Jenkins Family Book

Jenkins Family Book • BEING ...-\ P ...-\R TLU RECORD OF THE DESCEND... ~"'1TS OF D.,...\VID JENKINS AND GE:SEALOGIC.AL NOTES OF FAMILIES l::STXR llARRIED \VITH THEM B\. ROBERT E. JENKINS OF TIU-: CHIC~\.GO BAR A. D. l!IOI PART I. JENKINS GENEALOGY. Sections One., Two and Three. PART II. ~I..\TERN ...\L A.a.'\;CESTORS OF THE CRTT. DREN OF ROBERT JENKINS OF CL.\RK COUNTY, l\fISSOtJRL PART 111. •.\NCESTORS OF ll.ARCIA (RAYMOND) JENKINS. PART IV. :\I.-\STERS :\IEMOR~\ND.A. PART V. INTRODUCTION. l\fore than a quarter of a century ago, I began to ask myself "\Vho were my forefathers?" and to set about trying to answer the question.. I took up this quest and have carried it forward in the midst of an c.~ceedingly busy life~ and of many engrossing cares. The results accomplished have required much time and study. Great numbers of letters ha,·e been written, records and documents have been c.,-amined, and hun dreds of to,..,·n and local histories and published gene alogies have been consulted.. N'ecessarily the ,vork has not been continuous. Other occupations prevented do ing very much at any one time. But the purpose has been alway$ in mind, and more or less correspondence:: usually on hand. Genealogical research is a subject of much interest, and the pursuit and identification of a family ancestor a source of very great pleasure to the pursuer. Then, too. the incidental study of :\merican history is to fhe genealogist exceedingly valuable. (;) 8 ]ESXINS FAllILY Boox. This ,vork came to me also as a duty. I have been informed so often,. that some one not long dead could have answered my questions,. or that some person once had a family record but it was no,v lost,. that I felt it incumbent on me to collect and put together what was yet available, lest, after another passing generation, much of it would be lost forever. It is too much to hope that w·hat I ha,·e gathered is free from errors. Great care has, however, been taken to make it a record of facts, and much that has been reported as family tradition has been left out, because not sufficiently authenticated.. In following the lh·es of my early forcfathers7 I have beco~ more familiar "';th the settlement of the At lantic coast, and with the struggles of the hardy pio nttl's who made the first homes of white people there, and whose descendants pressed westward from genera tion to generation.. lly ancestors no longer seem to me far away. I kno,,; them. For instance7 ia my tboughts I have hunted and fished and walked and talked ·with Peter Gunnarson Rambo, along the Dela ware, many years before William Penn came to give his name to the unbroken forest which stretched away five hundred miles to the West. A11 his simple, rugged life has pictured itself in my mind, and he has become a real person to me; and he is but one of the many of those sturdy, honest men who were laying the founda tions of a nation. JENKINS FA)m. Y Boox. 9 I have been peculiarly impressed ,vith the longevity of our early f orefathcrs and mothers.. They were often in the midst of privations and exposures, and their manner of living was plain and often hard,-but how long tbey lived ! ...\nd ho,v much. too, of real good thcv,, did ! ~I ost of them were Christians,-and were people of great faith. They ,,·ere not troubled \\~th the doubts and questions ,vhich meet one everywhere in this modem time ; their families were large, and the~· were reared in the fear of God. .-\nd out of that sim ple, rugged religious life came the great men of the Revolution. There are nvcnty-fi\"e times as m111y peo ple in our country today as were in the colonies when they declared their independence. If the manhood of our time were as strong, or true, or righteous as thea w~ ought to find t,venty-fivc each of \\rosbingtons. Hamiltons, Jcffersons~ Franklins... ~damses. liorrises. and others ,,·ho were the mighty heroes oi that era. It is a comfort and an encoura~ement.. to mankind. that modem ans, and luxurious li\·ing arc not necessary :o the production of the best and truest and greatest man hood. Rather it has been from homes where liie was plain. and "·here there appeared to be a po,·erty of pleasures and an1usements that men have come who have been the leaders and benefactors of mankind. Let this fact, demonstrated so iulh·- in our histon·.- be an encouragement to those wnose ,vorldly circumstances arc straightened. Luxurious Ih;ng and pleasure seek- 10 ]ENXINS FAMILY BooK. ing ha,·e been the blight and ruin of many noble souls. Character, not condition, measures success in life. Every man inherits composite blood and natural ten dencies which <io much to make him what he shall become. The farmer knows this well as regards the lower animals, and he giyes most careful attention to the pedigree of his horses and other stock. How much more important the genealogy of man which in volves not only physical being, but also the higher intellectual, moral and Christian faculties. \V.e seldom remember that our ancestors double with each generation. Each of us has, or had, two parents, four grandparents, eight great-grandparents, sixteen great-great-grandparents~ and so on. Going no farther back than the tenth generation, beginning ,vith our selves as number one, we find five hundred and tw·elve ancestors of that degree. In the eleventh there are one thousand and twenty-four. In the twenty-first the n:.imber is more than one million and in the thirty first more than a thousand millions of ancestors! Yet the thirty-first generation carries us back only about one thousand years, or a Httle beyond the time of \Vil liam the Conqueror. This seems astonishing and im possible, •but it is a fact. It must also be remembered.. however, that as we ascend in the family lines the number of ancestors is rapidly reduced by intermar riages betw~en blood. relations. In fact, if all lines could be traced out, the people of each clan or race would all be seen to be many-sided cater cousins to ]ENJCINS FAMILY Boox. 11 each other, and the whole social structure to be a com plicated mosaic of interwoven genealogies. Verily, "God hath made of o_ne blood all the nations of the ,earth:· A few persons are able to trace out their remote progenitors until they reach some one ,vho has worn a crown; and they can show you the line oi ,vhat they call their royal descent. They are not rare exceptions if all the records of every person were known. They are unusual in that the facts have been preserved. Probably every one living \\~ould find a crowned head in some of his lines if he could follow them all far enough. This, however, might not always he a matter of especial satisfaction. l\I ost people over-en1phasize the father lines. V cry many of them hardly know the maiden names of their mothers; while ignorance of either na111e of their ma• terna] grandparents is very common. Each of us is as really a dt.·scendant of his mother as oi his father; and her father and mother, and her Jines of ancestry have contributed just as much to make us what we are, as have our ancestors in the fathcr·s line. It is only :i matter of name. For instanc~. about 1730~ John Jen kins married Rebecca ::\Ieredith, their descendants bear the Jenkins name but are just as much lieredith as Jen kins through all their generations. Ii the~· had carried the rnother·s instead of the father\; name this would be evident. In recognition of this I have sought tu follow up maternal lines as far as possible. to the first .American immigrant. 12 ]E..VKIXS FA~ILY BOOK. The Jenkins-Raymond ancestry in all its lines is a most worthy one. Nowhere among all these families is there a word or suspicion of dishonor. For the most part these ancestors have been well-to-do farmers and tradesmen, belonging to the great class of honest and industrious citizens which has ever been, and ever must be, the reliance and hope of the nation. The Jenkins genealogy and the larger portion of other facts brought together here have not been here to!ore published .. I cannot make separate acknow·Iedgement of all the sources from which I have gathered informatiorL \Vhere family genealogies have been published as is the case with the Raymonds~ Putnarns'.O and others, they have been freely consulted. ROBERT E. JE.~KINS, 8g East 1Iadison Street, Chicago,. Ill. PART I. JENKINS GENEALOGY. TABLE SHOWING THRE6 Pf(INCiPAb LIN65 OF D6SG6NT. I DAVID JxNKI!':S-!vIARGARET REES ( ?) II JonN JEsKtss-REnEccA. ~lEnEDITH SECTJOX 0:SE. SECTJO!'i: T\VO. SEcrtOS' ntllEE III. John )fflklns David Jenkins Da,·Jd J~a.klns. EllAbeth Douglas .!\lanha Armor !\(a.rth.a Armor IV. ~ejrnklns Robert Jrnklns D:n·-ld Jea.kln.s Catherine Hamilton Cathmnc Carmichael :\w-y D. llcCalmonl v .. Rolk-rt J1:-nldna John C.armkhulJenklns luacjmklns :Ell%abeth Rambo Annli5 Dunbar C.l.rollne- Bkkln1: 'V'I. Robtrt E.Jeaklns l\.llu.am DunbarJenJdns hue Jnldn Jfflklns !\larcla Raymond H~rlet?e Koontz C;1thttlne D. Stock JENKINS GENEALOGY. First Generation DA\·10 ]EXKI~s-).L\RGAR£T R£Es ( ?).

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