THE JENKINS FAMILY

This is one of the more numerous families of North Middle Tennessee. However, its members know but little of their line of descent. It is suposed that the family is of Welsh descent, although this might be questioned by some of those who bear the name.

The first member of the family who lived in Middle Tennesse, of whom we have any record, was William Jenkins, whose wife's name was Nancy, but we do not know who she was prior to her marriage. The family is said to have come from North Carolina in the very early history of Middle Tennessee. William and Nancy were the parents of three sons that we know about. One of these was Roderick Jenkin, another was Noah Jenkins, from whom the editor's wife is descended; and the other was either John or Jacob Jenkins. Both of these men lived in Jackson County, Tennessee, in 1820 and were then above 45 years of age, but their exact age was not given in the census of that year. It is possible that both John and Jacob were the sons of William and Nancy and brother of Roderick and Noah Jenkins.

Just where the family first settled in Middle Tennessee is not positively known, but the Miss Matilda Emmaline Jenkins, who died at Westmoreland a few years ago at more than 100 years of age, informed the writer that her people first settled on the upper part of Defeated Creek, and this is quite reasonable, as old Billy Donoho is known to have settled at the present Jeanettie Donoho place, which is just above the present Cartwright's school house. And old Billy's wife was the daughter of old Roderick Jenkins. Later this Miss Jenkins stated that her people moved to the present Allen County and lived there for a time. Still later she informed me that they moved to the vicinity of Russell Hill and Haydenburg and also to Long Creek. The Long Creek group was headed by Noah Jenkins, who is known to have settle in that section as early as 1804.

Noah Jenkins married to Martha ______, but we do not have her last name. However, she was said to have been of most excellent family, and that she was disinherited when she married Jenkins. They are reported to have come from Raleigh, North Carolina, to Tennessee. Some antiques in the family date back to Martha and show that she was evidently a woman of taste and refinement. Noah is buried at Maple Grove, a short distance north of Lafayette; and it is presumed that his wife, Martha, is also buried there.

The known children of Noah and Martha Jenkins were: Everett, Joe, Jim and Celia. Jimmie was born supposedly on Long Creek near the present Long Creek Baptist church house, in 1805. He married Dollie Holland and they became quite well off. Their old home place is still to be seen at the foot of the hill below the Bud Johnson place, and near the big, fine spout spring, which furnished water for the Jenkins family and their slaves before the Civil War. Here Jimmie Jenkins acquired 1,400 acres of land and at one time owned 38 slaves. Some of the old slave quarters are still to be seen at the old home which is now occupied by Lee Jenkins, a great-grandson of Jimmie. Jimmie died in 1890 and he and his first wife, Dolly Holland, are buried near Brattontown, just west of Lafayette. One of Jimmie's slaves is said to have brought $1,800 when sold some time before the Civil War.

We are so short of information about the other children of Noah Jenkins that virtually nothing is known of them.

Among the children of Jimmie Jenkins, who married a Sullivan; and John Wesley Jenkins. George Jenkins and his wife, Mary Sullivan, were the parents of: Bettie, married W. K. (Bud) Johnson; Tallie, married Walter Walrond; Dolly, married Freely Bandy; Becky, married Andy Simmons; Georgia, married John Henry Wheeley; Sam, married Lou Jones; William, married Clem White; and Hannah, who married Yancey Hire.

John Westley Jenkins had one son of whom we have slight information. He was Robert Wesley Jenkins, who died suddenly in 1840 in Houston, Texas. He left a widow and a son, William; and a daughter, Helen, all of Texas.

The William Jenkins, son of George, was the father of the writer's wife, the former Miss Bettie Jenkins.

Roderick Jenkins, son of the old William and Nancy Jenkins, was married twice. His first wife's name is not known. He married the last time a Miss Pack, said to have been a full-blooded Indian, supposedly of the Cherokees. Bill Sam Jenkins once told the Writer that all the contrariness and stubbornness and other unwanted traits in the Jenkins family could all be traced to the Pack woman, but we rather doubt the statement. Perhaps she was a "fire eater," a grumpy, grouchy and ill-tempered woman, but we do not believe she ought to be charged with all the faults to be found in even the very best of families.

Roderick Jenkins was the father of the following children, supposed to be the sons and daughters of the Pack woman: William Jenkins, married Sabrey Witcher; Jim, married Susan Goad; Samuel Jenkins, married Sabrey Goad and later Ruth Boston; Roderick Jenkins, Jr., went to Illinois; Jennie Jenkins, married William or Billie Donoho; one other married a Cummings; and a seventh Child, of whom nothing is known.

William Jenkins, son of Roderick and the Pack woman, married Sabrey Witcher, and became the father of: Daniel, married Susan Pyrant; Nicholas, married Susan, daughter of George Boston; Booker, to South of the Cumberland River and we have no further record; King William Jenkins, no further record; Susan, married Alex Cassetty; and last Jim Hunter; Sallie, married John Hauskins; Sabrey, married Silas Reeves; Rachel, married Booker Witcher; and Malcom Jenkins, died in Mexican War. William Jenkins lived for some time on Puncheon Camp Creek, some miles north of Lafayette. He spent the greater part of his life in the Russell Hill section where he died in 1848.

Jim Jenkins, son of the first-named Roderick Jenkins, married Susan Goad and became the father of: Jefferson Jenkins, married Martha Parkhurst; Arch Jenkins, married Sabrina McDuffee, daughter of Neal and Thenie Gregory McDuffee; Jim Jenkins, married a Dycus; Ralston Jenkins, married Mary Hesson; Dick Jenkins, married Nancy Goad; Maria Jenkins, married Chesley Thomas; Miranda Jenkins, married Tom Thomas, a brother of Chesley; Mirada Jenkins, married John Smith; and Mahulda Jenkins married a Hunter.

Samuel Jenkins, son of Roderick and the Pack woman, married Sabrey Goad first and became the father of: George Jenkins, who married a Hesson and went to Illinois where he had two daughters; Dutch Jenkins, supposed to have married a Hesson, by whom he had George and Bill, both going to Georgia; Lee and Mary Jenkins; Coleman Jenkins and one other whose name is unknown.

Henry Jenkins, son of Samuel and Sabrey Jenkins, married Lucinda Gregory, daughter of Joel Gregory, son of Jerry Gregory, the writer's great-great-grandfather. By Lucinda Gregory, Samuel Jenkins became the father of: Mary Jenkins, married Ben Coley; William Chesley Jenkins, commonly known as Bill Sam Jenkins; John W. Jenkins, Matilda, Bettie, Henry and Martha Jenkins.

Coleman Jenkins, son of Samuel and Sabrey, was married four times. Indications are that his first wife was a Witcher; second a Davis; third, not known; and the last, a McClard.

Reuben Jenkins, son of Samuel and Sabrey, married first Martha Hargis, daughter of Jackson Hargis. By her he was the father of: a son who died in infancy; Henry, Coil, Mary, Alexander Washington Jenkins, of Lafayette; John and Shade Jenkins. He married Maria Williams the second time and became the father of Sam, Jesse, Willie, Lona and Mallie Jenkins.

Buck Jenkins, son of Samuel and Sabrey, married Polly Boston, daughter of George Boston, a brother of the writer's great-grandmother Kate Boston Gregory. Buck Jenkins was father of: Elder George Jenkins, a Baptist minister, who married Martha Gammon; Reuben Jenkins, married a Glasgow, and went to Texas; and Sam and Bill, both of whom also went to Texas.

William Jenkins, son of Roderick, married Sabrey Witcher as set forth above. His children and their offspring will be taken up next. William Jenkins and Sabrey Witcher Jenkins' son, Daniel Jenkins, married Susan Pyrant. By her he had the following children: Sarah, married Hamp Mitchell; Joshua, married Ellen O'Neal; William married Mary Goad; Daniel, Jr., never married but died in the Civil War; Elihua Henry, married Parzettie Thomas; James, married Sarah Ellie Richardson; Lydia, married Jesse Ford; Susan, married James Goad; Sallie, married Jim Harp; Matilda Emmaline, born February 20, 1834, and never married. She died at the age of more than 102 years at Westmoreland. There was one more daughter of Daniel Jenkins and the Pyrant woman, Rachel Jenkins who married Stephen Ayers.

We should have given the offspring of Coleman Jenkins, the man who married four times. His children are as follows: Margaret Jenkins, married her second cousin, George Jenkins, son of Nicholas Jenkins, son of William, son of Roderick; Elizabeth Jenkins, married first to Jim Jenkins, later she married Lon Jenkins, son of Jefferson Jenkins, son of Jim Jenkins, son of Roderick Jenkins; Cis Jenkins, but we do not know if she married; Bud Jenkins, who married Matilda Boston, daughter of George Boston, and later he married a Driver and also a Whittemore; Calvin Jenkins, who went to Texas; Garfield Jenkins, who went to California; Bertha Jenkins, married a Russell and became the mother of Elder D. C. Russell; Jim Jenkins married a Gregory; Grant Jenkins, married Fannie Gregory, daughter of Bob Gregory, son of Big Tom and Bettie, who were two of the writer's great-grandparents; Sabery Jenkins, married Ben Wilburn; Coleman Jenkins; and Elder Willie Jenkins, a Baptist minister of Liberty, DeKalb County.

Nicholas Jenkins, son of William and Sabrey Witcher Jenkins, married Susan daughter of George Boston, as above set forth. Their children were: Willie, married Matilda Jenkins, his second cousin; Cyrus, married Bettie Hesson; Ellis, no record of his marriage; Alex, never married; George, (Red), married his second cousin, Margaret Jenkins; Dave, Katie, married Jim Kelley; Matilda, married a Smith; Jane, married a Cassetty; and Jim Jenkins above referred to as the first husband of Elizabeth Jenkins.

Jefferson Jenkins, son of Jim Jenkins, son of Roderick Jenkins, married Martha Parkhurst, as set forth above. Their children were: Lon, married Elizabeth Jenkins, daughter of Coleman Jenkins; Susan, married a Reed; Raulston, married a Dickens; Pete, married a Greanead; Ezekiel, Rebecca married a Knight; Elizabeth, married an Evans; and John Jenkins, married a Hall.

Arch Jenkins, son of Jim Jenkins, son of Roderick Jenkins, married Sabrina McDuffee. By her he had the following offspring: Betsy, George, Calloway, Gilbert and Norman. Arch was killed on the high hill at the head of the Bishop Hollow, not far from Graveltown on Peyton's Creek, being one of the numerous victims of Buck Smith, the guerilla, who was one of the worst men ever known in Middle Tennessee. Arch was taken forcibly from his home where Carse Smith now lives, just below, Sycamore Valley, this county, carried with a rope around his neck by his captors, including Buck Smith, down Peyton's Creek, walking while his captors rode good horses. He was finally put on a stump on the high hill between the waters of Peyton's Creek and Defeated Creek, made to crow like a rooster and then shot off the stump by Smith and left lying there until the buzzards left nothing but his bones. Idendification was made by his shoes. His son Gilbert, was the father of Lester Jenkins, one of our subscribers who lives on the headwaters of Defeated Creek.

Dick Jenkins, who married his first cousin, Nancy Goad, was the father of: Brother Pos and Dixon Jenkins, the latter having a number of relatives living in the vicinity of Milltown, this county.

Joshua Jenkins, son of Daniel Jenkins, son of William Jenkins, son of Roderick Jenkins, married Ellen O'Neal and became the father of: Austin, Willie, John, Haywood and Pink Jenkins. We wonder if Haywood is the one who married the writer's father's first cousin Lizzie Bennett, and became the father of Jim and Sam Jenkins.

Above is the larger part of the information we have on this numerous family. If there are any errors, we shall be glad to correct them. Also we shall be glad to have any additonal information that any readers may send to us relative to the family. We might not be able to publish it imediately, but we would try to get to it shortly.

Recently while in Nashville, the writer found some old, old records of the State Library, which show that William Jenkins died in 1807, as an old man. These records show that the widow, Nancy, bought a "pied heifer" at the sale, paying $7.50 for same. Among the other purchasers we noted the names of Noah and Roderick Jenkins. Quite a long list of the chattels of pioneer days was listed in the record of the Jenkins sale. Some time later we might copy that old sale record and give it to our readers.

Above Red Boiling Springs lives a merchant, Jake Jenkins, who has also given us some information relative to his line of descent. He does not think that he is related to the family above given, but we have been informed that an aunt of his stated some years ago that the two families had the same ancestor in the long ago. We are investigating the connection and will try to publish same if it is established.