James M. Jenkins, ex-trustee of Lauderdale County, is a son of Samuel D. and
Helen (Brockinton) Jenkins, who were both natives of South Carolina. The
father was born in 1808, and the mother in 1811. They married and settled in
their native State, and had a family of eight children — three boys and five
girls. The mother died in 1846, and in 1848 Mr. Jenkins married Elizabeth
Beasley, and to this marriage two sons and four daughters were born. In 1850
they moved to Lauderdale County. The father and both his wives were
Methodists, and he was an old Jeffersonian Democrat. By trade he was a
finished carriage maker, but later in life gave his time to farming; he died
in 1882. Both of our subject’s grandfathers were Methodist preachers. The
Jenkins family have supplied the church with a number of ministers; his
grandfather was a soldier in the Revolutionary war. Our subject is of Scotch
descent, and was born June 11, 1841, in Darlington County, S. C.; was raised
on a farm; had few educational advantages, having attended school only a few
months, but has since acquired a practical business education. In 1861 he
enlisted in the Confederate service, in Company G, Fourth Tennessee Infantry,
but after a year’s service was sent home on account of sickness, and commenced
farming. In 1862 he married Mary J. Meadows, who was born July 21, 1843, in
Lauderdale County. Of nine children born to them, two boys and two girls
survive. Both parents are Methodists. Mr. Jenkins is a Democrat. In 1878
he was elected trustee of the county, and gave such entire satisfaction as an
officer that he was re-elected four times. In 1880 he moved to Ripley, where
he owns 380 acres of good land, but has given most of his time to official
duties; has been a resident of Lauderdale County for thirty-seven years, and
is one of her most substantial citizens.

Goodspeed’s Biographies of Lauderdale Co., TN