman died last November, Trinidad lost one of its true historians and most colorful characters. He was a living history of a bygone
era. Glenn and his father, O.E. Aultman, recorded much of Trinidad's history beginning in the late 1800s, and continuing through the turbulent early years of the 20th century when the community was growing and the coal mining industry was booming. |
Glenn, who was a month shy of his 96th birthday, worked in the photo studio his father established in 1889, nearly up to the time of his death. The historic studio was located on the second floor of the building adjacent to the First National Bank which the bank purchased from the Plested family in 1990 to expand banking operations.
Glenn did more than just photographically record Trinidad's history; he lived much of it, and loved to recount stories of his childhood. He could tell you about the Chinese laundries on south Commercial Street where he'd stop as a boy to look through the steamy windows and watch the workers fill their mouths with water and spit it out in a spray to wet the shirts they were ironing.
Or how he'd seen the miners on strike during the long winter of 1912 who lay in watch on the rooftop of a Pine Street building - waiting for a possible confrontation with state militia, and how they'd fascinated him but scared his mother into a near faint. And then, he'd laugh with delight at your response to his story. He loved an audience - whether it was one person showing an interest in a particular historic photo, or a roomful of people eager to see his slide show and hear more about Trinidad in the 1920s, or during the Depression, and later the war years.
| This was his home, and few people knew more about Trinidad in the 20th century than did Glenn. He was born on December 14, 1904 to Jennie and
Oliver Eugene Aultman. O.E. Aultman had come west from Missouri
in 1887, settling in southern Colorado and working in Trinidad
as a banker. |
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Circa 1908
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The bank took over for a customer who couldn't make his payments on the photography studio along West Main so
O.E. stepped in to deal with the business. It proved to be more than just a passing interest and in 1889, The Aultman Photography Studio was
established.
continued . . .
Glenn as a young boy with family on an outing near Stonewall
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