William H. Jenkins

History of Texas Together with a Biographical History of
Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee, & Burleson Counties

William H. Jenkins.—The States of the American Union where family influence and the potency of family names have been most felt, are undoubtedly Virginia and South Carolina; and from these two States have come some of the brightest intellects, some of the bravest and worthiest men that have ever figured in the history of this country. Texas which drew in her early days from all the older communities for her citizenship, has had to make frequent acknowledgment to the States here named.

To South Carolina the subject of this sketch traces his ancestry on his father's side, and to Virginia his descent on his mother's die. The Jenkins were among the first settlers of South Carolina. They figured in the early wars, and as far as is known, they were brave soldiers and discharged their duties well. The paternal grandfather of William H. Jenkins and a son fell at the battle of King's Mountain, one of the decisive engagements of the Revolutionary period, while still others of his progenitors, William and Henry Robertson, were soldiers in the colonial war for independence and fought under Washington. His paternal grandparents, Jesse and Nancy Jenkins, were among the early settlers of Tennessee, moving there about the first decade of this century, where the grandfather was for many years engaged as a surveyor and was prominent in local land matters.

On his mother's side Mr. Jenkins' people came from Virginia. His grandfather, Herndon Green, was born in Virginia, and for many years was a resident of Tennessee, being a member of one of the largest and most prominent families of that State. His brother, Judge Nathan Green, was a distinguished jurist and a legal educator, and in addition to having served as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of that State, probably prepared more young men for the profession of the law than any other man of his day and generation in the Southwest. He was the father of the lamented General Tom Green, who was long prominent in Texas history. Herndon Green was a soldier in the war of 1812, a planter of wealth and a man of sterling character.

James N. Jenkins, the father of William H. of this article was born in Winnsboro, South Carolina, but was reared in middle Tennessee, whither his parents moved during his childhood. He married Susan A. Green of Franklin county, Tennessee, about 1837, and eleven years later in 1848, died at the early age of thirty-six. His widow and three sons, William H., Jesse T., and Alpheus G., were taken into the family of Mrs. Jenkins' father, by whom they were brought at a later date to Texas. It was in 1854 that the first move was made by Herndon Green to establish himself on Texas soil. He came out that year at the head of a party made up of himself, his son Stephen T. and his three grandsons, the Jenkins brothers, with about thirty slaves, and he stopped for about one year at LaGrange. In 1855 he moved to Burleson county, where he purchased land and settled. The same year the remainder of the family was brought out, and a plantation opened where he located about two miles north of Caldwell. There he spent the remainder of his life, dying in 1878, at the age of eighty-eight. Mrs. Jenkins died in this county about ten years later, aged seventy-two. Jesse T. Jenkins died here in 1881, from the effects of disease contracted in the Confederate army during the late war. William H. and Alpheus G. are still residents of the county.

William H. Jenkins was born at Winchester, Tennessee, March 31, 1838. He was sixteen when he was brought to Texas. After three or four years spent in this country, he was sent on account of ill health in 1859, to southwest Texas, where he secured a position as clerk in the mercantile house of Ulrich & Jones, of San Antonio. In 1860, he went in the interest of his employers to Parras, Mexico, where they had a branch establishment, and was there in their employ when the late war opened. He returned to Texas at the opening of the hostilities, and offered himself for service in the Confederate army. He was accepted and put on frontier duty under General Henry McCulloch, and spent the first eight months of war in service against the Comanche Indians along the Pecos, Neuces, Rio Grade, and the head waters of the Colorado river. He then returned to central Texas, and in October, 1861, enlisted in Company G, Eighth Texas Cavalry (Terry's Rangers), with which he went at once to the forces operating in Tennessee and Kentucky. Beginning with the engagements at Woodsonville, Kentucky, where General Terry fell, he was in the service continuously until the surrender, taking part in all the campaigns and engagements in which his command participated, the last being the fight on Haw river, near Guilford Court House, North Carolina, on April 14, 1865. He entered the service as a private; was later made Commissary upon petition of his regiment, and served as Commissary during the greater part of the war, doing duty also as a private in ranks.

When the war was over Mr. Jenkins returned to Texas, reaching his home in Burleson county on July 5, 1865. Accepting the results of the war in good faith, he turned his attention at once to the problems of peace. His first move was to purchase a tract of 200 acres of land on the Brazos bottoms, on which he began farming. In 1866 he married Miss Mary R. Lipscomb, and extending his farming operations, in which he met with good success, he purchased other land which he opened to cultivation. For seventeen years he pursued actively and energetically his agricultural enterprises until 1882, when he moved to Caldwell, where a year later he engaged in the lumber business. In 1884, his brother Alpheus G. became interested with him in this, under the firm name of Jenkins & Jenkins, and the business has been conducted in their joint name since. Mr. Jenkins is also president of the Caldwell Cotton Oil Mill Company, which he helped to organize in 1890, and has other local interests. His career has been that of a business man strictly; he never sought any office, and has held only a few minor official preferments, such as have been placed upon him by his fellow-citizens. He has met with good success as a business man, which may be attributed to those qualities which always win under favorable conditions: industry, economy and method. He has made it a rule throughout life to have but one business at a time, and to give that close and undivided attention. Knowing the value of promptness in discharging one's obligations, he has endeavored to observe a strict compliance with every promise, whether verbal or written. He was made a Mason at the age of twenty-two at Athens, Georgia, under a dispensation from the Grand Lodge of Texas, and has been an active and zealous member of the order ever since. He is a member of the Missionary Baptist Church, and has raised his family of five children under church influences. These are: Edward G.; Susan A., wife of E. H. Barnett; Mary B., Jessie B. and Winnie S.—all educated at Baylor College.

History of Texas Together with a Biographical History of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee, & Burleson Counties. Chicago, Lewis Publishing Company, 1893. pp. 405-407.