Denver, History of Colorado, BIOS: MALONE, Booth M. (published 1918) *********************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. *********************************************************************** File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Maggie Stewart-Zimmerman http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00015.html#0003643 September 15, 1999 *********************************************************************** "History of Colorado", edited by Wilbur Fisk Stone, published by The S. J. Clarke Publishing Co. (1918) Vol. II p. 184, 186 photo p. 185 BOOTH M. MALONE. Malone, Booth M., lawyer; jurist; city attorney, Beloit, Wisconsin, 1885-1890; president of school board, 1882-1885; superintendent of schools, 1882-1885; and, mayor of Beloit, 1883-1885; district attorney. Rock county, Wisconsin, 1885-1892; assistant district attorney (Denver), second judicial district of Colorado, 1892- 1897; district attorney of the same district, 1897-1901; judge of the second judicial district (Denver) of Colorado, 1901-1907; was president of the Colorado Republican State League for the years 1894 and 1895; born in Benton county, Mississippi, and is the son of Richard H. and Mary (Cossitt) Malone. The town of La Grange, Illinois, and that of the same name in Tennessee, were founded by his mother's brother, F. D. Cossitt. In the list of well known philanthropists is her cousin, F. H. Cossitt, of New York city, liberal in his donations to public institutions, and the founder of several libraries. Mary Cossitt was born in Granby, Connecticut. He has one sister, Mrs. Frank W. Crocker, and three brothers, William H. and Richard H. Malone and Robert E. MacCracken, all living in Denver, Colorado. Richard H. Malone, the father of the subject of this biography, was born in Alabama and was a southern planter, but was educated for the ministry. He died at the outbreak of the Civil war, and when Booth M. was still a small child his mother removed with him and three other children to Chicago. In the latter city our subject spent his boyhood and early youth, and was there educated in the public schools and received his preparatory training. He matriculated in 1873, at Beloit College, from which he was graduated in 1877, with the degree of A. B. After one year as a law student in the office of Thomas S. McCelland of Chicago, Mr. Malone entered the Albany Law School, New York, graduating from that institution in 1880, with the degree of LL. B. He was then admitted to the bar in New York state. Forming a partnership with Samuel J. Todd, Mr. Malone entered upon the practice of his profession at Beloit, Wisconsin. In three years he succeeded to the large practice they had already established. In addition to his legal business, Mr. Malone soon became known as a political leader and man of affairs, and especially active in the municipal government. During his term of six years, from 1885 until 1890, as city attorney of Beloit, the city charter and ordinances were revised under his administration, and two hundred thousand dollars in bonds negotiated in funding the city debt. He was elected mayor of Beloit in 1883 and reelected to that office in 1885, and during his official life in that position was known as one of the most public- spirited and progressive chief executives of that city. He helped to procure railroad sidetracks for factories, secured streetcars and water works and was the efficient means of bringing several large factories to the city, the Berlin Machine Works, Beloit Iron Works and Fairbanks, Morse & Company being among the number. The experience obtained in his official career in Beloit, as well as his thorough study of such questions, has made Mr. Malone an active leader, in later years, in the municipal reform movements in the city and county of Denver. While a resident of Beloit, he also held the position for several years as superintendent of public schools, also serving as president of the school board. In the meantime his brother, W. H. Malone, had become a resident of Denver and was established in the practice of the law with Robert W. Steele, the late lamented chief justice of the Colorado supreme court. Through the flattering inducements then offered, Mr. Malone came to Denver in 1892 and became assistant district attorney to Robert W. Steele, who was elected to that office in 1892. In November, 1897, Mr. Malone was elected district attorney for Arapahoe (Denver) county, .Colorado, for both the short and long terms. As assistant, and as district attorney, he won for himself the reputation of being one of the most brilliant prosecutors in the history of the state. As a jury lawyer, and in the cross examination of witnesses in criminal prosecutions, he had no superior in the state. Out of forty-seven murder cases, some of them, causes celebres in the west, Mr. Malone obtained convictions in thirty-nine. He attained a front rank as a public speaker and orator. Although engaged in an extensive criminal practice, yet Mr. Malone also became a prominent attorney in civil suits, including railway, mining, and other litigation. He loves justice as a man, demands it as a lawyer and administered it as a judge. In 1900, Mr. Malone was elected judge of the district court (Denver) of Colorado, displaying the same ability on the bench that had characterized his career in public life and the practice of law. In the many criminal cases over which Judge Malone presided not one was ever reversed on appeal. He was noted as a strong, fair-minded, fearless and just judge. Since his retirement from the bench, Judge Malone has been engaged in the general practice of the law. In 1907 he was employed to go to Goldfield, Nevada, and take charge of the prosecution of the celebrated case of the people vs. Smith and Preston, members of the I. W. W. charged with murder, and at a time of the intensest excitement in that state he secured the conviction of both men and followed the case successfully through the Nevada supreme court. He is a member of the bar of the supreme court of the United States. His latest noted case was, associated with Thomas S. Ward, Jr., in defense of Mrs. Stella Moore Smith, charged with killing her husband. The case attracted nation-wide attention and lasted several weeks. The jury acquitted Mrs. Smith within eleven minutes from the time the case was submitted to them. Mr. Malone's closing speech in that case was said to be "one of the greatest forensic efforts ever delivered in a courtroom in Colorado." Judge Malone is a Knight Templar, a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason, a member of the Knights of Pythias, and of the Ancient Order of United Workmen. He attends the Plymouth Congregational church and assists in its support. He is a republican but stands for the best men and the best things regardless of party. He married, July 1, 1878, Miss Alma M. Bennett, of Beloit, Wisconsin, daughter of Almon and Calista (Peck) Bennett, her father being a merchant and lumber dealer of that city. She was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution and of the Plymouth Congregational church. Mrs. Malone died May 1, 1918. She was a woman of strong character and beautiful life. Her sweet personality was an inspiration to all who knew her. She was a filial daughter and a model wife, mother and friend. Who could be more? Mr. Malone ascribes most of whatever of success, or good he achieved in his life, to his wife's good judgment, wise counsel and sweet companionship. To Judge and Mrs. Malone were born the following children, all natives of Beloit, Wisconsin: Mary Louise, Helen Cossitt, William Bennett and Alma E. Malone. The three daughters are all married, Mary Louise, who was queen of the Colorado Festival of Mountain and Plain in the year 1901, to the distinguished young civil and hydraulic engineer, Elbert E. Lochridge, who built the present water works of Springfield, Massachusetts, where they are at present residing. Helen Cossitt, who attended Bradford College, married Emerson G. Gaylord, a banker, of an old and influential family of Chicopee, Massachusetts; and Alma E., who attended Smith College, is married to Paul Robertson Jones, of New York city, general auditor of the Doherty Gas Syndicate. William Bennett graduated from Yale College in 1909 and has since been the general manager of the credit department of the Knight Campbell Music Company but is now associated with the Doherty Gas & Electric Company as new business manager and is also president of the Chamber of Commerce of Sedalia, Missouri. William B. Malone married Miss Ada Goldsmith, of Wheaton, Illinois.