Mollie Dyer moved to Morrison July 3, 1902, when she married Otis Albert Pike. “That’s why we selected her,” Alex Rooney said in 1954 when she was elected Queen of Morrison’s Pioneer Days celebration. “Her husband is Morrison’s oldest surviving pioneer. She’s practically a native herself.” It only took her 52 years!
Born in Missouri Jan. 8, 1883, Mrs. Pike moved to Denver with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Jefferson Dyer, in 1889. In 1900 she moved with her father to Cripple Creek, where he started a mercantile business. In Morrison she was active in town life and a community asset with many accomplishments to her credit. Mrs. Pike was a lifelong Democrat, the Rocky Mountain News reported, and served as superintendent of the Morrison Methodist Sunday School. She was also secretary of the school district 12 years and president of the school board four years, a leader in PTA, active in Red Cross and child welfare work, and a leader in salvage and war bond work in two World Wars. In 1954, she was named Queen of Morrison’s Pioneer Days event. For 35 years, she also wrote a column for Jefferson County weekly newspapers.
Mollie’s husband, Otis Albert Pike (1877-1955), was a Morrison native and a grandnephew of Gen. Zebulon Montgomery Pike, for whom Pike’s Peak is named. His parents were Anderson Gage Pike (1830-1899) and Hannah Fenton Pike (1840-1887), pioneers who settled in Morrison sometime after 1864, leaving three children behind in Westview Cemetery in Kirkville, Iowa. Otis served the town as its Mayor for 14 years (circa 1930s) and owned the Pike and Perry Mercantile.
Otis and Mollie had three daughters, Esta Pike Burke (1903-1991) of New York City; Alberta Pike Boyd (1905-1975), owner of Denver’s Vogue Theater; and Genevieve Pike Moore (1907-1974), an employee of the Defense Department in Anchorage, Alaska. The Pikes are buried in the Morrison Cemetery; a nearby stone memorializes their daughters.
The Rocky Mountain News (Daily), Volume 95, Number 210, July 29, 1954; RMN, Volume 93, Number 188, July 6, 1952; RMN, Volume 96, Number 354, December 20, 1955.
Morrison History 
