My Genealogy Hound

HOWARD M. JENKINS was descended from the old Welsh stock which has given to Montgomery county so many of its prominent citizens. The immigrant ancestor of the family was Jenkin Jenkin, who came from Wales about 1729. He was born in that country in 1659. His wife was born in 1690, being much younger than her husband. He died September 15, 1745, at the advanced age of eighty-six years; she died November 27, 1764, at the age of seventy-four years. On November 17, 1730, Jenkin Jenkin bought of Joseph Tucker land in Hatfield, 350 acres, extending from the Gwynedd line to the Cowpath Road, and from the Montgomery township line to the road extending from Lansdale to Colmar. He settled on this land and described himself as being of Hatfield when he made his will in 1745. Jenkin Jenkin left four children: John, born February 15, 1719, in Wales, married Sarah Hawkesworth, daughter of Peter and Mary, and had eight children; Mary, died unmarried; Jenkin, Jr., married a Thomas, and had four children, David, who died unmarried, Elizabeth, Hannah, and Eleanor; Elizabeth, married John Hawkesworth, son of Peter and Mary, and had seven children. John Jenkins, son of Jenkin Jenkin, was the progenitor of the Jenkins family in this county. He died in 1803 or 4. The children of John Jenkins: John, born in 1742, died in 1805, married Elizabeth Lukens, widow of Abraham, and had six children, Owen, Sarah, Jesse, John, Edward, Elizabeth; Levi, married Susan Sheive; Ann, married Susan Kousty; Edward (great-grandfather), born July 12, 1758, died in 1829, married Sarah Foulke, daughter of Theophilus, and had six children, Charles F. (grandfather), married Mary Lancaster, Ann, Jesse, married Mary Ambler, Margaret, married Peter Evans, Rachel, married Meredith Conard, Caleb, died young. The Hawkesworths (Peter and Mary his wife) came from England about 1730, and settled in Hatfield township. The Foulkes’ were an old family in Gwynedd, their ancestor, Edward Foulke, and Eleanor his wife, having come from Wales in 1698, and settled at Gwynedd. A son Hugh Foulke married Ann Williams, and settled at Richland (Quakertown), in Bucks county, Pennsylvania, and had a large family of children, among them Theophilus, who married Margaret Thomas. The fifth child of Theophilus and Margaret (Thomas) Foulke was Sarah, who married Edward Jenkins, (great-grandfather) of Gwynedd. Sarah was born in 1764, and died in 1828. Edward Jenkins and Sarah Foulke resided at Gwynedd where the family have ever since been located.

The children of Charles F. and Mary (Lancaster) Jenkins were seven in all, of whom five died young. Algernon S. (father) born in Gwynedd, died there in 1890; he married Anna Maria Thomas, daughter of Spencer and Hephzibah (Spencer) Thomas, and had one child, Howard Malcolm, born 2d-mo. 30, 1842. Algernon S. Jenkins’ second wife was Alice A. Davis, who is still living. She has one child, George Herbert Jenkins, of the Philadelphia bar. Charles F. Jenkins, great-grandson of Jenkin Jenkin, the immigrant, was born at Gwynedd 3d-mo. 18, 1793, and died there 2d-mo. 5, 1867. He obtained his education at the academy of Enoch Lewis, a celebrated teacher and mathematician, of New Garden, Chester county, Pennsylvania. He was a man of great intelligence, and had read very extensively during life on a great variety of subjects. Few men of his time were better informed than himself on the questions of the day. Having been trained to mercantile business in his father’s store at Gwynedd, he engaged in business in Philadelphia on Second street, nearly opposite Christ Church, for a dozen years on reaching manhood with success, but in 1830, on the death of his father, Edward Jenkins, he returned to Gwynedd, and conducted the store nearly to the close of his life. He was a Whig and Republican in politics and was all his life actively interested in public affairs. He was for many years a director in the public schools, and was several times a candidate on his party ticket for member of the Legislature, but at a time when the nomination of the Democratic party in Montgomery county was equivalent to an election. He was for many years secretary of the Bethlehem Turnpike Company, a director of the Bank of Montgomery County, of the Montgomery Mutual Fire Insurance Company, etc. Charles F. Jenkins was in every relation the same straight-forward, honest and earnest man, honored and respected by all who knew him. Another son who grew to manhood, married and reared a family was William H. Jenkins, for many years postmaster, and most of his life proprietor of the Gwynedd store, where he was succeeded by his son Walter H. Jenkins. Mary Lancaster, mother of Algernon and William H. Jenkins, was a descendant of Thomas Lancaster, an eminent Minister of the Society of Friends at Richland, who married Phebe Wardell, and had a large family of children.

Algernon S. Jenkins (father) was for many years the confidential counselor, justice of the peace and conveyancer for a large section of country centering at Gwynedd. He was interested in everything that was calculated to promote the common welfare, he was honored with many trusts in the course of a long life, and was faithful to them all. He was the Republican leader in Gwynedd for forty years of his life, and was also the candidate of his party for legislative and other positions on the county ticket at a time when no Republican could be elected. He enjoyed the confidence and esteem of all, and left behind him as a legacy to his descendants an honored memory. He was an exceedingly careful and correct business man, his conveyances of property and other legal papers being always prepared with the most scrupulous neatness and exactness, such as few could hope to equal. His good judgment made his counsel of all the more value to those who needed it.

Howard M. Jenkins will be remembered as an author and journalist who achieved distinction in whatever he undertook, and as a most useful and valuable leader in the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of Friends. His clear insight in matters of business gave him an influence possessed by few men. Moderate in his views, careful to avoid giving offense in the expression of his opinions, but strong and earnest in his convictions, he was a power in a deliberative assembly. Plain and practical in his ideas, he knew how to solve the puzzling problems that arose, and his counsel was certain to be safe in the great majority of cases.

Howard M. Jenkins was educated at the Foulke Boarding School in Gwynedd, assisting his father on the farm and in his business as opportunity offered. He inclined, however, towards journalism, and the opportunity came to gratify his taste in this direction. In conjunction with his brother-in-law Wilmer Atkinson he purchased in 1861, the Norristown Republican, and the two conducted it with ability and success. Those were war times, and stirring events were occurring daily and history was being made with bewildering rapidity. The firm of Jenkins & Atkinson conducted the Republican for three years, when it was merged into the Herald and Free Press, the oldest newspaper in the county of Montgomery, and then as it is now, an able exponent of Republican principles. Wilmer Atkinson withdrew, and the firm became Wills, Iredell & Jenkins, the other partners being Morgan R. Wills, the present proprietor of the Herald, and Robert Iredell, Jr., who afterwards became identified with the Allentown Chronicle, and is now long deceased. Ultimately, Mr. Wills secured the complete control of the Herald, and Jenkins & Atkinson went to Wilmington, Delaware, and established the Daily Commercial, the first Republican daily in that state. The publication was a success, and while located there, Howard M. Jenkins did much to Republicanize the city and the state. In 1879, the enterprise was disposed of, and after a brief sojourn in West Chester, Howard M. Jenkins became connected with the Philadelphia organ of the Society of Friends, the Friends Intelligencer, as editor-in-chief, a position which he held until his death.

Howard M. Jenkins married 3d-mo. 16, 1865, Mary Anna, born 12th-mo. 5, 1843, daughter of Thomas and Hannah (Quinby) Atkinson, and sister of Wilmer Atkinson, so long associated with Howard M. Jenkins in the newspaper business, and for many years since with Charles F. Jenkins, son of Howard, in the publication of the Farm Journal, an agricultural monthly, having a very large circulation and much influence. The Atkinsons were an old Bucks county family, descended from settlers who came to Pennsylvania in the time of William Penn, John Atkinson obtained a certificate from the Lancaster Monthly Meeting dated 1699, for himself, his wife and children, to Friends in the Province of Pennsylvania. The parents, it is said, died at sea, leaving three children: William, born 1687; Mary, born 1689; and John, born 1691. The family have continued to be Friends through many generations since that time, Thomas and Hannah Atkinson, parents of Mary Anna (Atkinson) Jenkins, removed from Bucks county to Upper Dublin township, Montgomery county, in 1849, purchasing a farm on which they spent the remainder of their lives, each dying at an advanced age. Mary Anna attended the Byberry Friends’ Boarding School conducted by the Hillborns, well known teachers. The family relations of Howard M. Jenkins were always of the most delightful character, and his children were reared under the most favorable influences. The children of Howard and Mary Anna Jenkins: Charles Francis, born 12th-mo. 17, 1865. He attended the Friends’ School at Wilmington, Delaware and public schools in West Chester and Gwynedd. He married Marie G., daughter of Edward and Isabella (Mitchell) Cope, of Germantown, where he lives, and is engaged in the publication of the Farm Journal; Anna M., born 1st-mo. 7, 1867, at Wilmington, Delaware, attended the Wilmington, and later the West Chester public schools and Swarthmore College, from whence she graduated in the class of 1887, married I. Daniel Webster, M. D., of Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, and removed to Mankato, Minnesota, where they reside; he follows the practice of medicine; Thomas Atkinson, born 5th-mo. 24, 1868, attended Wilmington and West Chester Schools, and Swarthmore College, where he graduated in the class of 1887, and the University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated in the class of 1888, and Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, where he graduated in the class of 1894, in Romance, Languages and Literature, and is now professor in those branches and French at the University of Chicago. He married Marion Magill, daughter of ex-President Edward H. Magill, of Swarthmore College, and Sarah (Beans) Magill; Edward Atkinson, born 7th-mo. 8, 1870, at Wilmington, attended the West Chester schools, and Swathmore College, from which institution he graduated in the class of 1892. He married Mary Ellen Atkinson, of Buckingham, Bucks county, Pennsylvania; Algernon S., born in Wilmington, 10th-mo. 21, 1874, died 1st-mo. 21, 1878; Florence, born 9th-mo. 1, 1876, attended Friends’ School at Gwynedd and George School at Newtown, Bucks county, is unmarried, and resides with her mother; Arthur Hugh, born in West Chester, Pennsylvania, 12th-mo. 5, 1880, attended Friends’ School at Gwynedd, George School and Swarthmore College, of which institution he is a graduate; he is engaged on the Farm Journal, is unmarried, and resides with his mother. Charles F. and Marie Jenkins have four children, Algernon S., Isabella, Charles Francis, and Edward Cope. I. Daniel and Anna M. Webster have four children, Dorothea, Agnes Elizabeth, Alan King, and Philip Jenkins. Thomas A. and Marion Jenkins have four children, Beatrice, Edward Magill, Francis Arthur and Wilmer Atkinson. Edward A. and Mary Ellen Jenkins have three children, Howard M., Miriam and Barbara Schofield.

The career of Howard M. Jenkins up to the time of leaving Wilmington has been already outlined in connection with his earlier achievements. In 1879 he established his family in West Chester, where he resided seven years, devoting his time entirely to literary work. A Republican in politics, he objected to machine rule. In 1881, he became connected with the Philadelphia American, established by Wharton Barker, as associate editor with Robert Ellis Thompson. He continued in this position until its publication was suspended in 1890, making many valuable contributions to its pages, covering a wide range in literature and politics. He became associated with Charles Heber Clark in the editorial management of the Manfacturer. He also wrote for a New York firm a History of Philadelphia, completing his share of the work, the first of three volumes, in 1895. It was while he was at West Chester in 1884, that he purchased from Dr. Joseph Gibbons the Friends’ Journal, which he published for a few months, when it was proposed to unite it with the Friends’ Intelligencer, the leading paper for many years in the Society. Their union was accomplished, and Howard M. Jenkins became editor-in-chief of the Intelligencer and Journal, a position which he held until his death, filling it with great ability and doing much to develop its present usefulness. He was strongly in sympathy with the various activities of the Society of Friends of more recent years, the First-day school, the Friends’ Association, and others, and it was probably owing as much to him as to any other person that the Biennial Conferences which have done so much to awaken a more general interest in the principles and testimonies of Friends were established in their present successful working.

The family removed to Gwynedd in 1886, where his father, anxious to have his son with him in his declining years, built a residence for him and his family. Algernon S. Jenkins was killed by a fall in his barn in 1890, cutting short the congenial intercourse of the two. In 1893 he prepared for the Friends’ session of the Religious Parliament held in connection with the World’s Fair at Chicago, a pamphlet “The Religious Views of the Society of Friends,” which has been very extensively circulated, and proves how well he understood the mission of the Society. His “Historical Collections of Gwynedd,” an admirable epitome of the history of his native township, had appeared some years earlier, a second edition being afterwards printed when the first had become exhausted. His “Family of William Penn,” first published in installments in the Pennsylvania Magazine of History of the State Historical Society, also added greatly to his reputation as a writer. He had partly written at the time of his death, “Pennsylvania, Colonial and Federal,” a magnificent work in three volumes, published since that event. He had done much work prior to his death on “The Spencer Family,” but was prevented from completing it by the pressure of other matters.

No sketch of Howard M. Jenkins could be regarded as complete without some reference to his splendid work in Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of Friends, in whose business sessions he was exceedingly active and influential, always laboring earnestly for the good of the Society which he so deeply loved. He was gifted with clear insight in all matters relating to the progress of the Society, and his views were strongly impressed upon the body of Friends, not only in this country but also in England. It was largely through his instrumentality that the pleasant relations between Friends in England and the more liberal branch of Friends in America, interrupted by the division in the Society in 1827, were gradually being resumed, and it may be hoped will ultimately become still more cordial.

Howard M. Jenkins had a keen perception of the ludicrous, and a sense of humor which made him a very pleasant companion. He enjoyed raillery, and was always good at repartee. He was sanguine but not to a degree to disturb the even balance of his mind. For a philanthropist he was exceedingly practical, almost discouraging at times to those who imagine that the world can be reformed at once. He was methodical, patient and industrious, always hopeful, ever confident that the right would ultimately win, notwithstanding the obstacles that temporarily hindered the triumphs so much desired by him and his co-laborers in the cause of truth.

Howard M. Jenkins was the earnest promoter of the plan for a summer settlement of Friends at Buck Hill Falls, an ideal place for a mountain resort, and within easy reach of the great cities of Philadelphia and New York, in which and in the vicinity of which are located so large and so influential a section of American Friends. The plan for an inn, surrounded by the cottages of Friends and Friendly people was at length realized, a beginning being made through the agency of the Buck Hill Falls Association, so that the opening was made for the season of 1901. It was a success from the start, and promises to be much more of a success in the future than even so thorough an admirer of this beautiful nook among the everlasting hills as Howard M. Jenkins imagined it could be. He was enthusiastic in its praise, and it was in showing its beauties to a friend, Isaac H. Clothier, that he, whose life was of so much value to the Society of Friends, lost it through a misstep. He wished that they should cross the stream in order to take in the splendid view of the falls from the opposite side. The temporary foot bridge had been swept away by the high water of a few days previous, and he undertook to secure a plank and place it in such a position that the two could pass over the narrow chasm. Stepping upon it to show his companion that it was safe, he fell into the boiling whirlpool formed by the mountain torrent below. His death was almost instantaneous, and the leader of Quakerism on the American Continent was no more. In the whole circle of seven Yearly Meetings, and far beyond the limits of the Society, in the literary and religious world, the shock was profound. His death occurred on 10th-mo. 11, 1902, and his funeral at Gwynedd Meeting-house on the 15th was attended by many of the leading Friends throughout and even beyond the Yearly Meeting. The scene was most impressive. Addresses were delivered by many who had known and loved him in life, including Robert Ellis Thompson, Rufus M. Jones, O. Edward Janney, Joel Borton, Ellwood Roberts, Samuel E. Griscom, Elizabeth Lloyd, Samuel S. Ash and others. The heartfelt tributes there uttered were taken up and repeated in the newspaper press to whose writers he was so well known. The loss to his community, to the Society, and to the cause of progress was indeed irreparable. He passed away with his work largely done but still incomplete, and in a manner which showed how frail is the hold of humanity upon life.

Howard M. Jenkins was associated in various capacities with the following organizations: The Historical Society of Pennsylvania, The Historical Society of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting’s Committee on George School at Newtown, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Forestry Association, Universal Peace Union, Friends’ Book Association, Mohonk Conference of Friends of the Indian, Bucks County Historical Society, History Club of the University of Pennsylvania, Phi Beta Kappa Chapter of Swarthmore College, Celtic Association of Philadelphia, Contemporary Club, Browning Society, Franklin Inn Club, Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery (reorganized) , Buck Hill Falls Company, Board of Managers of Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania State Editorial Association, and many others of more or less importance in connection with philanthropic and humanitarian movements of various kinds. His assistance in every such movement was sought and valued. When it became necessary for any action to be taken by the Yearly Meeting or other authority to make any representations to Congress or the President, as coming from the Society of Friends, his good sense and sound judgment could be relied upon to present the subject in the best and most effective way.