Parents

Son of Joseph Asa JENKINS & Hester Ann SMITH.

Life History

Other facts

Notes

• I have noticed a variation in the various family references to JosephBenjamin Jenkins.  Throughout his life, he went by Benjamin.  He commonly went by Ben, and is listed as Benjamin in many public sources, and much of our family correspondence about him.  I have seen public references to him as both Joseph Benjamin and Benjamin Joseph.
  
  His family commonly called him Ben, and we nephews and nieces called him Uncle Ben.  In the Christiansen and Winans genealogies, he is listed only as Benjamin Jenkins.
  
  The common way I have seen or heard his full name is Joseph Benjamin Jenkins.  I found that on the JenkinsLife.com website, members of his family have referred to him there as Benjamin Joseph Jenkins.  That site is managed by a grandson, and one of the contributors is a daughterof Ben. In previous email correspondence, a great grandson refers to Ben as I have known his name, Joseph Benjamin.
  
  Information from Julia Virginia Jenkins, Ben's step-mother, gives hisname as Joseph Benjamin.  This is in family information given to Lou Ila Jenkins in the 1950s.
  
  Ben's grandson Bruce Jenkins says his father Brian told him that Ben changed his name around after an event in the army, when he and some army buddies in San Francisco were attacked by a Chinese gang.  Ben wasso badly injured doctors had to put a plate in his head.  At some time after that event he changed his name by switching the order of his two given names.
  
  Since early sources, such as the 1910 census cited below, show his name as Joseph B(enjamin), it appears that this was the original form ofhis name.  This would follow the pattern of names in his father Joseph Asa and grandfather Joseph Sanford.  Also note his cousin Joseph Benjamin Christian.
  
  He is in the 1900 Chickasaw Nation census as Joseph B Jenkins.
  Stephens County, Chickasaw Nation, Indian Territory, Page #310, Family #133
  Jenkins, Joe        Head  W M  Jun 1866   33 M-13 TX SC GA Farmer
  Jenkins, Joseph B Son W M  Oct 1889  10 TX TX TX
  
  His registration for military service for WWI, his card has the name Benjamin J and he signs his name that way.  This seems to indicate he changed the order of his names while still a teenager, before he entered the service.  The card image is attached.  Though it is a poor scanyou can make out the main facts.  The date of birth differs, appearing to read Oct 12, 1890 (instead of Oct 21, 1889).  But the numbers are made with a flourish.  His address is given as Healdton (Carter County), Oklahoma.
  
  His age appears to be 27, which would make this in about 1917, going by the declared birth date of 1890, or 1916, going by the actual birthdate in 1889.  It is a bit puzzling to the modern mind why he gave his birth year as 1890, instead of 1889, which is the date in family history info and in the 1900 census.  I wonder if this indicates the difference in worldview perspective from that time to this.  Our culture in the last half of the 20th century became very information consciousand detail-focused.
  
  Variations in dates often differ in that era.  Names do too.  A person might have a totally different name from one census to the next.  Most census enumerators recorded only one name, not the full name of the person.  In earlier years they wrote whatever the family told them the child's name was, and many nicknames appear as the only name in censuses.
  
  People were not oriented to the formalities of dates in the objectivesense that we are.  Ben probably had not focused so much on the actual date, and the slight difference in dates could reflect a lapse of memory on the exact details.  The variations in name could also represent a cavalier attitude toward a name.  Your name could be whatever youwanted it to be.  Many cultures are still that way today, and a person will change a name at a particular stage or event in his life.
  
  In the 1920 census in Oakdale, Washita County, Oklahoma, he is listedas Benjamin J Jenkins.
  Benjamin J  Head  M W 30  TX TX TX
  Lena F        Wife   F W  18  OK MO KY
  Benjamin J  Son    M W   1 yr 2 mos OK TX OK
  
  Oakdale was an early name for Mountain View.  That portion of WashitaCounty later became Kiowa County.  Children were born in Healdton before and after the 1920 census.  It appears that Ben and Lena lived on the oilfield assignments, but maintained a permanent residence addressin Oakdale/Mt View, where they were registered in the census, rather than Healdton, where they lived in somewhat deprived conditions.  As work diminished during the recessions and conditions worsened, they joined many other Oklahomans and migrated to California in 1924 or 1925, after the birth of Robert in Oklahoma, settling in Los Angeles County.
  
  Daughter Kathlyn Dale Lanford tells their story on the family website:
  http://jenkinslife.com/stories/jlife-stories1.htm
  
  In the 1930 census in Los Angeles County, he is listed as Joseph B.  This probably indicates that this was still his formal legal name.
  
  3460 Bell Drive, Los Angeles (Norwalk) District 1191, page 7B-8A, Hse#180, Family #168
  Joseph B Jenkins 39
  Lena F Jenkins 29
  Benjamin J Jenkins 11
  Billy Jenkins 9
  Edgar Jenkins 7
  Robert Jenkins 6
  Betty Lou Jenkins 4
  Joan Jenkins 5mos
  
  Bruce Jenkins says Ben "took care of 9 children through the Depression and owned a large house in Bellflower [California].  When WWII broke out and some of the older boys enlisted, he joined the merchant marines to do his part for the war."
  
  Bruce also reports that later in life, Ben lived with his daughter Betty Lou Strickland for awhile.

Sources

• 1. Jenkins Family History by Harold Keith Christian
• 2. Social Security Death Index
• 3. Julia Virginia Terry Jenkins, personal interview by Lou Ila Jenkins, about 1955
• 4. 1920 Federal Census, Washita County, Oklahoma
  • Oakdale, District 192, page 8A, Farm House #129, Family #127
• 5. California Death Index, 1940-1997
  • Name: Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2000;
• 6. JenkinsLife.Com -- Benjamin and Lena (Stinson) Jenkins
  • http://jenkinslife.com/news/jlife-news1.htm
• 7. JenkinsLife.Com -- Benjamin and Lena (Stinson) Jenkins
  • http://jenkinslife.com/stories/jlife-stories4.htm
• 8. 1900 Federal Census, Chickasaw Nation, Indian Territory
  • 19 June, Marlow Town, Page #310, Hse #131, Family #133
• 9. U.S. World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918
• 10. Obituary of Joseph Asa Jenkins, Oklahoma City paper, name unknown, June 1962
• 11. JenkinsLife.Com -- Benjamin and Lena (Stinson) Jenkins
  • http://jenkinslife.com/stories/jlife-stories5.htm
• 12. 1930 Federal Census, Los Angeles County, California
  • 9 April, 3460 Bell Drive, Los Angeles (Norwalk) District 1191, page 7B
• 13. Bruce Jenkins, email to Orville Boyd Jenkins, March 2007
• 14. Richard Kevin Jenkins, email to Orville Boyd Jenkins, August 2006
• 15. Jenkins Family History by Harold Keith Christian
  • page 13
• 16. 1930 Federal Census, Los Angeles County, California
  • Los Angeles (Norwalk) District 1191, page 7B-8A, Hse #180, Family #168
• 17. JenkinsLife.Com -- Benjamin and Lena (Stinson) Jenkins
  • http://jenkinslife.com/stories/jlife-stories1.htm
• 18. 1920 Federal Census, Washita County, Oklahoma
  • Fourteenth Census, Oakdale, Washita, Oklahoma
• 19. Clore - Pitts Family Tree
  • Name: http://trees.ancestry.com/pt/RequestTreeAccess.aspx?tid=155052&pid=-2102926575;
• 20. JenkinsLife.Com -- Benjamin and Lena (Stinson) Jenkins
  • http://jenkinslife.com/stories/jlife-stories9.htm
• 21. J Epperson Genealogy
• 22. JenkinsLife.Com -- Benjamin and Lena (Stinson) Jenkins
  • http://jenkinslife.com/stories/jlife-stories3.htm
• 23. Dolores Bess Christiansen Frank, Letter to Joseph Asa Jenkins, 14 Nov1956
• 24. Chickasaw Nation Marriages
  • Name: http://www.rootsweb.com/~okgarvin/kinard/chickjmarr.htm;
  • Book K, page 471