David Horton Elton

This house, located at 1209 7 Avenue South, was constructed by David Horton Elton around 1909-1910. The lot was purchased in April 1909 and the house was constructed in time to be included in the April 2, 1910 Publicity Section of the Lethbridge Herald. The house was constructed in the Arts and Crafts style. Changes were done to the house over the years. The front porch was enclosed in the 1940s and at some point an external chimney was added. As well, a second garage was added at the rear of the lot.

Elton lived in this home until his death in 1963. His wife, “Nora” Afton, passed away a year later in 1964.

Elton had many different occupations and associations in his life.

He was born in England in 1877 and, at the age of 13, immigrated with his widowed mother and siblings, to Utah where he apprenticed in the stone-cutting trade in Salt Lake City.

He met his wife “Nora” Afton Hauser while doing missionary work in the southern United States. It was also while doing missionary work that he became the editor of the “Southern Star”, a mission publication, and publishing became his career for the next seven years.

The two came to Canada in 1901, settling first in Cardston where Elton became publisher of the “Cardston Star”, one of Alberta’s first weekly newspapers. Elton organized the first newspaper “chain” in the province causing Senator Buchanan of the Lethbridge Herald to call him David “Hearst” Elton. Along with Colonel C.G. Porter, Bob Edwards (of Eye Opener fame), J.J. Young, and Fred Simpson, Elton helped organize the Alberta and Eastern British Columbia Press Association and served as Secretary.

In time, Elton’s interests turned from publishing to the law. In 1908, the family moved to Lethbridge so that David Elton could article with William Carlos Ives, a requirement of his University of Alberta law degree. In time, Elton became a barrister and solicitor and also served as Lethbridge City Police Magistrate.

After a couple of decades of practicing law, Elton turned his mind to politics, being elected as a Lethbridge city alderman in 1928 and mayor in 1935. He served as mayor until 1943.

Elton was additionally a poet. He could quote other’s poetry extensively and also wrote his own poems. A number of his original poems were published posthumously in 1966.