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Note: This
is one in a series of historical stories about local families
in the Trinidad region. Click here to find out more
about how these stories were collected.
Daniel
J. Penno was one of the early newspaper men of Trinidad,
CO. Daniel J. Penno was born in 1876 which was the year
the United States celebrated its Centennial. He worked
summers at Detroit Free Press and the Grand Hotel on Mackinac
Island. He graduated with a degree in law from Ann Arbor
University in Michigan. He married Hattie Handy in Blenheim,
Ontario, Canada. Their son Glenn was born in 1903.
A doctor told him that he had a spot on his lung and should
go west before he developed Tuberculosis. T.B. was a killer
in those days. He left his wife and son with his parents
in Michigan and took the Santa Fe train to Colorado. He
got off near Trinidad at El Moro. El Moro was the county
seat in 1905. His first job was a conductor on the city
street car which kept him out in the fresh air all day.
By fall his lungs were all cleared up, so he sent for
his wife and son, having rented a small house at 516 W.
Baca. It was the only house they ever lived in that had
been occupied before them; for after that he built many
houses. He built ten houses on Baca Street. They would
live in a new house while he would sell the old one.
In 1911 a daughter, Genevieve, was born at 1221 Alta.
She still resides in the last house he was to have built.
It is called "Oaknoll" at 700 block of Topeka
Ave. She lives with her husband Thomas Arzich, a well
known area business man. They still attend the church
that her father attended. In fact Daniel donated the land
in which now houses the parish hall for Trinity Episcopal
Church. Daniel Penno taught school during his first year
in Trinidad, and made acquaintance
of Senator Barela. The Senator took a liking to this young
lawyer just out of school, and asked him to come to Denver
with him, and be Clerk of the Senate for a year. So off
the little family went to Denver, where in his time off
he took a part-time graduate course at Boulder. While
there he rented three railroad cars and sold excursions
to a Boulder football game in Lincoln, Nebraska. He sold
a lot of the $5.00 round trip tickets to Denver business
men and alumni. He approached a banker named Mr. Mackey
who refused to buy a ticket, so he gave him two free passes
for him and his wife. This was instrumental in getting
him interested in Boulder football and upon the death
of Mr. Mackey he bequeathed a million dollars to build
the Mackey Auditorium which still stands. In 1940 the
college at Boulder had a special banquet in Mr. Penno's
honor; thanking him as they gave him credit for the donation.
Returning to Trinidad, Senator Barela, who owned the Spanish
paper "El Progresso", influenced Daniel into
starting a paper for labor called "Trinidad Free
Press". By the time of the 1913 coal mine strike,
Mr. Penno had 40 newspaper boys and was one of the largest
papers in Trinidad. He continued until 1950 when Senator
Barela died. The Free Press was then expanded to include
the weekly El Progresso. Daniel Penno passed away in 1952
and his wife followed in 1968.
(Note:
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