CO-ROOTS-L Archives

From: "Maggie Stewart" <>
Subject: JOHN S. BROUGHTON.
Date: Wed, 26 Jan 2000 02:56:04 -0500

"History of Colorado", edited by Wilbur Fisk Stone, published by The S. J.
Clarke Publishing Co. (1918) Vol. II


p. 469-470



JOHN S. BROUGHTON.

John S. Broughton, president of the Colonial Amusement Company,
has more than made good in the motion picture business since starting
out in Denver in this connection four years ago. He has today one of
the best paying theatres, on Curtis street and has built up his
business by enterprising methods and close study of the popular taste.
He was born in London, England, November 9, 1861, and is a son of the
late John R. Broughton, who was born in England and was a blacksmith by
trade. He spent his entire life in his native country and there passed
away March 19, 1917, at the age of seventy seven years, his birth
having occurred in 1840. His wife bore the maiden name of Sarah Gent
and is still living, being yet a resident of London.

John S. Broughton was the eldest in their family of six children,
three sons and three daughters. He acquired his education in private
schools of London and afterward served an apprenticeship in mechanical
lines in the employ of the British government. After completing his
term of indenture he came to America, arriving on this side of the
Atlantic on the 19th of April, 1882. He first made his way to
Cleveland, Ohio, and after a short sojourn there, decided to come still
further west. Selecting Colorado as his destination, he arrived in
Denver in 1884. In 1887 he went to Colorado City, where he entered the
employ of the Colorado Midland Railway. Later, he went to Mexico, where
he engaged with the Mexican Central Railway, remaining there during the
ensuing four and one-halt years. Returning to Cleveland, in 1898, he
entered the employ of the Upson Nut Company, as a machinist, later
becoming general superintendent of the business, as well as a
stockholder in the corporation. This association was continued for
sixteen years during which period the adoption of numerous devices
invented by Mr. Broughton, had proven important factors in a
substantial expansion of the business.

In 1914, Mr. Broughton again became a resident of Denver where he
has since continued to make his home and is now numbered among the
progressive business men of the city, and where within a short time
following his arrival, he acquired ownership of his present business.
This he has since developed into one of the leading amusement places in
Denver. He has also secured a fifty year lease on his present building
and fifty feet adjoining and expects immediately after the close of the
war to erect one of the finest motion picture theatres in the west.

Mr. Broughton was married on the 29th of December, 1886, in
Denver, Colorado, to Miss Frances E. Home, a native of Oswego, New
York, and a daughter of the late Henry and Anna (Walters) Home, of the
Orkney islands, Scotland. They became the parents of two daughters:
Frances, the wife of Joseph Shillinsky, a resident of Cleveland, Ohio;
and Hazel, the wife of Max Tyler, also living in Cleveland.

During the first period of his residence in Colorado Mr.
Broughton was for eighteen months a member of the Colorado National
Guard, his association with the company covering the years 1895 and
1896. Later the company disbanded. Mr. Broughton became a naturalized
American citizen in 1890 and cast his first presidential vote for
President McKinley, since which time he has voted with the republican
party.

As a member of the Masonic fraternity, Mr. Broughton has achieved
both honor and distinction, all of his Masonic affiliations being in
Cleveland, Ohio. He is a member of Lakewood Lodge, No. 601, A. F. & A.
M.; Lake Erie Consistory, Scottish Rite masons, in which he has
attained the thirty-second degree; and also holding membership in
Forest City Commandery, No. 40, Knights Templar. He served as prelate
for six years, having been successively elected to that exalted
position, and was later elected and served as eminent commander. He
takes deep interest in the order and is a close student of the
mysteries of Masonic lore.

Mr. Broughton is a self made man who came to America empty-
handed. He earned his first money at teaching in his native land, for
which he received the small stipend of two cents per day, the custom
being at that time for the head teacher to select five of the best boys
of the class to teach the class for one day during the week. At the age
of twelve years, therefore, he began- teaching and soon had the entire
room to himself. For this service he received twelve cents per week. He
was ambitious and energetic, and the favorable reports -which he heard
of American opportunities led him to come to the new world to try his
fortune. Here he has made steady advancement, utilizing the means at
hand, and each year has seen him a step in advance of the place he had
attained the previous year. His continuous progress has been the result
of close application and the wise use of the opportunities that have
come to him, and today as president of the Colonial Amusement Company
he is conducting a profitable and growing business, presenting to the
public attractions which are of such a nature that make his patronage
in excess of that given to any other moving picture house of the city.

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• JOHN S. BROUGHTON. by "Maggie Stewart" <>