Chemung County NY
History of Tompkins, Schuyler, Chemung, Tioga 1879
Page 279 - Archibald Jenkins Biography
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Archibald Jenkins was born in the Town of Ashland (formerly Newtown), Nov. 12, 1792. His father, Wilkes Jenkins, youngest son of John Jenkins, came to that town, about the close of the Revolutionary war, from the Wyoming Valley, where his father, during the celebrated and bloody massacre at that place, had a fort of his own, and in which the Jenkins family remained secure during that terrible onslaught. Wilkes Jenkins settled in Chemung County while a young man; married, about the year 1780, Sarah Weair, a native of New Jersey, but a resident of Newtown at the time of the marriage; settled on the farm where the subject of this narrative now resides about the year 1799; raised a family of three children, -Zina, Archibald, and Nancy. The two daughters -Mrs. Henry Baldwin and Mrs. Jonathan Jenkins - are deceased. The father died in 1838; the mother in 1797.

Mr. Jenkins spent his boyhood days on his father’s farm and at school, and in the year 1824, Jan.22, married Bethiah, daughter of Stephen Jenkins, of Wyoming Valley, Pa.

His life has been spent as an active, industrious tiller of the soil, by which means he secured a sufficient competence for himself and family, and at one time in middle life owned and carried on some five hundred acres of land, a part of which he has cleared of its original forest. Quite a young lad at the beginning of the present century, he has lived to watch the progress of civilization since the red man contended with the white settlers for supremacy in the Chemung Valley; to see the various improvements of the century; to make more easy and almost do away entirely with manual labor; to see schools, churches, and societies established; and in all these things has done his part with a liberal hand and a willing mind, and with that integrity and uprightness that has been characteristic of him during his long and eventful career.

He offered his services in the war of 1812; but the war closed and he did no active service.

He has lived during the administration of every President of the United States down to 1878. Formerly a stanch member of the Democratic party, joined the Republican party upon its formation, and supported firmly its principles, and always opposed human bondage.

His children are Wilkes W., born Nov. 30, 1824; married Miss D. M. Sharpe, of Tunkhannock, Pa.; resides in the town of Elmira.

Jonathan H., born Aug. 15, 1827; married Sarah Searles, of South port; resides in the town of Ashland.

Henry B., born Nov. 11, 1829; married Esther Mary, daughter of Dr. Hovey Everitt, of the town of Chemung, this county, and resides with his father upon the old homestead.

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