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JAMES E. JENKINS, senior member of the firm of Jenkins & Todd, publishers of the Columbus Safeguard, was born in Emmet County, Iowa, March 11, 1864, and his parents, Adolphus and Ellen (Davis) Jenkins, were among the earliest settlers of that county. The father was born in Warren County, N. Y., and came to Iowa in 1857. He was one of the leading citizens of Emmet County, where he engaged in milling and was also a dealer in lumber. In his political views he was a Republican, and was the first County Judge of that county, serving in that capacity for several years. His wife, the mother of our subject, was born in Dover, N. H., Feb. 9, 1832, is a daughter of James Davis, and now resides in Columbus Junction.
Our subject was engaged as a farm hand for nearly three years, and was educated in the public schools, also obtaining much of his knowledge of . . .
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. . . men and events in a printing office. When fifteen years of age he began to learn the printer’s trade in the office of the Emmetsburg Reporter, in which he worked until 1882, when he came to Columbus Junction, where he attended school and worked in the Safeguard office. One year later he returned to Emmetsburg, where he resumed work in the Reporter office, occupying the position of foreman and local editor, and a year later went to Emmet County, where he taught school for a time, and then took the position of business manager of the Estherville Herald. In December, 1885, he came once more to Columbus Junction, and formed a partnership with Mr. Eggart, in the publication of the Safeguard, and is the present partner of Mr. Jenkins. These gentlemen by their enterprise and energy have placed the Safeguard in the lead of Republican papers in Louisa County, while no country town in the State can boast of a cleaner printed, better edited or more wide-awake journal. The paper is a stalwart Republican in politics, and is strong in advocating the Blaine theory of tariff protection to American industries. Local affairs of the county are fairly treated, and the paper is deservedly popular. Mr. Jenkins is a member of the K. of P. Liberty Lodge No. 22, and one of Louisa County’s worthy citizens.