Landmarks: Jenkins helped shape Spokane

One of early Spokane’s most generous benefactors may be one of the least known.

Col. David P. Jenkins does have an elaborate grave monument at Fairmount Memorial Park named for him, as well as one building in Spokane and one school in Chewelah, but that’s pretty much it.

And as significant as he was to the area’s development, perhaps even less well known is his remarkable service in the Civil War, his association with famous generals in that war and his post-war legal service.

Jenkins was born in Jefferson County, Ohio, the youngest child of Quaker parents, whose religious beliefs put them in opposition to slavery. He studied law in Cincinnati and practiced law in Illinois, where he was an acquaintance of Abraham Lincoln, as both of them were attorneys for the Illinois Circuit Courts.

According to Volume 1 of “History of Washington: The Evergreen State from Early Dawn to Daylight,” when the Civil War began, Jenkins was appointed a major in the 1st Regiment Illinois Cavalry. He was taken prisoner at the siege of Lexington, but was later exchanged and resumed his military service. Recommissioned as a lieutenant colonel, he served under Gen. Ambrose Burnside in Kentucky and Tennessee. He then served under Gen. William T. Sherman in the famous march to Atlanta. He also served under Gens. John Pope and Ulysses T. Grant and resigned as a colonel at the end of the war, resuming his law practice in Knoxville, where he practiced principally in the federal courts, litigating what has been described as important cases connected with the Civil War. Illness caused him to relocate twice, and he eventually settled in Washington Territory, where in 1874 he established a law firm in Seattle and where he served as city attorney.

Upon learning that the Northern Pacific Railway connection was coming to Spokane, he came, too, in about 1879, recognizing that there were business opportunities opening up in the area. He befriended Chief Spokane Garry, who one account stated he greatly admired, so much so that he kept a photo of the chief on his mantle. It was written that Jenkins was the first homesteader north of the Spokane River, where he had a large parcel of land that bordered on the north and south by what is now Mallon Avenue and the Spokane River and east and west by Howard and Cedar streets. As there were no bridges across the river, he kept a boat at the base of the falls so he could easily get to the downtown area.

He had numerous real estate investments, a farm in Colville and owned what was described as “one half of the town site of Chewelah.” He also had a number of gold, silver, copper and iron claims.

A man of considerable means, he was generous with his community. He signed the Spokane City Charter in 1891 and when Spokane was named county seat in 1893, he donated a portion of his land north of the river for construction of a new courthouse – the very same courthouse that today still stands at 1116 W. Broadway. He also donated 26 acres in the area that is now Kendall Yards for construction of Spokane College, a venture that eventually failed, largely due to the economic downturn of 1893, with the property reverting to him and which he operated for several years as Jenkins University.

Concerned for young men who could not afford to go to college because they had to work to support their families, in 1907 he established a $50,000 trust for Spokane’s first vocational school for adults, located at the YMCA. He gave land for the construction of Plymouth Congregational Church and parsonage at Adams and Mallon. He helped establish the Spokane Humane Society and donated land for it. The building that is named for him is the 1910 three-story structure at 802 N. Monroe St., very near the courthouse.

In 1910 he also donated land and capital to build Jenkins High School in Chewelah. He eventually retired to that community, where he had room to house his many pets, including a domesticated deer. He died in 1915 at age 91.

Generosity to the community continued on after him. One example – his daughter Emma Rue donated land for the construction of the Spokane Coliseum. The Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena now stands at that site.