Steven Butler's Genealogy Website: The Jenkins Family

LORENZO CLARK JENKINS (1816-AFT. 1880)

Lorenzo Clark Jenkins, a farmer by occupation, was born December 24, 1816, probably in Pendleton District, South Carolina. He was the ninth child and seventh son of Francis Jenkins (3.) and his wife Dorothea.

Lorenzo C. Jenkins was married about 1847, at the age of about thirty, to nineteen year old Cornelia Davis, a native or resident of Westminster, Oconee County, South Carolina. Together, this couple had at least three children: Thomas William, born June 17, 1848 in either South Carolina or Georgia; Zobedia, born January or February 1850 in Georgia; and Benjamin Franklin, born August 17, 1852, also in Georgia.

This family lived in or near Carnesville, Franklin County, Georgia, which is adjacent to Oconee County, South Carolina.

Cornelia Davis Jenkins died sometime between 1852 and 1858. On February 3, 1859, Lorenzo married for a second time. His new wife was Nancy Winney Ramsey, a twenty-six year old native of Georgia. Their marriage, however, was short. Nancy Ramsey Jenkins died sometime between 1860 and 1870.

Lorenzo’s third wife was Martha A. Jenkins, whose maiden maiden name is unknown. They were married sometime prior to the summer of 1870. Martha, a native of South Carolina, was born about 1830.

Lorenzo C. Jenkins fathered at least six more children. We can be certain that the mother of two, Samuel, born 1871, and Louis T., born 1875, was Martha. It’s uncertain, however, whether Nancy or Martha was the mother of the other four children: Newton, born about 1863; William, born about 1865; John M., born about 1867; and Mary E., born about 1869.

Unfortunately, apart from the names of his wives and children, we know next to nothing about Lorenzo C. Jenkins beyond the fact that he was a farmer who appears to spent his entire adult life living in Franklin County, Georgia. One family story has it that before the Civil War Lorenzo was fairly well-to-do but that the devastation caused by the Union Army’s invasion of Georgia during the war caused him to return for a period of time to South Carolina. Another story holds that after the war he went to Illinois, then Texas (via Indian Territory) before returning to Georgia. Both stories seem implausible, however. Lorenzo Jenkins was enumerated in the federal census of Franklin County, Georgia for 1850, 1860, 1870, and 1880 and the value of his real estate was never more than $1,000.

Both Lorenzo C. Jenkins and his wife Martha probably died in Franklin County, sometime after 1880 (when he was sixty-four years old) and before 1900. We do not know where they are buried, or where Lorenzo’s first two wives are buried.