JOHN L JENKINS, b 2 Oct 1827

JENKINS, DUSTIN, MATHEWSON, WILLIAMS

Posted By: Donna Moldt Walker (email)
Date: 6/12/2004 at 07:27:52

John L. Jenkins, A.B., was born in Kirby, Caledonia Co., Vt., Oct. 2, 1827. Mr. Jenkins' ancestors on his father's side emigrated from the North of Ireland about the close of the seventeenth century, and settled in Massachusetts. He takes a justifiable pride in the fact that his great-grandfather, with his six sons, participated in the battle of Bunker Hill, and those who survived, served in the War of the Revolution. On the maternal side Mr. Jenkins was descended from Mrs. Dustin, who, while a captive on Dustin's Island, in the Merrimac River, with the help of a nurse and a boy named Samuelson, killed and scalped her nine Indian captors, and brought the scalps, after a three days march, to the nearest settlement, as a proof of their achievement. On Aug. 9, 1853, Mr. Jenkins married Asha A. Mathewson, of Wheelock, Vt., whose mother Sarah Williams, was a direct descendant of Roger Williams, the distinguished settler of Rhode Island.

Mr. Jenkins was graduated from the University of Rochester, and studied theology at the seminary of that city. He entered the ministry at an early day, and occupied churches in Illinois, and Indiana; but later, and for a longer period, in Pennsylvania and New York, principally in connection with the Presbyterian Church.

In 1883, Mr. Jenkins engaged in the business of a druggist, in Preston, Iowa, in connection with his sons, Hugh and Harley M., under the firm name of Dr. H. Jenkins & Co. They have been successful in building up a profitable trade, and are reckoned among the solid firms of this county.

("Portrait and Biographical Album of Jackson County, Iowa", originally published in 1889, by the Chapman Brothers, of Chicago, Illinois.)