History of the Colton Family
in the United States

This youngest daughter of Abram Walter Colton (#1089) and Catherine (Van Horne) Colton was born in a house located next to her father’s office building on Madison Avenue and Erie Street in Toledo, Lucas Co., OH on 2 September, 1873.

From this auspicious beginning her ancestral history on both her mother and father’s families were of the kind of things romantic and adventuresome novels might have been written. In fact, as we shall learn, writings would later become a big part in her life.

Her grandfather, Carlos Colton (#525), had served as a surgeon in the War of 1812 alongside his father, Dr. Walter Colton (#236). He was taken prisoners and detained on the slope H. M. Wolfe for a month before being released and returned to civilian life. He later engaged in the shipping business in Toledo, Ohio which later would involve his son Abram Walter Colton as the owner/general manager of the Lake Erie Transportation Company (a line of lake freighters). Her mother, Catherine (Van Horne) Colton was descended from the prominent Knickerbocker family of New York.

Her entire family was attuned to the more affluent lifestyle of the times, being well-to-do by any standards, but her father often took a young Olive with him to the docks and ware houses where he talked and joked with company’s employees. Later in her life there would be clandestine excursions to “Smoky Hollow,” a poor section of north Toledo that left a strong impression on the still young Olive Colton of those less fortunate than herself. She resolved then to try and help these folks when she got older.

First she would attend kindergarten at Miss Forsythe’s school, then a year in public school, and then she completed her formal education through high school at the Smead School for Girls (later the Maumee Valley Country Day School).

She continued to educate herself and having the luxury of being able to travel extensively she began by taking a trip to California in 1885, at 12 years of age, and her travels would grow into trips throughout America and abroad to Europe until she was well into her eighties.

Her summers were usually spent with her sister Cornelia and friends at the Curtis Hotel in Lenox, Massachusetts, where Cornelia was instrumental in organizing the “Berkshire Music Festival” in Tanglewood, and where the Colton sisters became friends with the director, Serge Koussevitzky, and his wife Olga.

Olive Colton’s life was not just dedicated to travel. She was deeply involved in social and political issues throughout her lifetime. She gained a reputation as a suffragist and a reformer. She helped organize the District Nurses Association, the League of Women Voters, the Social Service Federation (later became the Child Welfare Agency), Consumers League and participated in lobbying efforts for the minimum wage, child labor laws, women’s suffrage, protection for working women, unemployment relief and for world peace. All of this would seem like an overwhelming task for any individual. However, we find no place where Olive was ever gainfully employed and her time was for her own choosing. She had the luxury of being able to throw herself into projects and devote as much time as needed. She was totally involved in these activities where she met, befriended and worked with many of the prominent women of the Toledo area and they were all involved in social, civic and philanthropic work on behalf of the good for all walks of life.

Family Home of Abram Walter Colton at 450 West Woodruff
at the corner of Collingwood Boulevard, Toledo, Ohio, ca 1930.
This house has since been torn down.