Don Byron Colton (September 15, 1876 – August 1, 1952) was an American lawyer and politician who served six consecutive terms as a U.S. Representative from Utah from 1921 to 1933.
Colton was receiver of the United States land office at Vernal from 1905 to 1914. He served as delegate to the Republican National Conventions in 1904, 1924, and 1928 as well as a delegate to the Republican State conventions from in 1914 and 1924. He was an unsuccessful candidate for United States Senator in 1934.
Colton served as member of the Utah House of Representatives in 1903. He also served as member of the State senate from 1915 to 1917.
Congress
Colton was elected as a Republican to the Sixty-seventh and to the five succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1921 – March 3, 1933). He served as chairman of the Committee on Elections No. 1 (Sixty-ninth and Seventieth Congresses), Committee on Public Lands (Seventieth and Seventy-first Congresses). He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1932 to the Seventy-third Congress. While in Congress Colton served as the Sunday School teacher for the LDS Church Sunday School in Washington, D.C.[1]
Professional career
He engaged in teaching in 1898, 1901, and 1902. Colton resumed the practice of law in Vernal, Utah.
He moved to Salt Lake City in 1937 and continued the practice of law.
He also engaged in farming, ranching, sheep and stock raising, and other business enterprises.
Death
Colton died in Salt Lake City, Utah, August 1, 1952. Immediately prior to this he was serving as the head of the LDS Church mission home in Salt Lake City.[4] Colton had been serving in this position since he had taken over from J. Wyley Sessions in 1938.
Colton was interred in Wasatch Lawn Cemetery.
Sources
^Kimball, Spencer W., talk in October 1968 general conference
^Andrew Jenson. Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia, vol. 4, p. 651
