John Jenkins 1846-1930
2010
John Jenkins was born in Wales to James Jenkins and Elizabeth Davis. He was the middle child of three, an older sister and a younger brother. John’s parents heard the Gospel from the missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints and were baptized in 1847. Speaking only Welsh, they were taught and baptized without the benefit of reading The Book of Mormon in their native language for it had not yet been translated into Welsh.
John and his family made the voyage across the ocean and the trek across the country, arriving in The Salt Lake Valley in 1854. His father bought a farm in West Jordan, Utah which was deeded to him after working it for five years. That was the custom at the time. In 1870, John married Rosella Newberry Morris Peck. Rosella had been briefly married to Lucius Peck, but that marriage was dissolved shortly after it began. John and Rosella became the parents of seven children. The sixth child, Mary Maria is our direct ancestor by her marriage to Everest Elliott Watrous. John and Rosella made their home in Pleasant Green, Utah which is today named Magna. John spoke only Welsh. When he married Rosella, she, a teacher, was able to help John to learn the English language. He was a poet and learned to write in English.
First, John built a two-room adobe home in Pleasant Green with clay from the Perkins Clay Pits. Later he built a more permanent home which was called Arbor Park. In the year of 2009, the last remnants of his original home were removed and a large office building was placed on the land. Prior to the demolition we were able to walk the land and take photographs of the home. Coupled with a photograph of the original home when John was a young man, we are able to see the passage of time.
John was a significant land owner in Pleasant Green. He bought property in 1872, 1878, 1883 and 1886. He was a farmer and stockman. He kept sheep and cattle on ranges outside of the town. In his later years he developed palsy which made it hard for him to complete small tasks. When he died, he was buried in the Pleasant Green Cemetery which sits atop a hill on property owned by the Kennecott Copper Company. The cemetery cannot be seen from below but must be found by driving a steep and winding road. Once on top of the mountain, one can see the entire Salt Lake Valley and The Great Salt Lake to the north. John is buried with his wife Rosella and his father James. For some reason his mother Elizabeth is buried in the Salt Lake City Cemetery. Many of John and Rosella’s posterity are buried in the same cemetery. Some are in the family plot and others in plots throughout the cemetery.
The migration of John Jenkins
Wales to Utah