Robert D. Alton was born in Carbondale, Pennsylvania, in 1860. After the death of his father in the Civil War, he and his mother and brother moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where Robert graduated from high school. From 1878 to 1881 he attended medical school at Western Reserve College and interned at St. Vincent's Hospital at Cleveland. In 1883 he came to Livingston, Montana, where he served as physician and surgeon for the Northern Pacific Railway, and established a private practice. He eventually resigned his position with the railway to work exclusively on his practice, and became involved in organizing St. Luke's Hospital, later becoming a member of their board. He continued his private practice until he moved to Portland, Oregon, in 1922. Aside from his medical practice Dr. Alton served on the Livingston School Board for three terms, was a stockholder in a bank in Portland, Oregon, and also owned 160 acres of farm land near Livingston. He married Livingston resident Anna Mintie in 1888 and the Altons had one son, Robert M., who later became an attorney in Portland, Oregon.