Oscar David COLVIN

COLVIN, INGLIS, BEDFORD, EISENMENGER, ANDERSON, LANGHORST, CARTWRIGHT

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 2/10/2024 at 13:06:42

August 3, 1898 ---- February 9, 1983

Oscar David "Dave" Colvin, founder of several private mineral museums, was born in Dows, Iowa, on August 3, 1898, the son of Jeannett "Nettie" Inglis and Charles Everett Colvin, a Pennsylvania-born hotel keeper. By 1910 Dave's father had died, and his mother moved the family to Fairmount, Minnesota. Dave served in the US Navy during World War I (1917-1919). By 1920 he and his mother were living with Dave's brother Clifford Colvin in Sherburn, Minnesota (about 15 miles from Fairmont), where Dave worked as a machinist. As of 1930 he was working as a salesman in a garage (probably an auto dealership). As of 1940 he was divorced and living with his teenage sons James and Richard while working in the garage/auto dealership on Main Street in Sherburn—a job he held for 35 years. He also had a daughter [Drusilla].

Dave married Grace E. Bedford [married on June 29, 1920 in Martin County, Minnesota], but she died in 1929 (mother of James and Richard?). He then married Iona E. Eisenmenger in 1933 [July 24, 1933] (which marriage ended in divorce), then Lottie F. Anderson in 1948 [December 30, 1948], and finally Alice _____ [(Langhorst) Cartwright] (who survived him in 1983). In retirement, Dave moved from the Minneapolis area to Boise, Idaho in 1976 (10545 Irving Court).

Dave established three mineral museums around the country. One of them was in Crystal, Minnesota (a suburb of Minneapolis) on Bottineau Road. It was in a large steel-shed building, with a small shop selling specimens and a large display area, showing in particular many very large specimens of Tri-State golden calcite scalenohedrons (sadly, all of them acid-washed) covering matrix, and large fluorite specimens from Cave-in-Rock, Illinois. Had relatives in Arizona, where he often visited on collecting trips.

Oscar David Colvin died while traveling through Rupert, Idaho on February 9, 1983, at age 85, and is buried in Dry Creek Cemetery, Garden City, Idaho. When he died, the contents of his Crystal, Minnesota museum were packed in moving vans and trucked to Idaho where they were put into storage. Their current disposition is unknown.

References:
KRAUS, P. D. (1983) Obituaries: Oscar David Colvin. Lapidary Journal, 37 (2), May, p. 382.
US Federal Census 1900, 1930.

source - http://www.minrec.org/labels.asp?colid=1868