culminated in a newspaper war that turned violent. With Browne, Cannon had half ownership in the Spokane Cracker Company and the first streetcar line. He also became co-owner, with E. J. Brickell, of Glover’s old Saw- mill (renamed Spokane Falls Mill Company). In 1888, he found- ed Greenwood Cemetery and became the cemetery association’s president. He served as director of the Eastern Washington and Idaho Fair Association, as he would for the 1890 Northwestern Industrial Exposition. Indeed, it seemed as if there was nothing Cannon could not do or try to do. Cannon and Browne also part-


A drawing of Cannon’s block, 1882


Clarke, Jennie often entertained 100 women at euchre – a popular card game of the time. Not only were Jennie and A.M.


active in community affairs and functions, but so were Mrs. Can- non’s children. Ralph, Katie and Josie sang in the operettas, took part in church affairs, and attend- ed all the balls. When the Young Ladies Guild of All Saints Episco- pal Church put on a fund-raising program at the Opera House, Katie sang Coming Through the Rye. A reporter for the Spokane Falls Review expressed the opinion that, to many, this was the success of the evening. Miss Clarke sang


with “great sweetness and expres- sion,” he wrote. Yet, sadness and bereavement


did not bypass this family. Jen- nie’s second son and middle child, George P. Clarke, died April 5, 1883, shortly before his 16th birthday. Two years later, A.M. lost his father, William Cannon, at the age of 75. Surely, Jennie did not experience anything more heart rendering than the death of little Marjory Clarke, her first grandchild, at the age of four, in 1892. In the spring of 1889, the


Roseburg Oregon Review claimed that A. M. Cannon was the rich-


est man in Eastern Washington, with a worth of $4-6 million. This would appear to be slightly exag- gerated; however, Cannon was enjoying enormous success, even if his health was not keeping pace. Besides his own Bank of Spokane Falls, Cannon helped organize and was elected president of the Bank of Palouse City. At the same time, he was an officer in several other banks. There were also other varied


investments. In 1881, largely in opposition to Francis Cook’s Spo- kan Times, Glover, Cannon and Browne had started their own newspaper, The Chronicle, which


nered on the construction of the magnificent Auditorium Building at the northwest corner of Main and Post. Construction began shortly before the 1889 fire, but the building was spared because Little Wolf Ditch separated it from the fire’s path of destruction. With their wives, the two men went to New York to order appropriate trimming for their theatre. On the return trip the ladies stopped in Chicago to visit Josie Clarke, a stu- dent at the Lake Forest Seminary for Young Ladies. The Auditorium Theatre


proved to be everything its build- ers promised it to be. It contained the country’s largest stage, 60 by 45 feet, held 1,400 strawberry plush seats and ten elegant hang- ing boxes. One of the stained glass windows contained portraits of Cannon and Browne. At a cost of a quarter of a million dollars, it took a year and a half to build. Opening night, September 16, 1890, Mr. and Mrs. Cannon took their seats in Box A with Mr. and Mrs. Hemenway. In Box B sat Mr.


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