A.V. Hunter
Absalom Valentine Hunter was born in Missouri in 1846. In the early 1870s, Hunter came to Colorado and started in the livestock business in Colorado Springs. At age 24, he began his banking career as a cashier at the Peoples Bank.
In 1879, when the wealth from silver strikes in Leadville began to fire the nation's imagination, Hunter and George W. Trimble, who had married a sister of Mrs. Hunter, moved to Leadville and established the Miners Exchange Bank and later the Carbonate National Bank. This bank grew and had the reputation of one of the strongest and wealthiest establishments in Colorado. These banks were known in Colorado for the high ratio of cash to deposits which Hunter always maintained, and were among the few banks about which there was never a suspicion of instability.
In 1911, at age 65, Hunter and his wife moved to Denver and left their Leadville home, which was regarded as the finest and most tasteful one in town – filled with rare objects of art and paintings. Hunter’s move was to assume the presidency of First National Bank. A.V. Hunter was a scrupulous, honorable, direct, and meticulous businessman. For years after they moved to Denver, the Hunters lived at the Brown Palace Hotel, where they occupied a suite of eight rooms, housing many of the precious art objects they had brought from their Leadville home.
Hunter died in August 1924, at age 78, leaving half his fortune to the established A.V. Hunter Charitable Trust, targeted towards children, aged persons, and indigent adults. Since its inception, the trust has made grant distributions of more than $45 million to charitable projects in the state of Colorado.
In 1879, when the wealth from silver strikes in Leadville began to fire the nation's imagination, Hunter and George W. Trimble, who had married a sister of Mrs. Hunter, moved to Leadville and established the Miners Exchange Bank and later the Carbonate National Bank. This bank grew and had the reputation of one of the strongest and wealthiest establishments in Colorado. These banks were known in Colorado for the high ratio of cash to deposits which Hunter always maintained, and were among the few banks about which there was never a suspicion of instability.
In 1911, at age 65, Hunter and his wife moved to Denver and left their Leadville home, which was regarded as the finest and most tasteful one in town – filled with rare objects of art and paintings. Hunter’s move was to assume the presidency of First National Bank. A.V. Hunter was a scrupulous, honorable, direct, and meticulous businessman. For years after they moved to Denver, the Hunters lived at the Brown Palace Hotel, where they occupied a suite of eight rooms, housing many of the precious art objects they had brought from their Leadville home.
Hunter died in August 1924, at age 78, leaving half his fortune to the established A.V. Hunter Charitable Trust, targeted towards children, aged persons, and indigent adults. Since its inception, the trust has made grant distributions of more than $45 million to charitable projects in the state of Colorado.