Jennings farm holds local historical significance

The Jennings family is a part of Whitman County history.

For nearly the entirety of Pullman's existence, the Jennings farm has been there on the outskirts of town.

Ralph Jennings' grandfather moved his family to the 240-acre farm that sits a few miles south of the city in 1893. The Jennings, originally from Illinois, came with little more than a milk cow.

When his parents died, Ralph Jennings, now 81, inherited the farm and has lived there ever since, save for two years he spent in the Army.

"I'm glad I was able to hang on to it," he said. "When you think about the neighborhood, there's very few places that belong to families for around 100 years."

He loved farming and never found a reason to move, he said. Even spending a year at Washington State University couldn't change that.

"I was dumb and didn't know anything but farming and didn't want to do anything but farm," he said.

The walls of his home are adorned with family photos and artifacts from his past. Jennings has also donated many of his family photos to the Whitman County Historical Society and Whitman County Libraries, which has digitally archived some of the images and placed them on the Washington Rural Heritage website, according to Patti Cammack. Whitman County Rural Heritage project coordinator.

At the Palouse Empire Fair last month, visitors were asked to vote for their favorite historical photos displayed at a booth. The winner was a picture of Jennings as a boy sitting on his horse, Prince, in a watering hole on the farm in 1936.

"I'm just proud of the fact that the general public cares enough to support the Historical Society, and proud of the fact that some of our family history is part of it," he said of the photos.

At his house is a chest filled with even more mementos, one being a book that traces the genealogy of the Jennings and another local family, the Davidsons.

Published in 1948, the book traces the Jennings line all the way back to the 17th century, mostly using excerpts from family wills. A retired school teacher helped publish the book and Jennings said he's been told by three local genealogists that it's the best book of its kind they've seen.

According to the book, William Jennings Bryan, the Democratic challenger in the 1896, 1900 and 1908 presidential elections, is the first cousin of Jennings' grandfather, Jennings said.

Bryan, who later was appointed secretary of state by Woodrow Wilson in 1913, made a trip to the family farm to visit his cousin following a campaign stop in Spokane, Jennings said.

Jennings doesn't remember ever meeting Bryan, but has many memories of his family's past.

Every Sunday, he said, his family would make ice cream based on his mother's recipe and store it in their six-quart freezer to eat during the week. To this day, he said, it's still the best ice cream he's ever had.

Because they lived on a farm, they had all the ingredients readily available, except for the sugar.

In fact, the farm provided for almost all of their needs back then.

"We were self-sustaining, mostly, for so many years," he said.

In addition to the livestock, his mother had a garden and canned fruit. They would also sell their cream from their dairy cows in town.

Their house and the farm looks different now than it did all those years ago, but much of the family has stayed close by.

Jennings' son, who was one of the first 50 employees to work at Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories, still lives on the family farm. Jennings' daughter lives close enough that her house can be seen from the mailbox on the farm, and Jennings's son-in-law comes by to help with the farming.

Last Sunday the Jennings continued a more than a century-long tradition when they gathered at the farm and made apple cider as their grandmother did starting in 1893. Jennings said more than 100 visitors come every year and usually about 70 gallons of cider is made.

To see more photos from the Jennings, visit washingtonruralheritage.org.

Anthony Kuipers can be reached at (208) 883-4630, or by email to akuipers@dnews.com.