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Below is a family biography included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Howard County, Arkansas published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1890.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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Rev. A. D. Jenkins, a worthy divine of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, was born in Ouachita County, Ark., in 1846, the second of seven children born to William N. and Lodema (Alexander) Jenkins, the former of whom was born in Alabama in 1820, and the latter in what is now Hempstead County, Ark., in 1819. The paternal great-grandfather, William Jenkins, was a Welshman who came to America prior to the opening of the war of independence, and took the side of the colonists in their struggle for liberty. He came to Murfreesboro, Pike County, Ark., in 1837, and there passed from life. His son Jesse came to this State the same year, having previously married in Alabama, but in 1844 he removed from Pike to Ouachita County, and in this county followed farming in connection with preaching until his removal to Louisiana, where he died in 1857. The mother's ancestors came to this country with the Puritans, and one member of the family, Capt. Edwards, commanded one of the vessels during their journey thither. The grandfather, James Alexander, lived in Missouri, and his wife was at New Madrid at the time of the earthquake. This family came on pack horses to Arkansas in 1817, crossed the Arkansas River at Little Rock, before there was any settlement at that place, and came to Mound Prairie, in what is now Hempstead County, and here Mrs. Jenkins was born. The maternal great-grand father, Lemuel Wakely, was an officer in the Revolutionary War. William N. Jenkins was married in 1844, and their son, A. D. Jenkins, received his early education in the common schools of Ouachita County. In 1864 he went to Texas and entered McKenzie College, an institution he attended one year, then attended school at Coleman's Springs, Tex., under Prof. W. C. Parham, after which he entered school at Princeton, Dallas County, under the same professor. Subsequently he was engaged in teaching for two terms. He was licensed to preach in December, 1867, and joined the Little Rock Conference in 1868, and was sent to Rondo Circuit, where he remained two years, and spent the following year in Polk County. In 1872-73 he resided in Sevier County, 1874 in Miller County, two years in Ashley County, one year on Lewisville Circuit, one year in Pine Bluff, two years in Monticello Station, West End, Little Rock, one year, Carlisle, in Lonoke County, four years, back to Little Rock for two years, Benton Station for one year, and in 1889 came to Howard County, and has since had charge of the Centre Point Circuit. He has spent the greater part of his life in his native State, laboring for the kingdom of God, in the church of his parentage.

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This family biography is one of 116 biographies included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Howard County, Arkansas published in 1890.  For the complete description, click here: Howard County, Arkansas History, Genealogy, and Maps

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