John Carmichael Jenkins

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John Carmichael Jenkins
BornDecember 13, 1809
Churchtown, Pennsylvania
DiedOctober 14, 1855
Natchez, Mississippi
Resting placeElgin, Natchez, Mississippi
Occupation
  • Planter
  • medical doctor
  • horticulturalist
Spouse(s)Annis Dunbar Jenkins
Children4
Parent(s)Robert Jenkins
Catherine (Carmichael) Jenkins

John Carmichael Jenkins (1809–1855) was an American plantation owner, medical doctor and horticulturalist in the Antebellum South.

Biography[]

Early life[]

John Carmichael Jenkins was born on December 13, 1809 at the Windsor Forge Mansion in Churchtown, Pennsylvania.[1][2][3][4] His father was Robert Jenkins (1769–1848), a Congressman from Pennsylvania, and Catherine Carmichael (1774–1853).[3][5] He had one brother, David Jenkins (1800–1850), and six sisters, Elizabeth Jenkins (1803–1870), Mary Jenkins (1805–1859), Martha Jenkins (1805–1890), Phoebe Ann Jenkins (1807–1872), Catharine Jenkins (1812–1886), and Sarah Jenkins (1817-unknown).

He graduated from Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania and received a Doctorate in Medicine from the Medical School at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia in 1833.[2][3][4]

Career[]

He moved to the Wilkinson County, Mississippi to take over the medical practise of his uncle, (unknown-1837), a medical doctor and plantation owner who had become blind.[2][6]

He owned several plantations in the Natchez District, some of which he inherited, some of which he purchased and developed. For example, he owned the in Pinckneyville, Mississippi.[7] Additionally, he owned several other plantations like the near Nesbit, Mississippi in DeSoto County, Mississippi, the in Wilkinson County, Mississippi, and another plantation in West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana.[2][4][8]

A horticulturalist, he would use his Natchez residence, Elgin, as a plant nursery for different varieties of fruit trees and cotton he would later use on other plantations.[3][4][6][7] He also produced hybrid species of orchids.[9] Additionally, he was a wine connoisseur and collector of wine vintages.[7] He was a member of the Academy of Natural Sciences, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania and the American Pomological Society.[10] He kept a diary from 1841 to 1855.[4]

He was a proponent of slavery, both as an economic necessity and a constitutional right.[2]

Personal life[]

In 1839, he married Annis (Field Dunbar) Jenkins (1820–1855), the daughter of Dr. William Dunbar (1793–1847) and granddaughter of Sir William Dunbar (1750–1810), of the near Natchez, Mississippi.[2][3][4][9] They resided at Elgin in Natchez.[2][3][9] They had four children:

  • Alice Dunbar Jenkins (1841–1929).
  • Mary Dunbar Jenkins (1843–1927).
  • Captain (1846–1927). He served in the Confederate States Army and married Helen Louisa Winchester (1849–1917) of The Elms in Natchez.[2]
  • Major William Dunbar Jenkins (1849–1914).

Death[]

He died of yellow fever on October 14, 1855 in Natchez.[4]

References[]

  1. ^ University of Miami Libraries
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h JENKINS (JOHN CARMICHAEL) AND FAMILY PAPERS Archived 2014-04-19 at the Wayback Machine, Mississippi Department of Archives & History
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f William Kauffman Scarborough, Masters of the Big House: Elite Slaveholders of the Mid-nineteenth-century South, New Orleans, Louisiana: Louisiana State University Press, 2006, pp. 128–129 [1]
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g Louisiana State University Libraries: Jenkins (John C. and Family) Papers
  5. ^ Cortlandt Van Rensselaer (ed.), The Presbyterian Magazine, W. H. Mitchell, 1857, Volume 7, Issue 4, p. 188 [2]
  6. ^ Jump up to: a b Jack Baldwin, Winnie Baldwin, Baldwin's Guide to Inns of Mississippi, Gretna, Louisiana: Pelican Publishing, 2000, p. 89 [3]
  7. ^ Jump up to: a b c Dennis William Hauck, Haunted Places: The National Directory: Ghostly Abodes, Sacred Sites, UFO Landings, and Other Supernatural Locations, New York, New York: Penguin Books, 2002, p. 227 [4]
  8. ^ A Guide to the John Carmichael Jenkins Family Papers, 1836–1900, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History
  9. ^ Jump up to: a b c Steven Brooke, The Majesty of Natchez, Gretna, Louisiana: Pelican Publishing, 1999, p. 87 [5]
  10. ^ Michael Wayne, The Reshaping of Plantation Society: The Natchez District, 1860–80, Champaign, Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 1990, p. 12 [6]

Further reading[]

  • Harrell, Laura D. S.. His own vine and fig tree;: A nineteenth century botanist, John Carmichael Jenkins, M.D. Reminder. 1966. 22 pages.[1]
  • Seal, Albert G.. 'John Carmichael Jenkins, Scientific Planter of Natchez District'. Journal of Mississippi History. I (1939):14–28.[2]
  1. ^ Google Books
  2. ^ Guide to manuscripts in the National Agricultural Library, Washington, D.C: United States Department of Agriculture, Science and Education Administration, 1979, p. 13 [7]
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