Biography of S. M. Jenks

	This biography is from "Memorial and biographical record; an illustrated
 	compendium of biography, containing a compendium of local biography,
	including biographical sketches of prominent old settlers and 
	representative citizens of South Dakota..." Published by G. A. Ogle & 
	Co., Chicago, 1898. Pages 397-398

	Scan and OCR by Joy Fisher, 1997. This file may be copied for non-profit 
	purposes. All other rights reserved. 



DR. S. M. JENKS, one of the leading physicians of Madison, was born in 
Sandusky City, Ohio, March 5, 1846. His father, Almer Jenks, was a 
native of New York and a coach builder by occupation, building the first 
wagon wheel west of Chicago. He located in Rockford and built the first 
wagon shop in that city. Almer Jenks was of English descent, and died in 
1848 of cholera. The mother of our subject bore the maiden name of Jane 
McCumber. She was a native of Pennsylvania, where she also grew to young 
womanhood. Her father, David McCumber, was of Scotch and Irish descent. 
Almer Jenks came first to Illinois in about 1837, and located at 
Rockford. About 1844 he returned to Ohio where our subject was born in 
1846, the ninth child in the order of birth of a family of ten. In 1848, 
while returning to Rockford, Illinois, the father died of the cholera, 
and was published among the unknown dead. The mother, with the family, 
had previously located in Rockford. About 1850 she married the second 
time to William Babatt, and located in Wisconsin.

	When about six years of age our subject went to live with Mrs. 
Thomas Martin, daughter of Thomas Cheasbro, the founder of the deaf and 
dumb asylum at Delavan, Walworth county, Wisconsin. In 1857 Mrs. Martin 
died, and our subject went to live with his aunt, Mrs. C. T. Curtiss, a 
sister of his mother, and remained with her until 1861, when he enlisted 
in Company G, Eleventh Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, as a private and 
served three years, and four months. Although Dr. Jenks was only fifteen 
and a half years of age when he enlisted, and not quite nineteen when he 
received his discharge at the end of the war, he was a brave and true 
soldier and served his country well and faithfully, and can now look 
back over an honorable military career spent in trying to defend the 
union. For a time after entering the service he was on detached duty, 
but later participated in the following engagements: Grand Gulf, Port 
Gibson, Black River, Jackson, Vicksburg and other smaller battles. He 
also served about eight months in the signal service and sent the 
message to Porter from Grant on the day of the surrender, July 4, 1863, 
at the siege of Vicksburg. He was requested by General Grant to be one 
of a company of three to go through the Rebel lines at Vicksburg, to try 
to find a way to get a communication between the fleet and land forces. 
The party consisted of a signal officer, a colonel from Grant's staff 
and Mr. Jenks.

	At the close of hostilities our subject returned to Clinton, 
Wisconsin. where he attended the common schools and also the Allens 
Grove academy, of which Professor Montague was then principal. After 
spending about three years in these schools he went to Rockford, 
Minnesota, and began the study of medicine in the office of Drs. 
Richardson and Palmer, and after spending two years with them he took 
his first course of lectures at the Rush Medical college, of Chicago, 
Illinois, graduating from that institution in February, 1872. He then 
located at Grand Meadow, Minnesota, where he followed the practice of 
medicine until 1879, when he moved to Lake county, Dakota, and located 
at Herman, where he remained until the fall of 1881, when the town of 
Madison was established. He then moved to Madison, and, with the 
exception of one year spent in California and one in Kansas, he has been 
in constant practice in that place. In 1885 Dr. Jenks was a delegate to 
the American Medical Association at Minneapolis, and is now a member of 
the pension board. In 1882 he was appointed a member of the board of 
regents of the State Normal school and was president of that body four 
years, and has always taken an active interest in educational matters, 
and all matters pertaining to the business welfare of the village have 
met with his earnest support. He is a member of the Masonic order, being 
connected with Blue lodge, No. 17, the chapter, and is also a member of 
the G. A. R. He is a socialist in public matters and an agnostic in 
religious views.

	On June 20, 1872, Dr. Jenks was married to Miss Marietta Tuttle, 
of Clinton, Wisconsin, and daughter of Charles and Elmina (Gilbert) 
Tuttle, and their wedded life has been blessed by the presence of six 
children, of whom we have the following record: Charles T., born in 
1874; Alice, born in 1876; Eugene S., born in 1878; Elmina, born in 
1883; Maurice, born in 1885; and David, born in 1890.