John Carmichael Jenkins (1809–1855) was an American plantation owner, medical doctor and horticulturalist in the Antebellum South.
Biography
Early life Jenkins was born on December 13, 1809, at the Windsor Forge Mansion in Churchtown, Pennsylvania.University of Miami LibrariesJENKINS (JOHN CARMICHAEL) AND FAMILY PAPERS , Mississippi Department of Archives & HistoryWilliam Kauffman Scarborough, Masters of the Big House: Elite Slaveholders of the Mid-nineteenth-century South, New Orleans, Louisiana: Louisiana State University Press, 2006, pp. 128–129 Louisiana State University Libraries: Jenkins (John C. and Family) Papers His parents were Robert Jenkins (1769–1848), a Congressman from Pennsylvania, and Catherine Carmichael (1774–1853).Cortlandt Van Rensselaer (ed.), The Presbyterian Magazine, W. H. Mitchell, 1857, Volume 7, Issue 4, p. 188 He had one brother, David Jenkins (1800–1850), and six sisters, Elizabeth Jenkins (1803–1870), Mary Jenkins (1805–1859), Martha Jenkins (1805–1890), Phoebe Ann Jenkins (1807–1872), Catharine Jenkins (1812–1886), and Sarah Jenkins (1817-unknown).
He graduated from Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and received a Doctorate in Medicine from the Medical School at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia in 1833.
Career He moved to the Wilkinson County, Mississippi, to take over the medical practise of his uncle, John Flavel Carmichael (unknown-1837), a medical doctor and plantation owner who had become blind.Jack Baldwin, Winnie Baldwin, Baldwin's Guide to Inns of Mississippi, Gretna, Louisiana: Pelican Publishing, 2000, p. 89
He owned several plantations in the Natchez District, some of which he inherited, some of which he purchased and developed. For example, he owned the Cold Spring Plantation in Pinckneyville, Mississippi.Dennis William Hauck, Haunted Places: The National Directory: Ghostly Abodes, Sacred Sites, UFO Landings, and Other Supernatural Locations, New York, New York: Penguin Books, 2002, p. 227 Additionally, he owned several other plantations like the Stock Farm Plantation near Nesbit, Mississippi, in DeSoto County, Mississippi, the Tarbert Plantation in Wilkinson County, Mississippi, and another plantation in West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana.A Guide to the John Carmichael Jenkins Family Papers, 1836–1900, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History
A horticulturalist, he would use his Natchez residence, Elgin, as a plant nursery for different varieties of fruit trees and cotton he would later use on other plantations. He also produced hybrid species of orchids.Steven Brooke, The Majesty of Natchez, Gretna, Louisiana: Pelican Publishing, 1999, p. 87 Additionally, he was a wine connoisseur and collector of wine vintages. He was a member of the Academy of Natural Sciences, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania and the American Pomological Society.Michael Wayne, The Reshaping of Plantation Society: The Natchez District, 1860–80, Champaign, Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 1990, p. 12 He kept a diary from 1841 to 1855.
He was a proponent of slavery, both as an economic necessity and a constitutional right.
Personal life In 1839, he married Annis (Field Dunbar) Jenkins (1820–1855), the daughter of Dr. William Dunbar (1793–1847) and granddaughter of Sir William Dunbar (1750–1810), of the Forest Plantation near Natchez, Mississippi. They resided at Elgin in Natchez. They had four children: Alice Dunbar Jenkins (1841–1929). Mary Dunbar Jenkins (1843–1927). Captain John Flavel Jenkins (1846–1927). He served in the Confederate States Army and married Helen Louisa Winchester (1849–1917) of The Elms in Natchez. Major William Dunbar Jenkins (1849–1914).
Death He died of yellow fever on October 14, 1855, in Natchez.
References
Further reading Harrell, Laura D. S.. His own vine and fig tree;: A nineteenth century botanist, John Carmichael Jenkins, M.D. Reminder. 1966. 22 pages.Google Books Seal, Albert G.. 'John Carmichael Jenkins, Scientific Planter of Natchez District'. Journal of Mississippi History. I (1939):14–28.Guide to manuscripts in the National Agricultural Library, Washington, D.C: United States Department of Agriculture, Science and Education Administration, 1979, p. 13