JACOBS, A. G. Jr – Came from Hanover, Germany, in 1855 and settled on the W 1/2 of the NE 1/4 of Section 7, Greene Twp. His father, A. G. Jacobs, Sr., may have also migrated at this date with him.
JAYNES, James C. Jr. and Mary H. Powell – James was born in New York state, Otsego County, November 21, 1825, and settled in woods near Kappa in 1852, moving into the new I. C. R. R. village the next year, engaging in the grain business – probably Kappa's first grain man. He owned two farms and raised livestock extensively. He married in 1857. Mr. Jaynes died in Kappa August 3, 1883. He had been a trustee of the Kappa Methodist Church in the 1860's.
JAYNES, James C. Sr. and Elizabeth – James was born in New York on July 4, 1798, and followed his son into Kappa in the late 1850's, where he died May 21, 1870. Elizabeth was born April 3, 1796 and died in Kappa on June 8, 1879.
JENKINS, Isaac Merideth Sr. and Caroline Bicking (1832-1907) – Isaac, one of the three Jenkins brothers, was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania on January 20, 1803. He was the first of the brothers to move to Kickapoo in 1836 but Robert and William soon followed. Their sawmill was next to Bishop Chase's home in the Robin's Nest, close by the Jubilee College over which he presided. It was "built of mud and sticks and filled with young 'uns," hence the Robin's Nest. Isaac was fifty when he married, and sons David and Fred were born near Kickapoo, but George was born in El Paso, to which the family of both Isaac and William had moved in the spring of 1857, after erecting the first store building in 1856. All three of these boys died in the epidemic of 1860, all in one week, January 30 to February 5. Isaac and William bought the Lot 3, Block 44, from John S. Taylor on November 14, 1859. Mr. Gibson lived with this family while his own home was being constructed, as did Uncle Billy Jenkins, then a bachelor, whom Caroline Jenkins told to marry Mary Bainbridge so there would be a little more room in the Isaac Jenkins home, and he did.
For some years the Jenkins brothers were the only grain dealers. Isaac J. Jenkins, Jr. was born September 21, 1861, and following the death of May Gibson Fleming was the oldest person to reside all his life in El Paso. He died here on May 5, 1928. Youngest in the family was Katharine Jenkins, residing at 398 East First Street, and who has now lived in El Paso continuously for over eighty years. The family later farmed where the cattle sales barn is now located east of El Paso on Route 24. The Jenkins families were all staunch Democrats. Isaac Sr. died in El Paso on December 15, 1879 and is buried in Evergreen Cemetery.
JENKINS, Robert Smith and Malinda Kindred – Robert was born in Churchtown, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania on June 23, 1812. He died June 6, 1883 Wyanet, Illinois and is buried there. He came from Kickapoo, where he operated a grist mill and sawmill. Robert served as the El Paso Cemetery Association's first Secretary at organization meeting August 11, 1859. He came to El Paso in late 1856 with his brothers, Isaac, Sr. and William, and opened our first store where the Rebbec Garage stands today. He followed building trades, and spent his winters in Natchez, Mississippi as a building superintendent for relatives. He had come west from Pennsylvania in 1840 to Illinois, and lived in Peoria County 16 years. He returned there from El Paso in 1864, and moved in turn to Wyanet (1868); to Ladora, Iowa, (1869); to Viola, Illinois, (1870); to El Paso again in 1871, and to Wyanet again in 1882, where he died the next year. Seven children were born to Robert and Malinda, of whom Jeff D. Jenkins was the fourth. J. D. was an old time El Paso Journal employee, and in later life operated his own El Paso jewelry store.
Page 382
Go to previous page Go to next page Go to El Paso Story gateway page