Harrison County Iowa Genealogy

HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY, IOWA, 1915
BIOGRAPHIES
Page 580
WILLIAM A. JENKINS

A member of a family which has long been well known in Harrison county, and whose ancestors came to America at an early day in its history, is William A. JENKINS, a thoroughly modern and strictly up-to-date farmer of St. Johns township. Mr. JENKINS applies intelligence to the agricultural problems which confront him, with very creditable results.

The birthplace of Mr. JENKINS was St. Johns township, Harrison county, and the date was January 23, 1859. He is the son of John and Martha (SMITH) JENKINS, who were natives, respectively, of Indiana and Tennessee, and who came to Harrison county in 1855, preempting forty acres of land in St. Johns township. John JENKINS died December 24, 1859. He was the father of four children, two of whom, Frances Lucinda and William A. are living, and two of whom, Israel and August, are dead.

The JENKINSes are of Irish and English descent, the family having been implanted in America at an early day. The SMITHs were of Dutch and Irish ancestry, and in Mr. JENKINS are combined many of the excellent and distinctive traits of his ancestors.

Of John JENKINS's four children, William was the youngest. William obtained only a limited education, and when he was nine years of age he, with his mother, step-father, and two half-sisters, went south to Missouri, where they lived for a year or a little longer. Then they went to Kansas, where they lived for one and one-half years, then returned to Harrison county. All of this traveling was done in covered wagons.

Upon returning to Harrison county the family located on the farm in St. Johns township on which the subject of this sketch now lives; the old home place having been sold before their departure. After locating on the St. Johns township farm, a small house, sixteen by sixteen feet in proportions, was built and was used for eight years. Later the house was enlarged and remodeled and was occupied until 1893, when a nine-room house was built.

Mr. JENKINS owns one hundred and sixty acres in Harrison county and forty acres in Pottawattamie county, all of which land is well improved. Mr. JENKINS does general farming and stock raising, annually feeding about eighty head of hogs.

Mr. JENKINS's mother, who now makes her home with him, is one of the oldest residents of Harrison county. When she first came to the county there were but three other families living on the local "bottoms," the nearest neighbors living at Missouri Valley, and the nearest postoffice was Council Bluffs.

On March 17, 1878, Mr. JENKINS was married to Millie E. SKELTON, who was born June 10, 1862, the daughter of Isaac and Jane (BRANSON) SKELTON, natives of Indiana, who came to Iowa and located in Harrison county when Jane was but one and one-half years of age. They were of English descent. Isaac SKELTON and his wife, who were the parents of eleven children, are both dead, the former dying December 25, 1902, the latter November 4, 1914. For twenty-nine years, Isaac SKELTON was a Primitive Baptist minister.

The union of Mr. JENKINS and Millie SKELTON was blessed with twelve children, of whom eight are living, as follows: Clara F. married Hardin SKELTON, to which union have been born four children, Daily L., Melvin A., Glen A., and Ray E.; Eva E. married Simon P. CURTIS and they have one child, Elizabeth J.; Della May married Isaac R. HATCHER and has three children, Pearl M., Catherine E. and Leonard A.; William Everett married Olive ALLEN and they have one child, Lyle Doyle; Martha J., Sarah E., Lucy Arzella, and Cecil I. all live at home.

Mr. JENKINS is one of the local standard bearers in the Democratic party and has been a school director for sixteen years. He and his family are members of the Predestinarian Baptist church. A leader in agricultural and civic affairs, Mr. JENKINS is a distinct addition to the citizenry bf Harrison county, and has taken a prominent part in maintaining the proud position which his community holds in the state.

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