An Illustrated History of the State of Washington, by Rev. H.K. Hines, D.D., The
Lewis Publishing Co., Chicago, IL., 1893, pages 338-340
	
	
	GRAHAM BARCLAY DENNIS, one of the leading citizens of Spokane, was born June
1, 1855. His father was an Englishman by birth, a minister of the gospel, an
author and linguist. The mother was of German descent. As far back as the family
lineage can be traced on both sides, the heads of the families were professional
men of note. The brothers and sisters of our subject lead professional lives.
	The greater part of G.B. Dennis' boyhood life was spent in Cincinnati, Ohio,
attending the primary and intermediate schools until his fourteenth year. He was
always an industrious student, arithmetic being his preference over all studies.
His earliest business experience was as a newsboy, at the age of ten years, and
four years later, much to the disappointment of his parents, he left school and
began the labor of life for himself. The following three years were spent as an
apprentice in the drug business, but the hard, dirty work experienced in the
subordinate part of his duties did not preclude his taking a course of lectures
at the Ohio Medical Institute, which was attended at night. Feeling that
progress would be slow in this business, he next became an employee in a
tobacco-manufacturing company, remaining there one year. At the age of eighteen
years, and beginning to feel the want of education, he took a collegiate course,
working at odd hours to defray his expenses at school. After leaving college Mr.
Dennis took the local editorship of the Dayton (Ohio) Daily Journal, but long
hours told upon his health, and he was forced to give up the work. He next
secured the position of assistant business manager of the same institution, but
after spending five years there his natural aptitude at mechanics and love of
science, coupled with a naturally inquisitive mind, led him into the field of
invention, and an electrical postage stamp canceler was the result. This was an
ingenious and useful machine, but in order to bring it to a financial success
required more money and experience than our subject could command. Out of
position and penniless, Mr. Dennis then opened an office for the collection of
accounts, which finally developed into a semi-banking business, including the
organization of stock companies. Ten years of great success followed, then
failing in health, caused by overwork, a change of scene, life and climate was
necessitated.
	May 5, 1885, our subject came with his family to Spokane Falls. Although
inexperienced in the habits and customs of Western people, he soon acclimated
himself, and became, as the saying is, a Westerner. The town was then 1,200
strong, and presented a business activity unequaled by any similar town of its
size in the Eastern States. Mr. Dennis spent the first year in a critical
research into the resources of the country, which at that time were in their
infancy, being little developed or understood, yet enough to warrant confidence.
In 1886 he made his first purchase of real estate, but, being used and
habituated to a very active life, he soon became tired of semi-activity. The
mining country at that time began to show encouragement, and he was soon led
from a former similar occupation in the East into mining journalism, and began
the publication of the Spokane Miner, which was a success from many standpoints.
Mining soon enlisted Mr. Dennis' attention, and resulted in his interesting the
first Eastern capital in the development of mines in the Coeur d'Alene. In 1886
he was elected to the city council, served two years, and during that time much
of the early public improvement took place, -- streets paved, water-works and
bridges built, etc., in all of which he took an active interest, in 1888 he
organized the first company and erected the first electrical street railway in
the Northwest, in Spokane. This undertaking was successfully accomplished in the
face of repeated failures elsewhere, and great prejudices against electric
locomotion. Mr. Dennis began to build the road according to his own and best
ideas, and the result was a road scientifically, mechanically and practically
perfect; four miles of double track was laid, water being the generative power
used for electrical propulsion. The buildings, brick and stone; the cars the
best the Pullman Company had ever built for the purpose up to that time, and the
result is the road has an operating record unequaled by that of any other.
Although it has been in use four years, it still bears the prestige of being the
best constructed street railway in America. Mr. Dennis resigned the presidency
of the road after two years.
	In 1890 he was elected a member of the School Board, and was Chairman of
Committees upon Buildings. The magnificent high-school building and other school
property were planned and constructed during this time, this same School Board
having the honor of raising the standard of the schools in point of education,
until to-day they rank first in the State for excellence. He was one of the
prime movers in the establishment of the Northwestern Industrial Exposition of
this city, and was its first vice-president. Again broken in hea1th, he made a
visit to Europe in 1891, returning in the fall of the same year, and since that
time numerous letters have been written by Mr. Dennis for publication in
journals at home and in the East. He has also delivered several lectures. In
1892 he was made one of the Trustees of the Jenkins University, an educational
institution which bids fair to be one of the highest standards of learning. He
is Treasurer and a member of the Executive Board. This institution was
established through the munificence of Colonel D.B. Jenkins, of Spokane, he
having endowed it with lands worth half a million of dollars. Mr. Dennis is also
heavily interested in mica-mining in Idaho, and is the General Manager of the
Muscovite Mica Mining Company, an organization comprising many of the wealthiest
men of Chicago. He is also the president of the Old Dominion Mining and
Concentrating Company, whose great silver mines, the greatest in the State, lie
in Stevens County, Washington. To him is due the development of this famous
property.
	He has given very liberally to all enterprises that have tended to the
betterment and growth of Spokane and the Northwest, and to-day is one of the
largest holders of both unimproved and improved real estate in the city.
	At the age of twenty-four years our subject was united in marriage to Hester
L. Bradley, a native of Dayton, Ohio, and they have three children. Mr. Dennis
is a Republican in his political views; religiously, is a member of the
Presbyterian Church; is one of the wealthiest men of the State; is aggressive,
yet tempered with judgment, and as a business man is conservative, energetic and
attentive. He has endured many hardships through life, but always had the star
of success in view, and the will to work to attain it; always made a thorough
study of every undertaking, its details, etc., and was never satisfied until he
had thoroughly mastered it. Mr. Dennis has been the means of the business
success of many others, and lots rendered both moral and financial help. No man
in the State occupies a more enviable position, he has the utmost confidence,
regard, respect and honor of all those who know him. A young man yet in years,
his fortune is full of added honors.
	
	
Submitted to the WA. Bios Project in September 2003 by Jeffrey L. Elmer
	
	
	
	
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Notice: These biographies were transcribed for the Washington Biographies
Project.  Unless otherwise stated, no further information is available on the
individual featured in the biographies.