J.W. Jenkins Sons logo

John Woodward Jenkins
(May 26, 1827 to July 21, 1890)
Charles W. Jenkins
(April, 1855 to April 2, 1921)

John Wesley Jenkins
(March 27, 1864 to November 15, 1932)

Clifford Wells Jenkins
(October 26, 1868 to February 13, 1942)
Frederick Butler Jenkins
(June 26, 1870 to March 5, 1939)
Frederick Bliss Jenkins
(March 24, 1898, to January 26, 1960)

Paul Wesley Jenkins
(February 5, 1900, to December 28, 1962)
Published Composers    
J.E. Agnew
Harry Alcott
Fred E. Alexander
Thekla Hollingsworth Andrew
Carl Balfour
Edward Barber
Robert Barnes
W.M. Barnes
Phil Baxter
Charles Beetho
James Bell
Theodore Bendix
Ida Young Bennett
Ben Bernie
W.T, Best
Ferdinand Bever
Giuseppe Bistolfi
John William "Blind" Boone
I. Borovsky
George H. Bowles
Euday Louis Bowman
Joe Bren
Ruby Roberta Bridges
Anna Welker Brown
Billie Brown
Burton Brown
Thomas Bruce
J. Will Callahan
Charles Chapin
Harold Christy
Amy Ashmore Clark
William R. Clay
L.E. Colburn
Al Copeland
Al Countee
Irene Cozad
E. Edwin Crerie
Bessie Cummins
W.T. D'Ole
Ernest Darnell
N. Martain Davids
John H. Davies
N. De Rubertis
Leo Delibes
Lucien Denni
Gwynne Denni
Elva Dere
Charles Derickson
Walter Dill
Charles Dorn (Dornberger)
Bide Dudley
Will Dulmage
D.D. Ebie
Russell Jeffries England
Hans Feil
William Felter
Dean Fitzer
Leo F. Forbstein
Louis Forbstein
Charles Fulcher
Art Gillham
Gladys Gillette
Curtis Gordon
E.M. Guckert
Franke Hall
Earl Haubrich
R.E. Hausrath
Billy Heagney
Maddalena M. Heryer
Walter Hirsch
Harry G. Hoffmann
Edward C. Horne
Joseph E. Howard
Jessie Mae Jewitt
Charles Leslie Johnson
Herbert Johnson
J. Rosamond Johnson
Johnny Johnson
Walter R. Kaharl
Gus Kahn
Ben Kanter
Mrs. Horace A. Keefer
W. ELmer Keeton
Edward Harry Kelly
Harry L. Kerr
Ilah Kibbey
Verdi Kindel
Jack King
Gerald Kiser
Ed E. Kuhn
Jac Kyzor
H. Harry Landrum
Scott Lawrence
Marvin Lee
E. Chouteau Legg
Charles LeMaire
Al Lewis
Roger Lewis
Thurlow Lieurance
Jack Little
C.C. MacClurg
Lillian Madson
Frank Magine
M.M. Marcus
Herbert B. Marple
Sallie A. Massie
George McCullough
Charles W. McClure
Gerald Doan McDonald
Frank X. McFadden
Ted Meyn
John Proctor Mills
Le Roy Moore
Will B. Morrison
Cleve Myers
Glenn Myers
F.I. Newell
E. Nickel
Malcolm Nicolson
Theodore H. Northrup
Dick O'Kane
S.S. Oakford
Elmer Olson
bv George Osborn
Arthur Frederic Otis
Dick (Jack) Partington
Richard W. Pascoe
Ward Perry
Phil Phillips
Harold Powell
William C. Powell
Richard Powers
Jimmy Preston
Marguerite Clark Rathje
Seymour Rice
Thomas B. Roberts
Williard Robison
E.O. Roelker
Walter Rolfe
Caro Romano
Monroe H. Rosenfield
Milton Samuels
Joe L. Sanders
Nelson Shawn
Adaline Shepherd
Howard Simon
Estelle Simms
George Elliott Simpson
Ed Smalle
Clay Smith
Walter Smith
Billy Smythe
Alfred Solman
Eugenio Sorrentino
Vernon T. Stevens
Charles R. Stickney
Roscoe Gilmore Stott
James S. Sumner
Guy F. Swain
Clarice Talbot
Rev. Henry B. Tiernan
Frank H. Tobey
Charles A. Tyler
Egbert Van Alstyne
Frank L. Ventre
Rocco Venuto
Michael Watson
Louis Weber
W. Wesley Wells
T. Wenzlik
C.E. Wheeler
H.O. Wheeler
Leon A. Wheeler
Richard A. Whiting
E.H. Williams
Jess Williams
Mamie E. Williams
Spencer Williams
Frank A. Wright
Martha Young
John W. Jenkins was born in Wales Center, Erie, New York in a time before there were railroads, a Texas republic, or even rampant expansionism in the United States. Given the scant demographics of census records of that time, and record keeping in general, it was difficult to ascertain who his parents or any possible siblings were. It can be assumed that he received at least some rudimentary musical training during his childhood. It is also difficult to find when he moved to Kaneville, Illinois, but it was most likely in the mid-1840s as he was found there in the 1850 enumeration. In Kaneville he was married to Eunice Jane Nichols, who soon bore him four sons and a daughter, including Charles W., Florence T., John Wesley, Clifford Wells and Frederick Butler.
It is unclear when Jenkins moved his family and business to Kansas City, Missouri, but it was likely in the mid-1870s. The first official record of him there is in the 1880 Federal census, showing him with the occupation of "pianos and music," and his daughter Florence working as a clerk in his store. Subsequent Kansas City directories through the 1880s show his business as pianos or pianos and organs, based at 615 Main Street. Later advertisements made the claim that they were the oldest music store in Kansas City, founded in June of 1878. By the 1890s this possibly meant that they were the oldest one that was still in business there. The family would occupy a home at 1903 E. 9th Street for many years. The 1885 directory, which included John W., Jr., showed the company as J.W. Jenkins & Son, and would remain so for the remainder of the decade. Then in 1890, shortly after the census was taken, John W. Jenkins died at age 63, leaving behind a widow, several children, and a music business that could have floundered, but instead expanded in a different direction.
As part of the expansion of the business almost immediately following their father's death, John W., Jr., along with Charles, Clifford and Frederick, renamed the firm J.W. Jenkins Sons' Music Company in honor of the founder, their father. The 1891 Kansas City directory showed all of the brothers as part of the store. In mid-1891 they moved the store to a larger location three blocks down at 921 Main Street. This would serve as their primary location into the early 20th century.
An 1893 advertisement for Jenkins-made guitars.
1893 Jenkins Music ad
From 1894 forward John was listed as the president of the company and his brothers as clerks or other positions. Fred would become the vice president, and Clifford the secretary and treasurer. Charles' involvement was on a lower level of commitment than that of his brothers, and he was usually listed as "with" the company.
Pretty much every musician in Kansas City frequented the Jenkins store at some point, as they were the largest piano, organ, and musical instrument dealer in the city, and possibly the largest distributor of sheet music as well. They advertised frequently from Topeka, Kansas, to Saint Louis, Missouri, and from Omaha, Nebraska down into Oklahoma, so covered a wide area. Most of the early advertisements from the late 1880s into the mid-1890s were for pianos, organs, guitars and mandolins. In 1893 the Jenkins brothers opened a good-sized factory at 1417 Walnut Street making some of the smaller stringed instruments such as mandolins and guitars. They produced the Harwood, Washington, Clifford and Royal brand names. In the mid-1890s the company's advertisements started emphasizing their large stock of sheet music sold at half price, in addition to brass instruments, banjos, violins, autoharps, music boxes, and all things music.cotton patch - ragtime two step cover All of that given, plus current trends with music stores in the Midwest at that time and an increase of interest in sheet music, their next step actually appears to be logical in retrospect - to also serve as a music publisher for the people of western Missouri.
In mid-1898, just as cakewalks and early rags were starting to take hold in printed form, J.W. Jenkins' Sons opened a publishing branch at 1013 Walnut Street. Among their first titles were some waltzes, marches, coon songs, ballads, and a couple of interesting works by Charles L. Johnson, a Jenkins employee and music demonstrator. Scandalous Thompson and Doc Brown's Cakewalk made Jenkins a publisher of ragtime. Among his other works were a handful of songs and waltzes published before he left to start his own concern. Jenkins also provided specialty arrangements for plucked stringed instruments and military or concert bands.
While they were not the only publishers in town, given the presence of Carl Hoffman who had already put one of Scott Joplin's rags in print as well as works by future publisher Charles N. Daniels, J.W. Jenkins Sons' steadily grew into one of the more reliable and prolific publishers of popular music in the region. The company overall was able to withstand the occasional flop, but they usually chose pieces that did well in Kansas City and moderately in other parts of the area. By the early 1900s Jenkins had a national distribution, although they did not reach, and perhaps did not aspire to the level of the houses of Jerome Remick, Ted Snyder, Will Rossiter, or other prolific large-scale publishers. The Jenkins company overall seemed content to make some small profit selling sheet music from all of these concerns, while offering something for the locals as well.
The 1900 census showed Charles W. Jenkins, listed as a piano salesman, living in Kansas City with his wife Adeline and daughter Cora, the latter working as a music teacher for the Jenkins firm. John W. Jenkins was residing there with his wife Edith and infant son Paul, working as the president of the company but listed as a music dealer.
The J.W. Jenkins Music Company Building in downtown Kansas City c.1920.
jenkins music company building
Clifford Jenkins and his wife Bernice and son John W. were living not too far off. Fred Butler Jenkins, listed as a piano merchant, was living with his wife Lulu and 2-year-old son Fred Bliss, who would later become a big part of the future of the Jenkins company. Also in 1900, they obtained the new Pianola push-up piano player, and agents for the company traveled through Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma representing the Jenkins firm and trying to sell this revolutionary new device to farmers and townspeople alike. They further employed piano technicians to cover the same territory in their name.
While the overall focus of the Jenkins brother's company was still on musical instruments and services, they did not ignore their publishing arm, issuing a number of fine and interesting works in the 1900s and 1910s. A number of ragtime-oriented instrumentals and songs by Charles L. Johnson were released under their imprint into the 1910s, even though he had run his own publishing companies on and off during that time frame. Both Johnson and Charles N. Daniels, who often composed as Neil Morét, were Jenkins' main rivals in the popular music realm in Kansas City, but the music giant outlasted both of them, remaining consistent in their output. Among their published ragtime works were Vivacity Rag and All the Candy by staff composer/arranger and local bandleader E. Harry Kelly, Bachelor's Button by prolific composer and fellow publisher William C. Polla, Wireless Rag by Wisconsin composer Adaline Shepherd, Candied Cherries and The Red Devil by Lucien Denni, and Corn Shucks Rag and Pickled Beets Rag by local pianist Edward E. Kuhn.
The 1910 census showed all of the brothers still active in their dynamic company, with John listed as a dealer in music - although local directories showed him as the president of Jenkins' Sons, Clifford as the secretary and treasurer, Fred as a wholesale music merchant - he was also still the vice-president, and oldest brother Charles simply as with the company, while his daughter Cora was still teaching music there. Charles, now in his mid-fifties, appears to have had interest mainly in deriving income from the company, evidently working in sales but not so much in management. The 1912 to 1917 Kansas City directories show him in the instrument repair section of the company, so not as active on the sales floor. Cora had left the nest around 1910, having married and moved to New York. Charles and Addie (sometimes listed as Hattie) were difficult to locate in Kansas City after 1918, so may have moved to Palmyra New York, to assist Cora, who had been recently widowed and left with her son William H. Farnham, born in 1911. They were found residing together in the 1920 census taken in Palmyra. Charles W. Jenkins died the following year, and was buried in Jackson County, Missouri.
The other Jenkins brothers remained very active in the music business throughout the 1910s, growing their music store and publishing empire. However, their instrument line was relying more on independent jobbers around the country, so their manufacturing appears to have diminished over that decade. In the publishing department, some of the more interesting syncopated works they issued were composed by Walter Rolfe, including Flight of Fancy and That Fascinating Rag. However, the most enduring work to be published by the Jenkins brothers was just about to fall in their lap.
Fort Worth, Texas, pianist and composer12th street rag song cover12th street rag cover Euday Louis Bowman spent a great deal of time playing in Kansas City in the 1910s. He became friends with several other musicians in town, and likely frequented the Jenkins store. In 1915 he made two attempts at self-publishing three rags named after Kansas City streets he had played or lived on, including 6th Street, 10th Street and 12th Street. The latter work had a nearly unplayable trio section as written, so he simplified 12th Street Rag for a second self-published edition. Even though they were issued in Fort Worth, the covers of his pieces, as well as his 1916 Petticoat Lane and 1917 11th Street Rag, were adorned with drawings of buildings in downtown Kansas City, Missouri. After a couple of years of limited success trying to sell his pieces, 12th Street Rag in particular, Bowman ended up selling the plates for that work to Jenkins Music for a mere $300 in 1917 or 1918.
The Jenkins publishing department set to work promoting the rag, issuing it with the same cover Bowman had commissioned, but with their logo on it instead. In 1919 they had the first of ultimately three sets of lyrics added to the piece along with a different cover. The song version never fared quite as well as the rag, but with the proper cross promotion, including work to get the piece issued on piano rolls and records, Jenkins soon had a hit on their hands. In fact, 12th Street Rag has stayed in continuous print thanks to Jenkins and subsequent copyright owners into the 21st century. It was also popular in early sound cartoons and musical shorts, even featured in a couple of Mickey Mouse cartoons from the Walt Disney company.
All of this translated into dollars for Jenkins, but not for Bowman. He learned a lesson from this disheartening business deal, and never let a copyright slip from his fingers again. In 1937 Bowman managed to reacquire the rights to the rag, but not the song. At that, it was during a lull in popularity for the ragtime genre. In 1948, thanks to a recording by bandleader Pee Wee Hunt that made 12th Street Rag a hit once again, Bowman finally saw some fruit for his labors a full third of a century after he composed the piece. With his first royalty check in 1949 he bought himself a nice car. That check also helped to pay for Bowman's funeral, which was sadly not too much later, as he died in May of 1949. His rag nonetheless became part of a court battle in the 1950s, in part because of the song version and the distribution of royalties to different publishers. However, by this time, Jenkins was long separated from this iconic rag.
The 1920 census and city directories from around that time showed the three remaining brothers still fully engaged with their music business. In this record, as well as in 1910, all of them had one or more domestic servants working in their respective homes. It was yet another Jenkins employee who made the music news in 1921. Billie Brown (born as Irene Anderson), had worked with another music company in Kansas City in the mid-1910s, and published a handful of pieces. She started working for Jenkins in 1920 as a piano and music demonstrator. Billie approached her employers the following year with a song she had written, but which had been rejected by a few other publishers. Jenkins took it on and Dangerous Blues soon found several fans in the music world who performed and recorded it.dangerous blues cover Among those were black pianist Eubie Blake, blues singer Mamie Smith, and The Original Dixieland Jazz Band. Everybody was poised to make money from this piece. Sadly, however, Billie was taken in December of 1921 by smallpox. Jenkins released two more of her songs in 1922, of which Lonesome Mama Blues found some measure of fame.
In spite of their frequent successes, the publishing arm of the J.W. Jenkins' Sons company began to decrease its activity in the mid-1920s, with much of their stock and material sold off to other publishers by the early 1930s. A few works were still issued into the 1930s, including the interesting Groundwork of Orchestral Training method book for young players. The stringed instrument factory closed down in the 1920s, and eventully all that was left was their store, which continued to also do a good mail order business as they had since the 1890s. Fred, Clifford and John still listed themselves as musical instrument merchants in the 1930 enumeration. Fred Bliss Jenkins, now 31, also listed himself in that capacity, having enjoyed a growing role in the company since the early 1920s.
The three remaining Jenkins sons retired during the 1930s, with John dying in 1932, followed by Frederick in 1939. They managed to fare moderately well during the Great Depression of the 1930s, living just on the edge of the Dust Bowl area, but not directly affected by it. There was even expansion of the company into new markets around Kansas, Oklahoma and Missouri. The 1940 census showed the younger Fred in charge of firm now, which had been renamed Jenkins Music Company. Clifford, who was retired before 1940, passed on in early 1942. Fred, along with his cousin Paul, son of John Willis, ran the company from the mid-1930s into the late 1950s, opening stores in Kansas City on the Kansas side; Wichita, Topeka ad Salina in Kansas, Oklahoma City, Ponca City and Tulsa in Oklahoma, Joplin and Springfield in southwest Missouri, Jefferson City on the east side of the state, and Fort Smith, Arkansas. He was assisted by a number of Jenkins offspring, including Paul, who became the firm's president by the late 1940s and John W. Jenkins IV.
Fred retired from the firm in 1958, then died in early 1960 at age 61. Paul continued for a couple more years before he retired, subsequently passing on in December of 1962 at age 62. Jenkins Music continued to operate into the mid-1970s under non-family management, although most of the satellite branches were closed or sold to other owners during the 1960s. While it no longer exists as a company, this family-run music business legacy lives on through what has become a cache of collectible musical instruments and a large number of reprinted musical works, including that one particular piece that is still played regularly at ragtime events into the 21st century.
Article Copyright© by the author, Bill Edwards. Research notes and sources available on request at ragpiano.com - click on Bill's head.