*Grave marked in 2019, 80 years after her death.*
All the recollections of the children of Thomas Sanford Jenkins of their grandmother were that they remembered her hostility toward them, and all children in general. I'm sure they weren't aware at that time in their lives of her experiences with children before she came to live with them in Fairview the last few years of her life. In her defense, I submit what I was able to determine from extensive research of her and her husband's difficult lives using census and marriage records, interviews, and her Civil War Veteran Widow's Pension Application.
Her husband, John Sanford, was married to her older sister, Mahala, before he married Alice. Being married to John, who had chosen her sister first, must have been uncomfortable for both of them. But before his marriage to Mahala, John was married to a childhood friend, Ann Elizabeth Smithwick, in Hardin County in 1866.
John and Elizabeth had three children, James, Andrew, and Alma before her sudden death in 1874. Early deaths were not at all uncommon in the 1800s. With three young toddlers to rear, John wasted no time in asking a neighbor, Mahala Garrett to marry. John and Mahala were soon parents of two more, Daisy and Charley. Mahala died before Daisy was four years old. Only then, in 1879, did John ask Alice for her hand in marriage as he just conveniently knew her.
John's son Andrew then died, leaving four children, from two to eleven years of age, for Alice to tend to in her new instant family. The thought of being a newlywed and having others' young children to care for must have been unsettling for her as it was for poor James living with is third 'mother' before he was eleven. It was noted on James' death certificate in 1952 that his mother was recorded as being Mahala Jenkins. Descendants of James researching thier ancestors in the late 1900s assumed the same thing.
John and Alice lost their first child soon after they married. (Source of child one: 1880 census: Martha is listed as enlargement of womb, 1900, 4 kids born living, 2 living. ) They later had three boys, Tom, my grandfather, Henry, and Willie. Now Alice had seven young children to see after as well as John, who was becoming less able to support them because of his worsening war injuries. Tragedy struck the family again when young Willie died in 1894.
Besides raising her children for about 20 years, from the time she was married, Alice had her sister's and Eliza's kids at home. After she lost two of her own, Alice had experienced more than most mothers.
When they all left home but Henry, shortly after 1900, she went to live with her son, Tom, in Gibson County. Apparently her marriage to John was not going well, she never returned to Hardin County, or Tom needed her help with all his children. Around 1920 she was called on once again. Alice went to live with Henry in Hominy, Oklahoma. Henry had just lost his wife and infant daughter and needed a mother to help with his four kids.
By the time Alice returned to Gibson County, Tom was well on his way to having eleven children. Mr Tom had just moved from his first place near Bethpage Church to a bigger two-story home he had bought from his father-in-law, James Bradford on what is now Tom Jenkins Road. Even with four bedrooms and eleven kids, it must have been a busy and overcrowded place for her to live. Uncles have said she did have one of the four rooms to herself though.
At 70 years old in the 1920s, she had helped or raised twenty children, and now living with eleven, had lost two of her own, a widow, and dependent on her son. It was not the peaceful life one would expect in their final years. Her frustration was understandable.
Martha Alice died at the age of 86 at Tom's home the 22nd of May 1939 and is buried somewhere at Bethpage Cemetery without a grave marker and known only to a few who are no longer with us. I found no death certificate, obituary, Bible entry, or any record of her passing..... except a note in Howard Taylor's farm diary, in possession of his niece in the 1990s, that he had attended her funeral on that day. Sadly, had it not been for her application for a Civil War veteran's wife pension, her date of birth would not even have been know either. She will now be remembered here forever.
Written by her great-grandson, Dennis Maldonado
Her grandson Lloyd Jenkins recalled that she battled with skin cancer in her final years and refused to see a doctor. She futilely applied rubbing cream but eventually succumbed to her disease.
*Grave marked in 2019, 80 years after her death.*
All the recollections of the children of Thomas Sanford Jenkins of their grandmother were that they remembered her hostility toward them, and all children in general. I'm sure they weren't aware at that time in their lives of her experiences with children before she came to live with them in Fairview the last few years of her life. In her defense, I submit what I was able to determine from extensive research of her and her husband's difficult lives using census and marriage records, interviews, and her Civil War Veteran Widow's Pension Application.
Her husband, John Sanford, was married to her older sister, Mahala, before he married Alice. Being married to John, who had chosen her sister first, must have been uncomfortable for both of them. But before his marriage to Mahala, John was married to a childhood friend, Ann Elizabeth Smithwick, in Hardin County in 1866.
John and Elizabeth had three children, James, Andrew, and Alma before her sudden death in 1874. Early deaths were not at all uncommon in the 1800s. With three young toddlers to rear, John wasted no time in asking a neighbor, Mahala Garrett to marry. John and Mahala were soon parents of two more, Daisy and Charley. Mahala died before Daisy was four years old. Only then, in 1879, did John ask Alice for her hand in marriage as he just conveniently knew her.
John's son Andrew then died, leaving four children, from two to eleven years of age, for Alice to tend to in her new instant family. The thought of being a newlywed and having others' young children to care for must have been unsettling for her as it was for poor James living with is third 'mother' before he was eleven. It was noted on James' death certificate in 1952 that his mother was recorded as being Mahala Jenkins. Descendants of James researching thier ancestors in the late 1900s assumed the same thing.
John and Alice lost their first child soon after they married. (Source of child one: 1880 census: Martha is listed as enlargement of womb, 1900, 4 kids born living, 2 living. ) They later had three boys, Tom, my grandfather, Henry, and Willie. Now Alice had seven young children to see after as well as John, who was becoming less able to support them because of his worsening war injuries. Tragedy struck the family again when young Willie died in 1894.
Besides raising her children for about 20 years, from the time she was married, Alice had her sister's and Eliza's kids at home. After she lost two of her own, Alice had experienced more than most mothers.
When they all left home but Henry, shortly after 1900, she went to live with her son, Tom, in Gibson County. Apparently her marriage to John was not going well, she never returned to Hardin County, or Tom needed her help with all his children. Around 1920 she was called on once again. Alice went to live with Henry in Hominy, Oklahoma. Henry had just lost his wife and infant daughter and needed a mother to help with his four kids.
By the time Alice returned to Gibson County, Tom was well on his way to having eleven children. Mr Tom had just moved from his first place near Bethpage Church to a bigger two-story home he had bought from his father-in-law, James Bradford on what is now Tom Jenkins Road. Even with four bedrooms and eleven kids, it must have been a busy and overcrowded place for her to live. Uncles have said she did have one of the four rooms to herself though.
At 70 years old in the 1920s, she had helped or raised twenty children, and now living with eleven, had lost two of her own, a widow, and dependent on her son. It was not the peaceful life one would expect in their final years. Her frustration was understandable.
Martha Alice died at the age of 86 at Tom's home the 22nd of May 1939 and is buried somewhere at Bethpage Cemetery without a grave marker and known only to a few who are no longer with us. I found no death certificate, obituary, Bible entry, or any record of her passing..... except a note in Howard Taylor's farm diary, in possession of his niece in the 1990s, that he had attended her funeral on that day. Sadly, had it not been for her application for a Civil War veteran's wife pension, her date of birth would not even have been know either. She will now be remembered here forever.
Written by her great-grandson, Dennis Maldonado
Her grandson Lloyd Jenkins recalled that she battled with skin cancer in her final years and refused to see a doctor. She futilely applied rubbing cream but eventually succumbed to her disease.
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