South Platte Valley Historical Society`````````````````````````````South Platte Valley Historical Society

Rebuilding the Past - For the Future

Last Update

July 5, 2010

John Martin

Founder of the South Platte Valley Historical Society

A Vision

John T. Martin

July 2, 1917 - February 23, 1997

By: Clara Lee Martin

John was born July 2, 1914 in Denver to Arthur and Argie Martin.  His dad was a carpenter.  At the age of ten he and his family moved to a farm his dad purchased east of Fort Lupton.  John graduated from Fort Lupton High School and then went to business school in Denver for a couple of years.  He then decided he needed further education and went on to college, first year in Texas and then to the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley his sophomore year.  In the summer of that year, he and Clara Lee Vincent were married.

John and Clara Lee then went to Texas and were attending North Texas University in Denton, Texas, when the United States entered World War II following the bombing of Pearl Harbor.  John had already started working for North American Aviation as well as carrying his college classes.  He became a tool design engineer and a year or two later his college career was interrupted.  Clara Lee graduated from North Texas University.  During the final year of the war he was drafted and after training was sent to Korea where he spent a year in the Occupation Forces in the General’s office in Seoul.  His business school training served him well in that circumstance.  On the ship with several thousand other soldiers John heard his name coming over the loud speaker one day.  He thought it was a mistake but when the call kept coming he decided he should respond.  He was informed that they had discovered from his resume that he could take and transcribe shorthand.  When he protested that he hadn’t done it in quite a while and really wouldn’t be able to do it that well, they simply ignored his protests and pulled him off the ship and sent him to the Inspector General’s office in Seoul.  He spent the next year in that office and bouncing around all over Korea in the back of the General’s jeep.  What an experience!  Clara Lee and their two-year-old son, Jack, returned to Colorado for that year.  John returned to Colorado at the end of his service and worked for Gates Rubber Company as a tool design engineer.  In 1950, he and Clara Lee returned to Fort Lupton to go into their own business- the wholesale and retail gasoline business with the Bay Company.

From that point John’s activities branched in many directions.  He added a small cafe called "The Coffee Cup" to the first service station.  When the highway changed and he moved to the new location, another restaurant called "The Branding Iron," was added.  He also began selling insurance from his office at that location.  Then he became a contractor and with his brother, Jim, he began developing the family farm into subdivisions east of Fort Lupton.  With his building crew he built houses in Fort Lupton and the surrounding area.  His crew, with the help of the church members, built the present-day First Baptist Church in Fort Lupton.

In 1969, a change took place in the business location.  The people who had leased the restaurant gave up the restaurant and John’s wife Clara Lee, began running the restaurant.  The restaurant became quit successful and John decided to close the station and eventually moved his office and the insurance business to 604 First Street in Fort Lupton.  Meantime the children, Jack, Shelley, Dana, and Mitchell were growing up.  They all spent many hours working in both businesses.  Mitchell now owns the Branding Iron business with Clara Lee as his landlord.  Dana is an attorney with the Inter American Bank of Latin America in Washington, D.C.  Shelley is a courier for Fed X and lives in Greeley.  Jack is a United Methodist minister and lives in Mannassas, Virginia.

In addition to all his business activities, he was very active and held many posts in his church, First Baptist, and was very active in community affairs.  He was a past president of the Rotary Club and the Optimist Club.  He also was very politically involved.  He became mayor in Fort Lupton.  He was instrumental in promoting Home Rule for Weld County and served as the first president of Weld County Council.  He was elected county commissioner from 1981-1985.  He served on numerous county advisory groups, including the building, housing, and mental health advisory committees.  He was a trustee on the board of directors for the North Colorado Medical Center for 6 years, and served on the Weld County Chapter of the Salvation Army.  He also served on United Way and Red Cross Committees.

One of his most loved projects was the South Platte Valley Historical Society with its plans to rebuild the 1836 fort at Fort Lupton.  He was president of this group and one of its founders.  History was enormously important to him.  Through that interest he met Dorothy and David Lupton long before the beginning of the Society, and they became fast friends who were very helpful in this project.

John was artistic in so many ways and oil painting became his hobby.  It enabled him to put some of his dreams on canvas for all of us to enjoy.  Then one day a man named Cliff Lupton came from England to visit Fort Lupton in search of his own family history and wondering if he might be related to Lancaster Lupton.  He and John began discussing John’s dream to rebuild the fort and they decided to open a bank account in Fort Lupton with dreams of someday doing just that.  Cliff made the first deposit- ten dollars -to open that account, and their dream was on the way.  Now look at the progress that has been made! 

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