JENKINS, WASHINGTON

While records disagree on his age, George Washington Jenkins (a.k.a. Washington) appears to have been born in the mid-1850s in Orange County, NC.¹Washington Jenkins death certificate: Ancestry.com. North Carolina, U.S., Death Certificates, 1909-1976 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2007. https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/143290:1121 : accessed 23 Aug 2022. Original data: North Carolina State Board of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics. North Carolina Death Certificates. Microfilm S.123. Rolls 19-242, 280, 313-682, 1040-1297. North Carolina State Archives, Raleigh, North Carolina. He also went by the name of Mansfield, or “Manse.”²“Aged Negro Seriously Injured by Southern Passenger Train,” The Durham Morning Herald (Durham NC), 23 Jun 1922: p. 14. https://www.newspapers.com/image/788345484/ : accessed 16 Oct 2022. The first record we have for him is an 1870 Census in Chapel Hill Township of Orange County, where he and his brother Nelson were living with a man named Gaston Green. The census lists him as 16 years old, placing his birth in 1854.³Ancestry.com. 1870 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/20029048:7163 : accessed 23 Aug 2022. Original data: 1870 U.S. census, population schedules. NARA microfilm publication M593, 1,761 rolls. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.Minnesota census schedules for 1870. NARA microfilm publication T132, 13 rolls. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d. His absence in the 1860 census would indicate he was born enslaved, a fact that is corroborated by his obituary in the local paper.⁴“Aged Negro Seriously Injured…” Only one family surnamed Jenkins is listed as holding slaves in the 1860 census for Orange County: Ashley and Ada Jenkins, living in the same University Station area where Nelson and Washington were found after emancipation.⁵ Ancestry.com. 1860 U.S. Federal Census – Slave Schedules [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/7668/images/ncm653_925-0327 : accessed 23 Aug 2022. Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Eighth Census of the United States, 1860. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1860. M653, 1,438 rolls. However, no records could be located that definitively connect Washington to these slaveholders.

Washington’s parents apparently died when he was a child, with both unnamed and listed as dead on his marriage certificate.⁶Washington Jenkins marriage license: Ancestry.com. North Carolina, U.S., Marriage Records, 1741-2011 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015. Original data: North Carolina County Registers of Deeds. Microfilm. Record Group 048. North Carolina State Archives, Raleigh, NC. However, Washington’s death certificate lists his father as Alex Jenkins, with his mother still unnamed.⁷Washington Jenkins death certificate. Brother Nelson’s marriage certificate lists his mother as Harriett, and his death certificate lists his father as Alex Jenkins and mother as Betty Thompson.⁸Nelson Jenkins marriage license: Ancestry.com. North Carolina, U.S., Marriage Records, 1741-2011 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015. https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/5470841:60548 : accessed 23 Aug 2022. Original data: North Carolina County Registers of Deeds. Microfilm. Record Group 048. North Carolina State Archives, Raleigh, NC.

Nelson Jenkins death certificate: Ancestry.com. North Carolina, U.S., Death Certificates, 1909-1976 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2007. https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/1179719:1121 : accessed 23 Aug 2022. Original data: North Carolina State Board of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics. North Carolina Death Certificates. Microfilm S.123. Rolls 19-242, 280, 313-682, 1040-1297. North Carolina State Archives, Raleigh, North Carolina. Sometime in the 1870s, the brothers, as well as possibly other relatives, moved to Durham. Washington was a witness to Nelson’s marriage to Mary Shaw in 1879, and himself married Delia Mitchell in 1880.⁹Nelson Jenkins marriage license; Washington Jenkins marriage license. Delia was the daughter of Willie and Judith Mitchell, who had moved their family to Durham around 1874.¹⁰Register of Deeds, Orange County, NC. https://rod.orangecountync.gov/orangenc/ Book 42, p. 329.

Both the Mitchell and Jenkins families settled down on Chapel Hill Road, near Durham’s Maplewood Cemetery. From the 1900 census, we can glean that he and Delia had 5 children, but sadly only one, a daughter Hattie born in 1882, survived to be recorded in the 1900 census.¹¹1900 US Census Durham: Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004. https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/68132604:7602 : 13 Oct 2022. Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Twelfth Census of the United States, 1900. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1900. T623, 1854 rolls. It appears Washington and Delia lived apart for much of their married life, as he can be found in city directories for 1897 and 1902 and in the 1900 census living apart from the family who was still on Chapel Hill Road.¹²1900 US Census Durham. Various Durham city directories (https://www.digitalnc.org/collections/city-directories/). However, we do know they remained legally married from a 1904 property deed, where they are listed as heirs of property likely passed down from Delia’s father.¹³Register of Deeds, Durham County, NC. https://rodweb.dconc.gov/web/search/DOCSEARCH5S1 Book 40, p. 61. These sources indicate that Washington was working as a “streethand” or “street laborer”.

After Delia’s death in 1905, Washington appears to have moved onto Chapel Hill Road to live with his daughter and other members of the Mitchell and Jenkins families. He can be found in City Directories and the 1910 census working as a bricklayer, probably laying bricks made by his famous neighbor, Richard Fitzgerald.¹⁴1910 US Census Durham: Year: 1910; Census Place: Durham Ward 4, Durham, North Carolina; Roll: T624_1108; Page: 11B; Enumeration District: 0041; FHL microfilm: 1375121. Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006. https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/152566295:7884 : accessed 14 Oct 2022. Original data: Thirteenth Census of the United States, 1910 (NARA microfilm publication T624, 1,178 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C. For details on the contents of the film numbers, visit the following NARA web page: https://www.archives.gov/research/census. Fitzgerald, “Durham’s leading brickmaker,” was also a founder of the Fitzgerald Drug Company, the treasurer of Lincoln Hospital, president of the Durham Real Estate, Mercantile, and Manufacturing Company, and a participant in numerous other enterprises.¹⁵“R. B. Fitzgerald, Businessman born,” African American Registry. https://aaregistry.org/story/r-b-fitzgerald-businessman-born/ : accessed 17 Oct 2022. Although absent from the 1920 census, Washington appears still living on Chapel Hill Road in the 1921 City Directory and on his 1922 death certificate.¹⁶Durham, NC City Directory 1921 (Durham, NC: Hill Directory Company, 1921) p. 267, Jenkins surname; digital image, “North Carolina City Directories,” DigitalNC (https://lib.digitalnc.org/record/25153 : accessed 17 Oct 2022).

Washington Jenkins death certificate. He died on 22 June 1922 in Lincoln Hospital of shock from multiple fractures received after being hit by a passenger train engine. He was buried in the City Cemetery (Geer) where Delia had been buried years prior.¹⁷Washington Jenkins death certificate. Other members of the Jenkins family, including brother Nelson and sister Maggie Jenkins Bullock, were buried in Fitzgerald Cemetery in their home neighborhood, which is today part of Maplewood Cemetery.¹⁸Nelson Jenkins death certificate: Ancestry.com. North Carolina, U.S., Death Certificates, 1909-1976 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2007. https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/1179719:1121 : accessed 17 Oct 2022. Original data: North Carolina State Board of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics. North Carolina Death Certificates. Microfilm S.123. Rolls 19-242, 280, 313-682, 1040-1297. North Carolina State Archives, Raleigh, North Carolina.

Maggie Jenkins Bullock death certificate: Ancestry.com. North Carolina, U.S., Deaths, 1906-1930 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014. https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/615286:60090 : accessed 17 Oct 2022, Original data: North Carolina, Deaths, 1906-1930. Salt Lake City, Utah: FamilySearch, 2013.

Washington’s daughter, Hattie Jenkins, was a lifelong teacher who was an important part of Washington and Delia’s legacy. See Delia’s life story for more information about Hattie. Hattie had no children of her own, which means Washington has no known descendants.

BORN: 1854.²⁰1870 US Census Chapel Hill.

DIED: 22 June 1922.²¹Washington Jenkins death certificate.

BIRTH PLACE: Orange County, NC.²²Washington Jenkins death certificate.

DEATH PLACE: Durham NC.²³Washington Jenkins death certificate.

SPOUSE: Delia Mitchell.²⁴Washington Jenkins marriage license.

PARENTS: Father: Alex Jenkins.²⁵Washington Jenkins death certificate.

CHILDREN: Hattie Jenkins.²⁶Hattie Jenkins death certificate: Ancestry.com. North Carolina, U.S., Death Certificates, 1909-1976 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2007. https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/645534:1121 : Original data: North Carolina State Board of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics. North Carolina Death Certificates. Microfilm S.123. Rolls 19-242, 280, 313-682, 1040-1297. North Carolina State Archives, Raleigh, North Carolina.

OTHER FAMILY: Brother Nelson.²⁷1870 US Census Chapel Hill.

FAMILY BURIED IN GEER CEMETERY: Delia Jenkins.

OCCUPATION: Bricklayer.²⁸1910 US Census Durham.

CHURCH: N/A

AFFILIATIONS: N/A

ADDRESS: 818 Chapel Hill Road.²⁹Washington Jenkins death certificate.

MILITARY SERVICE: N/A