Arthur A. Denny
Encyclopedia
Arthur Armstrong Denny was present at the founding of Seattle, Washington, the acknowledged leader of the pioneer Denny Party
Denny Party
The Denny Party is a group of white pioneers credited with founding Seattle, Washington because they settled at Alki Point on November 13, 1851.A wagon party headed by Arthur A. Denny left Cherry Grove, Illinois on April 10, 1851...

, and later the city's wealthiest citizen and a 9-term member of the territorial
Washington Territory
The Territory of Washington was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from February 8, 1853, until November 11, 1889, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Washington....

 legislature. Seattle's former Denny Hill was named after him; it was flattened in a series of regrading projects and its former site is now known as the Denny Regrade
Denny Regrade, Seattle, Washington
The Denny Regrade is a neighborhood in Seattle, Washington, USA, that stretches north of the central business district to the grounds of Seattle Center. Its generally flat terrain was originally a steep hill, taken down as part of a mammoth construction project in the first decades of the 20th...

. The city's Denny Way, however, is named not after Arthur Denny, but after his younger brother David Denny
David Denny
David Thomas Denny was a member of the Denny Party, who are generally collectively credited as the founders of Seattle, Washington, USA. Though he ultimately underwent bankruptcy, he was a significant contributor to the shape of the city...

. While often taking credit for the founding of the City of Seattle, in reality the most he could legitimately claim was simply being there and in fact did little to contribute to the early development of the city.

Indiana, Illinois, and the way West

Denny was born near Salem
Salem, Indiana
Salem is a city in Washington Township, Washington County, Indiana, United States. Salem serves as the county seat, and its downtown area is on the National Register of Historic Places...

 Washington County
Washington County, Indiana
Washington County is a county located in the U.S. state of Indiana. As of 2010, the population was 28,262. The county seat is Salem.Washington County is part of the Louisville/Jefferson County, KY–IN Metropolitan Statistical Area.-Early settlers:...

, Indiana
Indiana
Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...

; by the time he was attending school his family had settled in Knox County
Knox County, Illinois
Knox County is a county located in the U.S. state of Illinois. According to the 2010 census, it has a population of 52,919, which is a decrease of 5.2% from 55,836 in 2000...

, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

. Both his parents were of Irish descent. His father John Denny (1793–1875), fought in the western battles of the War of 1812
War of 1812
The War of 1812 was a military conflict fought between the forces of the United States of America and those of the British Empire. The Americans declared war in 1812 for several reasons, including trade restrictions because of Britain's ongoing war with France, impressment of American merchant...

 and later served in the Illinois state legislature, elected as a Whig
Whig Party (United States)
The Whig Party was a political party of the United States during the era of Jacksonian democracy. Considered integral to the Second Party System and operating from the early 1830s to the mid-1850s, the party was formed in opposition to the policies of President Andrew Jackson and his Democratic...

. (He eventually traveled west with the Denny Party, but stayed on in Oregon
Oregon
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...

's Willamette River
Willamette River
The Willamette River is a major tributary of the Columbia River, accounting for 12 to 15 percent of the Columbia's flow. The Willamette's main stem is long, lying entirely in northwestern Oregon in the United States...

 Valley when Arthur and several others moved north to Puget Sound.) Denny did not have an easy childhood. He cared for his invalid mother while attending half-days in a log schoolhouse. He learned carpentry, taught school, studied surveying, and became a civil engineer and Knox County surveyor starting in 1843. In 1843, he married Mary Ann Boren; they were to have six children: Louisa Catherine Frye, Margaret Leona Denny, Rolland Herschell Denny, Orion Orvil Denny, Arthur Wilson Denny, and Charles Latimer Denny.

In 1851 he led the Denny Party
Denny Party
The Denny Party is a group of white pioneers credited with founding Seattle, Washington because they settled at Alki Point on November 13, 1851.A wagon party headed by Arthur A. Denny left Cherry Grove, Illinois on April 10, 1851...

 west. Leaving Illinois in April, they arrived in Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...

 on August 23. In November, he sailed on to Puget Sound
Puget Sound
Puget Sound is a sound in the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected marine waterways and basins, with one major and one minor connection to the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Pacific Ocean — Admiralty Inlet being the major connection and...

, arriving at Alki Point on Elliot Bay on November 13, 1851. It soon became clear that Alki was not the best spot for a settlement. The Denny Party soon relocated to the east shore of Elliott Bay, near what is now Pioneer Square
Pioneer Square, Seattle, Washington
Pioneer Square is a neighborhood in the southwest corner of Downtown Seattle, Washington, USA. It was once the heart of the city: Seattle's founders settled there in 1852, following a brief six-month settlement at Alki Point on the far side of Elliott Bay. The early structures in the neighborhood...

, the original heart of what soon became the city of Seattle.

Career

On February 15, 1852, Denny and others filed their claims. Denny soon established himself selling cargo on commission for ship captains. In 1854 when he began a general merchandise partnership with Dexter Horton
Dexter Horton
Dexter Horton was the founder of the first bank in the City of Seattle. Before his founding of the Bank of Dexter Horton in 1870 financial transactions were conducted by merchants....

 and David Phillips. In 1855, he volunteered to serve in the Indian War then taking place in Washington Territory. He served in several political offices. He was a county commissioner first for Thurston County (in what was then still part of the Oregon Territory
Oregon Territory
The Territory of Oregon was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from August 14, 1848, until February 14, 1859, when the southwestern portion of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Oregon. Originally claimed by several countries , the region was...

), and then, after Washington became a separate territory, for King County
King County, Washington
King County is a county located in the U.S. state of Washington. The population in the 2010 census was 1,931,249. King is the most populous county in Washington, and the 14th most populous in the United States....

, where Seattle is located.

He also served as Seattle's first postmaster and in the territorial House of Representatives for nine consecutive terms, including serving a term as speaker. From 1861 to 1865 he was registrar of the General Land Office
General Land Office
The General Land Office was an independent agency of the United States government responsible for public domain lands in the United States. It was created in 1812 to take over functions previously conducted by the United States Department of the Treasury...

. He served as territorial delegate to the thirty-ninth United States Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....

.

Denny soon turned from politics to business. He returned to being a partner with Horton and Phillips, this time by taking a half interest in Dexter Horton and Co., the bank founded by Horton and Phillips in 1870, which would eventually become Seattle-First National Bank. It was named Seafirst Bank
Seafirst Bank
Seafirst Corporation was a bank holding company based in Seattle, Washington. Formed on November 11, 1929, from the merger of Seattle's three largest banks, the First National Bank Group, the Dexter Horton National Bank , and Seattle National Bank, the bank was originally named First Seattle Dexter...

, when first absorbed by Bank of America. and eventually wholly absorbed by the Bank of America
Bank of America
Bank of America Corporation, an American multinational banking and financial services corporation, is the second largest bank holding company in the United States by assets, and the fourth largest bank in the U.S. by market capitalization. The bank is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina...

. He was president of the Seattle and Walla Walla Railroad
Seattle and Walla Walla Railroad
The Seattle and Walla Walla Railroad was the first railroad in Seattle, Washington...

 Company. Later in life, he was active in Society of Washington Pioneers and wrote a memoir, Pioneer Days in Puget Sound.

Among his other achievements, he was involved in founding the University of Washington
University of Washington
University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...

 and donated much of the land for its original site. On the current U.W. campus, Denny Hall, the former administration building (built 1895) is named in his honor. However, Denny's land donation should not be attributed to a sense of civic duty. Denny donated the land in an effort to save face with the Methodist Church. The original land donation for the purposes of an institution of higher learning was made by David Swinson "Doc" Maynard but Maynard repossessed the land when he suspected members of the Denny party were spreading rumors about his wife. Blaming Denny for this disaster, the church was able to bring considerable pressure to bear on him. This pressure manifested itself in the form of the Rev. Daniel Bagley who using this information to the fullest was able to convince Denny to give the best 8½ acres in his donation claim to replace that which he had lost.

Personality and politics

Denny was an ascetic, a devout Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...

 (conservative in his religion to the point of opposing a divorce
Divorce
Divorce is the final termination of a marital union, canceling the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage and dissolving the bonds of matrimony between the parties...

 law), and a lifelong teetotaler
Teetotalism
Teetotalism refers to either the practice of or the promotion of complete abstinence from alcoholic beverages. A person who practices teetotalism is called a teetotaler or is simply said to be teetotal...

. Indeed, he was teetotal to the point where he had the customers of his store buy their liquor direct from visiting ship captains so that he would not be involved in the transactions. He was a political conservative
Conservatism
Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...

, and a cautious and conservative businessman and investor. Denny, in his memoir, described his decision to head north from Portland to Puget Sound as a "desperate venture". Lorraine McConaghy, historian at Seattle's Museum of History and Industry
Museum of History and Industry
The Museum of History and Industry is a museum located in the Montlake neighborhood of Seattle, Washington, United States.Accredited by the American Association of Museums, MOHAI is "dedicated to enriching lives by preserving, sharing and teaching the diverse history of Seattle, the Puget Sound...

, agrees, but characterizes it further as "the only one he ever undertook."

This dour man is nonetheless remembered for at least one example of his wit. Also in his memoir, recounting his failure in 1853 to reach agreement with David Swinson "Doc" Maynard
David Swinson Maynard
David Swinson "Doc" Maynard was an American pioneer and doctor, and one of Seattle's primary founders. He was an effective civic booster and, compared to other white settlers, a relative advocate of Native American rights...

 over what was intended to be a joint plat
Plat
A plat in the U.S. is a map, drawn to scale, showing the divisions of a piece of land. Other English-speaking countries generally call such documents a cadastral map or plan....

of the town of Seattle, he wrote, "it was found that the doctor, who occasionally stimulated a little, had that day taken enough to cause him to feel that he was not only monarch of all he surveyed, but what Boren and I had surveyed as well." It was later shown in a review done by a professional engineering firm on behalf of the city that it was in fact Denny that was wrong about the direction the streets should run and had actually violated the law in his plat of the city. Denny who was trained surveyor should have known better but was more interested in being "right" than correct. Arthur A. Denny is interred at the Denny Family plot at Lake View Memorial Park in Seattle.

Works

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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