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| Tom Jenkins 1883? - 1934 |
Since starting this blog I got away from my great-grandfather Tom Jenkins - Head of the Table. Father's Day had just passed and on my own personal social media I noted that my grandfather and father had both given me my name (or variation thereof). It is also in fact the Head of the Table who's also responsible for giving me my last name.
What do we know about him? We know that he died in 1934 per legal documents - reportedly from a snakebite according to one of my uncles (Tom's grandson). We also know that during the 1910s he purchased land somewhere outside of Mound Bayou, Mississippi which his descendants continued to hold until at least 2004. Tom also briefly owned this land with his brother Will though he later returned his interest in this land back to the Head of the Table.
It's safe to say he was a farmer and certainly a landowner. He married Georgia Johnson in December 1908 and had ten children from this union.
I didn't know about his parents until starting my research via Ancestry.com. And learned that his roots were from Pike County, Mississippi which is right on the state line with Louisiana. I hadn't known about Will Jenkins until finding those legal documents regarding the sale of Tom's land near Mound Bayou. Uncle JayGou was mentioned orally though no clue about his relationship at least to me in the family tree.
No one that I recall had ever mentioned Garrison and Delia Jenkins though in doing this project I found that a lot of names that I knew or heard of had come from other Jenkins. Perhaps Tom & Georgia named their daughter Delia for her paternal grandmother. Or Tom & Georgia named my grandfather for his uncle Levi. Perhaps Willie B was named for Tom's uncle or brother Willie.
Another thing I'm not sure about is Tom's birthday. Of course there was a time when government authorities didn't issue birth certificates. It's not like births were consistently recorded by a government unless of course we find a family bible for example.
In sharing census reports I recognize whatever birth months and years aren't always very accurate. Here's on indication of Tom's birthday. During the conflict we know as the 1st World War, our Head of the Table had registered for the draft.
Tom seemed to have went by Thomas, however, on this draft card his name was corrected as Tommie. You see the correction handwritten up top. Who knows if he did that or if someone with the draft board made that edit. He lists himself as a farmer and lists his residence as near Shelby, MISS.
I don't know if this was before or after Tom had bought his land near Mound Bayou (although I had been told his land was closer to Shelby than Mound Bayou). Although he does list self for employer.
Another giveaway was noting his nearest relative which is his wife Georgia. Tommie's birthday is listed as Dec 13, 1883 and which would make him significantly older (at least a decade) than his wife Georgia who was born in the early 1890s.
Also one my uncles stated that Tommie's signature almost resembled that of his father (and my grandfather) Levi Sr. Here's Levi's draft card from the 2nd World War. I'll let you be the judge of whether or not the signatures are similar.
At this point my own father wasn't even around when his father (my grandfather) affixed his John Hancock on this draft registration car. And he absolutely claimed Mound Bayou as his home with his wife and my grandmother Evelyn with his employer and mother Georgia Jenkins. However, he did claim his birthplace as Shelby, MISS.
I suppose there is a question to ask how did Tom & Will find their way to Shelby/Mound Bayou, MISS. The answer to that question is coming soon!