Perry Wilson Jenkins

Transcription

1 Perry Wilson Jenkins The Father of Sublette County Photographs compiled and short presentation prepared as a part of and during the preparation of historical research paper pursuant to receipt of a Wyoming State Historical Society Lola Homsher Endowment Grant Compiled by John W. Shields

2 The Bar Cross Ranch near Cora, Wyoming was Perry Jenkins home for many decades after he purchased it in January 1916 but his story started back in the East many years previously. Downloaded from:

3 P.W. Jenkins was one of nine students who graduated as the Class of 1890 from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio as notated in this 1892 Catalogue. Downloaded from: openlibrary.org/details/alumniformerstud00miamrich

4 P.W. Jenkins Born April 5, 1867 in Mt. Carmel, Indiana, the youngest of 11 children. Grew up on family farm near Peoria, Ohio. Education Miami University, A.B. (1890), University of Cincinnati and Columbia University, A.M. (1900) University of Chicago (Fellow in 1904) Educator Sweet Water College/Tennessee Military Academy in Sweet Water, Tennessee, Amity College in College Springs, Iowa, Professor of Mathematics at Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa, Professor of Mathematics and Astronomy and Director of Underwood Observatory at Lawrence College in Appleton, Wisconsin, University Fellow and Researcher at Yerke Observatory, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois,

5 Underwood Observatory on the campus of Lawrence College in Appleton, Wisconsin, no date. P.W. served as a Professor of Mathematics and Astronomy and as the Director of this Observatory from 1900 to Downloaded from (A collaborative digital library managed by the Appleton Public Library and the Outagamie County Historical Society).

6 The University of Chicago s Yerke Observatory was constructed near Geneva Lake, Wisconsin beginning in By 1896, the 90-foot diameter dome (above, left) was nearing completion. This 40-inch refractor telescope (left) commissioned in 1897 was the World s largest telescope until 1909 and still remains the World s largest refractor. The tube is 63 feet long. P.W. Jenkins worked with this telescope in 1904 and 1905 while a University Fellow at the University of Chicago. Downloaded at astro.uchicago.edu/vtour

7 P.W. s uncle Amos W. A.W. Smith hired Jenkins as a ranch hand when he came to Wyoming in 1905, and then helped grubstake P.W. s purchase of the Westfall Place several years later. This photo shows A.W. with his Pierce Arrow motorcar in front of the ranch house on the Willow Creek Ranch near Big Piney, no date. Downloaded from

8 Photographs used by permission of the Sublette County Artists Guild and taken from pp. 397 and 398 of More Tales of the Seeds-ka-dee, Historical Lore of Wyoming s Green River Valley (Walsworth, 1976) from the section entitled Uncle George by Miriam Barlow (P.W. s daughter). Amos W. A.W. Smith, 1912

9 This 1907 photograph is in the collection of the Museum of the Mountain Man in Pinedale and is captioned The Tenderfeet, however by this time Perry Jenkins had lived in Wyoming for approx. two years. It is presumed that his father in law, Will Smith, (left) was visiting from Burlington Junction, Missouri. P.W. married his wife, Eva Clara Smith, there in April Photograph downloaded from:

10 P.W. Jenkins announced his candidacy for the Wyoming House of Representatives in October This photo appeared in the October 10, 1910 issue of the Pinedale Roundup.

11 Photograph at right: Scanned portion of page 99 of Wyoming s Last Frontier: Sublette County, A Settlement History by Robert G. Rosenberg (High Plains Press, 1989); Photograph below: Portion of page 4 of Bar Cross Ranch real estate brochure obtained through contacts made via:

12 The Bar Cross Ranch straddled Uinta and Fremont County boundaries in 1895 and then was in both Lincoln and Fremont Counties after 1911 until the creation of Sublette County in 1921 which occurred after Representative P.W. Jenkins of Fremont County introduced the bill to create Sublette County. Portion of the Wyoming map taken from an 1895 World Atlas (obtained at

13 Scanned portion of page 98 of Wyoming s Last Frontier: Sublette County, A Settlement History by Robert G. Rosenberg (High Plains Press, 1989).

14 P.W. Jenkins while serving as President of the Wyoming State Senate, Wyoming State Archives, Department of State Parks and Cultural Resources

15 P.W. Jenkins with his Buick automobile at the Bar Cross Ranch headquarters near Cora, Wyoming, Photograph provided by Ruth Jenkins Wilson Oliver.

16 The cornerstone of the county building for Sublette County was placed June 1, 1931, in a ceremony conducted by the Masonic Grand Lodge of Wyoming during which P.W. Jenkins acted as the Grand Master. Jenkins gave a talk about the early history of the Green River Valley and Sublette County during the ceremony. Scanned in from page 108 of Pinedale, Wyoming: A Centennial History , (Sublette County Historical Society Museum of the Mountain Man, 2005) written and compiled by Ann Chambers Noble. Photograph available at:

17 Source: Perry W. Jenkins Papers Collection, Museum of the Mountain Man, Sublette County Historical Society, Pinedale, Wyoming P.W. ran for the U.S. House of Representatives again in He had previously run for that office in 1928.

18 Source: Perry W. Jenkins Papers Collection, Museum of the Mountain Man, Sublette County Historical Society, Pinedale, Wyoming If we allow the eastern agriculturist to win and succeed in destroying the Bureau of Reclamation, development of the west by the reclamation of its desert lands will be set back for years.

19 Source: Perry W. Jenkins Papers Collection, Museum of the Mountain Man, Sublette County Historical Society, Pinedale, Wyoming P.W. Jenkins, elected a Director for Wyoming of the National Reclamation Association in December 1932, convened the first Wyoming reclamation congress in Casper in July Jenkins was elected President of the Wyoming Reclamation Association and served in that capacity until This organization has continued for the past 75 years and is now known as the Wyoming Water Association.

20 During his April 1936 President s address at the Annual Conference of the Wyoming Reclamation Association, P.W. stated: It is not necessary for us to change our manner of living or methods of livelihood Wyoming can furnish comfortable homes for a multitude of those crowded in the unhealthy conditions of the east if we can but utilize the abundant resources the bountiful Creator has bestowed upon us. We must have people, capital and enterprises.

21 P.W., as a practicing Irrigation Engineer, investigated various techniques for developing conveyance ditches to move water, including DuPont s Agritrol line of dynamite, described as economical and effective when properly used in this circular from the 1930s. Scanned images from booklet located in the Perry W. Jenkins Papers Collection, Museum of the Mountain Man, Sublette County Historical Society, Pinedale, Wyoming.

22 Jenkins was a practicing Irrigation Engineer and licensed Surveyor in the State of Wyoming. He held Surveyor s License No. 27. This ditch map, and the following slide s ditch map, which date from 1914, were located in the P.W. Jenkins Papers Collection Held by the Sublette County Historical Society s Museum of the Mountain Man in Pinedale, Wyoming. This survey map and the map on the succeeding page from Perry W. Jenkins Papers Collection, Museum of the Mountain Man, Sublette County Historical Society, Pinedale, Wyoming.

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24 This concrete dam impounding additional water in New Fork Lake failed in December 1927 and was replaced by a more substantial earthen dam completed in December Photographs provided by Ruth Jenkins Wilson Oliver; map from the Wyoming State Engineer s Office.

25 P.W. Jenkins, left and Lew Hennick, right, in costume at one of the first Green River Rendezvous events celebrated annually since 1935, no date. Obtained at

26 Letterhead above from Perry W. Jenkins Papers Collection, Museum of the Mountain Man, Sublette County Historical Society, Pinedale, Wyoming; Photographs below left and right downloaded from In addition to his ranching interests, P.W. at one time or another owned the Western Drug Store (company letterhead is shown above), the Western Cash Grocery and was associated with the Cora Mercantile Company. Jenkins sold the drug store building, shown above, to Marie Farrell in 1946.

27 Photograph of P.W. Jenkins in Photograph provided by Ruth Jenkins Wilson Oliver.

28 Newspaper clipping from Las Vegas paper reporting on the December 8-9, 1952 meeting of the Colorado River Water Users Association held at the Thunderbird Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. Newspaper clipping from Perry W. Jenkins Papers Collection, Museum of the Mountain Man, Sublette County Historical Society, Pinedale, Wyoming.

29 P.W. Jenkins (left) received an LLD degree from the University of Wyoming during Commencement Exercises on June 6, Also honored on that date with UW s most coveted award were Governor Milward Simpson, Susan J. Quealy (a founder of Kemmerer), American Historian David Morris Potter and Geologist William Thomas Nightingale. The other degree recipient with Jenkins, above, is not identified. Jenkins had turned 88 years old two months earlier (on 4/5/55). Photograph provided by Ruth Jenkins Wilson Oliver.

30 Despite enjoying good health into his mid-eighty s, Jenkins succumbed to causes incident to age in a Salt Lake City, Utah hospital on Sunday, June 18, He was 88 years old. Funeral services were conducted at the First Presbyterian Church of Salt Lake City with Masonic Services held in the Pinedale Community Hall that afternoon. Interment occurred in the family plot in the Pinedale Cemetery. Photograph provided by Ruth Jenkins Wilson Oliver.

31 A large Thank you is owed and extended to the Lola Homsher Endowment Committee of the Wyoming State Historical Society for providing a $500 funding award supporting this history research project. The assistance and cooperation of the Sublette County Historical Society Museum of the Mountain Man is gratefully acknowledged. Photograph from page 7 of Bar Cross Ranch real estate brochure obtained through contacts made via: