Jim Kershner’s This Day in History

From our archives, 100 years ago

Mose Oppenheimer, a pioneer Spokane businessman, athlete and theatrical entrepreneur, died at age 49 due to complications from a ruptured appendix.

Oppenheimer was born “in the Canadian woods” on the upper Fraser River. He arrived in Spokane as a young man in the early 1880s and immediately became a key part of the fledgling Spokane community. He went to work for the Lowenberg Brothers dry goods store, and soon was put in charge of the retail department.

He was a member of Spokane’s first volunteer fire department and was part of the “crack hose-racing crew.”

He played on Spokane’s first amateur baseball team in the early 1880s. He was later one of the backers of Spokane’s first league baseball team.

When the Sullivan and Considine vaudeville circuit decided to come to Spokane, they hired Oppenheimer as their representative. He presented shows at the Cineograph Theater, the Empress Theater and the Columbia Theater. He later became the general Northwest manager of the Loew’s theatrical circuit.

He was involved in mining, real estate and insurance. His “shrewd business sense earned for him a fortune.”

He was also a generous contributor to charities and a “liberal subscriber to public enterprises.”