Political party Democratic Party Democratic Party Occupation Dairy farmer Resigned April 1974 | Name Elton Trowbridge Children Thomas E. Trowbridge Spouse Irene Trowbridge | |
Born December 15, 1904
Holt, Gage County, Nebraska, US ( 1904-12-15 ) Residence Saratoga, Carbon County, Wyoming Died 1974, Wyoming, United States | ||
Elton F. Trowbridge (December 15, 1904—April 1974) was a dairy farmer from Carbon County, Wyoming, who served as a Democrat in the Wyoming House of Representatives from 1961 until his death during his seventh consecutive two-year term.
Trowbridge was born to Henry Albert Trowbridge and the former Etta Bradeen. The 1910 census shows 6-year-old Elton Trowbridge living in Holt in Gage County near Beatrice in southeastern Nebraska. On May 21, 1927, Trowbridge married the former Anna Irene Kohr. The 1930 census showed Trowbridge residing in Nuckolls County, Nebraska. In 1935, Elton and Irene were teachers and farmers who moved with their son and daughter from Superior in Nuckolls County to Carbon County (seat of government: Rawlins) in southern Wyoming. There, the couple purchased a dairy farm on Cow Creek near the community of Saratoga. Elton and his son, Thomas E. Trowbridge, worked the farm for the remaining years of Elton’s life. Nearly five years after his father's death, Thomas Trowbridge, an agriculture graduate of the University of Wyoming at Laramie, was elected to the same seat in the Wyoming House that Elton had previously held. By that time, Thomas Trowbridge had moved to Grand Encampment in Carbon County. Like his father, Thomas Trowbridge was a Democrat. After he served two terms in the House, the younger Trowbridge advanced to a single four-year term in the state Senate from 1983-1986. He later served in the gubernatorial administration of Michael J. Sullivan and as Wyoming state director of the United States Department of Agriculture under U.S. President Bill Clinton.
During hs tenure in the Wyoming House, Trowbridge served on many committees though not all simultaneously, including (1) Public Lands & Water Resources, (2) House Rules and Procedures, (3) Education, (4) Game and Fish, (5) Livestock and Agriculture, and (6) City and County Affairs. In 1967, Trowbridge and Republican Representative Harold Hellbaum, later the House Speaker, were part of a bipartisan coalition seeking to bring public television to Wyoming. Their pioneering work did not pay practical dividends until 1983, when Wyoming launced its first PBS station in Riverton. Wyoming was the 49th state to have public television; Montana followed in 50th place.
Trowbridge and his wife, who survived him, are interred at Saratoga Cemetery.