My Genealogy Hound

JAMES JENKINS is one of the oldest settlers, one of the first business men and one of the most reputable citizens of Kearney — a man, who, from his naturally retiring disposition and his settled habit of attending strictly to his own personal affairs, would probably never become known to the casual visitor were he not so well and favorably known to all the old settlers of Kearney and by them pointed out to strangers as one of the first men of the place. Mr. Jenkins settled in Buffalo county March 22, 1872. He located at first in the country, taking as a homestead the southwest quarter of section 24, township 9, range 16 west, his place lying two and a half miles north of Kearney. This was six months before the town-site of Kearney was surveyed. When the town was started in the fall of 1872, he saw an opening for himself at his trade and he came in and started a boot and shoe shop. He continued to reside on his farm, worked at the bench during the day, and returned home at night. His business increasing and the growth of the town demanding it, he subsequently bought a stock of ready made boots and shoes to supply the local trade. He did well from the start, and in October, 1881, he gave up farming and moved his family to town, and has since given his entire time and attention to his store. The Boston Boot & Shoe Store is the result of his long years of patient industry and close attention to business, and it is no more than justice to say that it is one of the largest and best retail boot and shoe houses in central Nebraska. A simple story, shortly told; yet back of it is a useful lesson. This success has not been achieved by happy accident but only by the exercise of great patience, great industry and an amount of self-sacrifice that but few men are willing to practice. Throughout all discouraging seasons and amidst all distracting considerations Mr. Jenkins has toiled steadily on, working out his own unchanging purpose of building up a house with a trade that will be a credit to his town and an honor to his name. Others of his comrades of former years, after ineffectual efforts to establish themselves in one line and another, have moved on, most of them further west. Some did establish themselves, but, failing for one reason and another, have dropped to the rear. Still others, caught with the frenzy of speculation, have had their earnings swallowed up and are either left penniless or so tied up as to be helpless, and still others have succeeded even at speculation, and some in legitimate lines. But the last mentioned are not numerous, and of their number— that is of the strictly legitimate business men and not money grubbers — none have been more successful or achieved their success by the exercise of better virtues than has the subject of this sketch. Mr. Jenkins served the City of Kearney as mayor in 1882, being elected on the republican ticket. He has been town councilman twice. For the general growth and development of the city he has been active at all times, yet he is no boomer. He believes that solid results are attained only by hard persistant effort — that there is no “talking point” about any man or measure equal to real merit — that lasting success is reached only by it. He has absolute faith in Kearney and Buffalo county. He has shown his faith by his works, for he has spent seventeen years of the best part of his life building up a business here, which, were he so inclined, he could not abandon without irreparable loss. Of the town and county of his adoption, of the people among whom he lives whose pluck and energy have made the town and county what they are, he is proud, and of him as a sturdy, self-reliant, industrious useful citizen, the City of Kearney and her appreciative people are equally as proud.

So much for Mr. Jenkins’ business career since coming to Buffalo county. For the benefit of his posterity who may turn to this volume in years to come to learn something of the early history of their first ancestor who settled on Nebraska soil, the following notes may be added: James Jenkins was born in Wales, March 1, 1845, and is a son of Charles and Mary (Bevan) Jenkins, natives also of Wales. His parents immigrated to America in 1851 and settled in Green Lake county, Wis., where they both now live, the father aged eighty-one, the mother seventy-seven. They are plain, unpretentious people, and have reached their great age by the temperate, orderly, systematic lives they have led. Mr. Jenkins is one of a family of eleven children, the list in the order of their ages being as follows — Mary, Eliza, Charles, Thomas, James (the subject hereof), Maggie, Kate, John, Winnie, William I. and Frank. The three eldest sons, being all that were then of a sufficient age, were in the late war. Charles and Thomas were members of Company B, Fourth Wisconsin infantry, Federal army. The former died at Port Hudson, La., of wounds received in battle at that place, and the latter died at Carrollton, a suburb of New Orleans, of disease contracted in service. The Fourth Wisconsin has a record as one of the best fighting regiments in the Union army. It was changed to cavalry in September, 1863, and did its best fighting prior to that date. It sustained its greatest loss at Port Hudson, La., where its loss in killed, wounded and missing was two hundred and nineteen, the actual death loss being forty-five or twenty per cent, of the total number of the regiment engaged. The subject of this sketch enlisted in Company K, Forty-third Wisconsin volunteer infantry, September 12, 1864, having just turned his seventeenth year. His regiment was commanded by Col. Amasa Cobb, present associate justice of the state supreme court of Nebraska. Mr. Jenkins served nominally under Gen. George H. Thomas, being stationed at Nashville, Tenn. Going into the army late he saw but little active service. He was mustered out at Milwaukee, Wis., July 8, 1865. Returning to Green Lake county he engaged in work at his trade — boot and shoe making. January 1, 1868, he married Miss Emma L. Morse, of Seneca Falls, N. Y., and came as stated to Buffalo county, this state, in March, 1872. August 12, 1875, his wife died, leaving two children — Frank B. and Florence L. July 15, 1877, he again married, his second wife being Miss Mary E. Morrison, of Mt. Pleasant, Iowa. By this marriage he has the following children — Charley A., Paul B. and Noble. Mr. Jenkins is a man of social turn, has a heart full of sympathy for his fellow-men and is willing at all times to help any in need or distress. He has been an active worker in a number of the beneficial orders, using these orders as a means to do what good he is able to for struggling humanity.