Although the Stanley family was not wealthy, education was highly valued and knowledge of science, poetry, and music was encouraged from a young age.

Scott's Marmion had special significance for the Stanley brothers, uniting their love of poetry and the arts with pride in their Scottish ancestry.

a battle cry quoted in this poem became the motto of the Stanley Dry Plate Company featured on their packaging (albeit with an error in punctuation) above the logo of a knight on horseback.

They used their hard-earned money to purchase wool cloth for school suits and Benjamin Greenleaf's National Arithmetic a book of equations that they completed.

When they reached age eleven, their great-uncle, Liberty Stanley, who had raised their father as his own son, taught them the art of violin making.

Charles Bennett made important improvements to the original formula but, ten years later, most photographers were still using a wet plate collodion process.

In 1896, his brother built a home for his family nearby at 638 Centre Street and soon acquired a summer residence at Squirrel Island, Maine.

By 1897, Francis Stanley had sold his horses and buggies and built his first automobile, using wagon and bicycle parts from Sterling Elliott's factory.

In 1899, John Brisben Walker (editor of Cosmopolitan Magazine, and an early investor in the area around Colorado Springs) expressed interest in purchasing the Stanleys' car business.

For a few months, while Walker and Barber managed the enterprise together, the Stanley Brothers stayed on as consultants, Francis in manufacturing and Freelan in marketing.

In November of that year, Freelan gave William McKinley a tour of Washington DC in a Stanley automobile, which was the first time a sitting U.S. President had ridden in a car.

Walker's Locomobile Company of America, which became more successful after switching to a combustion engine, moved in 1900 to Bridgeport, Connecticut, an important early center for the American auto industry.

The quality of their new cars was such that their rival in the photo plate business, George Eastman (of Kodak, Rochester, NY), became an avid customer, acquiring a Steamer in 1901.

In 1906, with driver Fred Marriott behind the wheel, the Stanleys' specially designed "Rocket Racer" broke the land speed record, achieving 127.66 miles per hour over one kilometer at Ormond Beach, Florida, earning them the Dewar Trophy.

After one night at the Brown Palace Hotel, Stanley arranged an appointment with Dr. Charles Bonney (MD, Harvard, 1889), the preeminent American expert on tuberculosis.

Stanley spent the remainder of the winter at 1401 Gilpin Street but, when his symptoms had not improved by June, he decided to spend the summer in the Colorado mountains.

With the help of English architect Henry "Lord Cornwallis" Rogers, with whom he had recently become acquainted, Stanley began the construction of a summer home there, which he called Rockside.

By 1907, Stanley and his wife had become enamored of the beauty of the Colorado mountains, comparing them to the "rock-ribbed" hills "ancient as the sun" of William Cullen Bryant's Thanatopsis.

Not content with the rustic accommodations, lazy pastimes, and relaxed social scene of their new home, Stanley resolved to turn Estes Park into a resort town.

During the day, guests at the Stanley enjoyed golf, bowling, horseback-riding, and motor excursions; at night there were formal dinners, concerts, and lighter entertainment such as billiards.

To help sustain these despite the growing number of tourists and sportsmen, he organized the establishment of the Fall River Fish Hatchery in 1907 and the introduction of a herd of elk from Yellowstone National Park in 1913, the offspring of which are now abundant in the Estes Valley.

After adopting Estes Park as his summer home, Freelan Stanley gradually shifted from his other business ventures to management of his hotel and philanthropy.

Future pro-hockey players Eddie Jeremiah (Boston Bruins) and Danny Sullivan (Hershey Bears) played for Hebron as students.

In 1933, his steam-powered car having long been superseded by combustion-powered models, Stanley called on Henry Ford, who now dominated the automobile industry, at his factory in Dearborn, Michigan.

Although the Stanleys continued to travel between Newton and Estes Park, Freelan began to think of retiring from public life and selling the hotel.

[1] Raised in a Calvinist household in the then tee-totaling State of Maine, Stanley did not drink alcoholic beverages and, having survived tuberculosis, he did not smoke cigars, unlike many men of his day.

In 1902 Stanley wrote a letter to the Newton Graphic criticizing Christian Science and expressing some negative opinions about orthodox interpretations of scripture.

He likely shared the attitudes expressed by biblical scholar Charles Augustus Briggs in his controversial address to the Union Theological Seminary in 1876.

He showed a sense of humor, posing for photographs dressed as "your Western man" in a ten-gallon hat and woolly chaps, and as the "King of Estes Park" with a tin canister on his head for a crown, placed there by the local children.

Stanley was inducted into the Colorado Business Hall of Fame by Rocky Mountain Junior Achievement and the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce in 2016.