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Note: Thomas inherited a portion of his father's land in 1790 on New Hope Creek adjoining William Ballard in Orange Co NC. Thomas married Betsy Ballard in 1799. He later sold his land to William Morris Ballard on 14 Nov 1825. Thomas purchased a farm in nearby Chatham Co on Cedar Creek near Golston, 6 Oct 1825, adjoining Richard Dowd. After his son James Wilson Jenkins married Sarah Dowd, Thomas sold him a portion of his farm on 18 Jan 1828. Sometime after the 1830 Federal Census of Chatham County, Thomas and his son sold their farms. The deeds were eventually recorded by the buyer 29 December 1831 in Chatham County Deed Book AC page 247.
Thomas, Betsy, his daughters, Mary, Matilda, Rebecca, Nancy, and Elizabeth, and sons, James Wilson, William, and Edwin then left for Tennessee. Two other married daughters had left Chatham County before the 1830 census and did not make the journey. The trip to west Tennessee in a covered wagon supposedly took about a month. Haywood County, Tennessee records show Thomas Jenkins and his son-in-law, Mathew Dowdy, served on a jury as early as February 1832. Deeds signed by Thomas and Wilson Jenkins in August 1832 have been found in adjoining Madison County. James Wilson and his father also owned property near Brownsville. According to Haywood County 1836 tax records, the families settled south of the Forked Deer River and north of the Big Hatchie in districts 5 and 7 near Brownsville and bordering Madison County to the east. The 1840 census shows Thomas and Betsy, his children, Edwin and Matilda, and his son-in-law, Harris Brown, in Madison County. Thomas's son, William M, and son-in-laws, Samuel and James Temples, and Matthew Dowdy were in Haywood Count in 1840. My ancestor, James Wilson Jenkins, had already moved south to the Counce area of Hardin County, Tennessee after 1838, and before the 1840 census.
<p style="text-align: center; "><img src="http://freepages.history.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~masonhalltn/wcpix/016.jpg"/>
<p style="text-align: left; ">Thomas's family left Haywood and Madison counties in the late 1840s to continue their migration west. We are sure they traveled the newly cut dirt road from Trenton to Mason Hall, the Turnpike Road, ferried the Obion River, passed through Troy about 160 years ago and traveled the Troy-Hickman Road to Hickman, Kentucky. At that time this was the only north-south road in northwest Tennessee and Mason Hall and Troy were the only towns in Obion County. This was the migration route west for thousands of early pioneers in the 1800s. See my Mason Hall web page.
Thomas and four of his children are found in Castor Township around Bloomfield in Stoddard County, Missouri, just across the River west of Hickman, on the 20 Sep 1850 Federal census. His sons, William and Edwin were living next door. Thomas also owned two slaves believed to have been brought from Tennessee. Thomas's wife may have died during the journey across the Mississippi River. Thomas died in Stoddard Co in early 1852. His sons, William and Edwin were appointed Administrators. (Book A page 465). Other administration records recently found named all of his children. No tombstone, if one was erected, has ever been located. His children later moved on west.
After 160 years, Emma Cronan, another Jenkins researcher, and myself at last identified Thomas Jenkins’ entire family and their migration west traced back to North Carolina through Tennessee. Emma, now deceased, had traced her family from Texas back to Stoddard County but could go no further. I had traced James Wilson Jenkins back to his family in Chatham County and his father. Until then, James Wilson Jenkins was the only known child of Thomas. The 1830 census did not record the names of the other family members. And until these records were found in Stoddard County, the whereabouts of Thomas Jenkins after he left Chatham County was not known. With many Jenkins families in the US at the time, there was no way to positively identify the Thomas Jenkins in Haywood County in 1840 or in Stoddard County in 1850 as our ancestor. James Wilson was not in Haywood County in 1840 with his family, nor could he be located on the Tennessee census until 1850.
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