DeSoto Parish, Louisiana; Biography: Hon. B. Francis Jenkins - j525 --------------------------------- Submitted by Gaytha Carver Thompson Typed by Trudy Marlow ************************************************ Submitted to the LAGenWeb Archives ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** Hon. B. F. Jenkins, general merchant of Mans- field, La. One of the leading characteristics of our commercial fabric is the size and extent of the mercantile business in the various towns of De Soto Parish. A large capital is invested in this important interest, and many persons are furnished with remunerative employment. Among the lead- ing establishments of this kind none are more de- serving of mention than that belonging to Mr. Jenkins, which was established in 1870. He was born in Spottsylvania County, Va., in 1826, being a son of Lee and Sarah Frances (Parker) Jenkins, who were also Virginians, the former dying in Alabama, and the latter in her native State. Both the paternal and maternal grandfathers were in the Revolutionary War, the grandfather Parker being a commissioned officer with the rank of colonel. Mr. Jenkins' father was a planter. Of a family of twelve children born to himself and wife, ten of whom were raised to manhood and womanhood, only four are now living: John (in Virginia), Mrs. Lancaster (in Alabama), and B. Francis (the sub- ject of this notice), and one other (whose name was not furnished). Mr. Jenkins' mother died when be was about sixteen years old. He con- siders that his success in life has been due in no small degree to the training be received from a cultivated. Christian and devoted mother. Up to that time he had attended school and worked on the farm alternately since he had been old enough. He was by seven years the youngest child of the family, and his father was advanced in age. He was sent to a boarding school for a term, but after his mother's death went to Alabama to visit two brothers and a sister who had preceded him, and decided to make his home there. Finding no em- ployment, he entered the Mclnnis school in Sumter County, Ala., and in the fall of 1846 he accepted a clerkship with Mr. H. H. Harris, a dry goods merchant in the town of Livingston, Ala. He was compelled to relinquish this situation on account of ill health, as he did also an appointment as deputy sheriff, and he resolved to seek his fortune in a new country. In 1850 he came to De Soto Parish, La., by boat, consuming ten days on the journey, the same trip could now he made in twenty-four hours. He entered a store as clerk and worked his way up, until, in 1852, he and a friend opened a drug store, but conducted it only about one year. He was then urged to become a candidate for district clerk, although be was then quite young, but was defeated. He then resumed clerking, which he continued until 1854, when he bought out his employer, and, with J. W. Howard, continued until 1857, when Mr. Jenkins sold out to his partner on account of failing health. He then purchased him a plantation, and agriculture received his attention until the breaking out of the war, when he was appointed enrolling officer by Gov. Moore, to take charge of the State forces of De Soto Parish, and later on the State forces were turned over to the Confederate States, and he was transferred also, and to another parish, and held this position until the close of the war. In 1877 he was appointed by Gov. Francis T. Nicholls a member of the school board, and served on the examining board. In 1879 he was elected to the State Legislature, and was sent as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1879, without opposition. In 1888 he was re-elected to the Legislature, and in October, 1890, was presented with a cane by the representatives of twenty-two clubs of the Farmers' Union of De Soto, in recog- nition of his services in the session of 1890. Be- sides this lie has been mayor of Mansfield, and has held other offices. He is a director of the Traders' Bank of Mansfield, and in fact is and has been identified with every public enterprise, being now one of the commissioners appointed by Gov. Nich- olls on the Bayou Pierre River Drainage Commis- sion, the purpose of which is to drain that river. He is an extensive real estate owner, and is identi- fied as one of the men of Northwest Louisiana who has been prominently connected with all worthy enterprises. He is a member of the I. O. O. F. and the Masonic fraternities. In 1856 he was mar- ried to Mary Frances, youngest daughter of Maj. John E. Hewitt and Margaret Markham Hewitt, natives of Stafford County, Va. By this marriage they had eight children, five of whom are now liv- ing: Benjamin, John, Charles F., Mrs. Ettie Lee and Sarah 31. Mrs. Jenkins died in the spring of 1889. His father-in-law, Maj. Hewitt, moved from Virginia to Alabama in an early day, and from Alabama in 1840. When the parish of De Soto was organized, be was a member of the first police jury, and surveyed and laid off the present site of the town of Mansfield. Mr. Jenkins' family are mem- bers of the Episcopal Church; he is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church South. The career of Mr. Jenkins has been directed by a just rule of action, for he has believed with the Psalm- ist "A false balance is an abomination unto the Lord, but a jest weight is His delight," and has obeyed the injunction of the Bard of Avon to "Be just and fear not, and let all the ends thou aimest at be thy country's and God's and truth's."