The History of the Yakima Valley, Washington, Comprising Yakima, Kittitas and
Benton Counties, The S.J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1919, Volume II, page 765 

HENRY JENKINS.

The great fertility and productiveness of the lands of the Yakima valley are
indicated in the results which have come of the efforts of Henry Jenkins. one of
the successful farmers living in the vicinity of the city of Yakima. He is
certainly entitled to representation in this work as one of the leading
orchardists of the section and, moreover, as a member of one of the oldest
pioneer families of the northwest. He was born in Douglas county, Oregon, May
6, 1860, a son of William and Emeline (Belieu) Jenkins, who were natives of
Kentucky and Missouri respectively. The paternal grandfather, Willis Jenkins,
brought his family to Washington in 1844, crossing the country with ox teams,
and located in Klickitat county, where he was engaged in the stock business to
the time of his death. His son, William Jenkins, removed to Douglas county,,
Oregon, as a young man and there engaged in farming, having six hundred and
forty acres of valuable land. He is now living retired, making his home in
Marshfield, Oregon. He served in the Indian wars in the northwest,
participating in the battle of Union Gap in Yakima county in 186 and also in the
Cayuse war in Oregon. He married Emeline Belieu, a daughter of M. B. Belieu, who
took his family to Douglas county, Oregon, in the early '40s. Mrs. Jenkins
passed away in 1903.

Henry Jenkins acquired a public school education and at the age of nineteen
years started out in the world on his own account. He was employed in railroad
work and in the lumber woods and in 1907 he took up his abode in Yakima county
upon a ranch,which he had purchased in 1904 -- a tract of twenty acres on the
lower Naches. It was all wild and unimproved, but with characteristic energy he
began its development and now has five acres in orchards, while the remainder is
devoted to the raising of hay and such cereals as are best adapted to soil and
climatic conditions in the northwest. He has been very successful in his
undertakings and has followed the most progressive methods in the conduct and
care of his place. He belongs to the Yakima County Fruit Growers' Association.
Something of the wisdom and the enterprise of his business methods is indicated
in the fact that during 1918 he packed twelve hundred boxes of apples raised on
three and a half acres and five hundred and twenty-five boxes of peaches
produced on a half acre. He also harvested forty tons of alfalfa from seven
acres and one hundred and fifty bushels of corn from three acres. He also sold
potatoes to the amount of seventy-four dollars and has eighteen sacks left, all
raised on a sixth of an acre. These are of a very fine grade. The ranch produced
an income of more than two thousand dollars in 1918. On the 19th of February,
1884, Mr. Jenkins was married to Miss Mary Tomlinson, a native of Marion county,
Oregon, and a daughter of Samuel C. and Elizabeth (White) Tomlinson, the former
a native of Missouri, while the latter was born in Michigan. The mother was a
daughter of James White, who arrived in Oregon in 1843. Mr. Tomlinson became a
resident of Oregon in 1853 and it was in that state that he married Miss White,
who has now passed away, but Mr. Tomlinson is still living. To Mr. and Mrs.
Jenkins has been born a daughter, Stella, now the wife of E. T. Barnett, a
rancher of Yakima county, by whom she has three children.

Mr. Jenkins belongs to the Modern Woodmen of America and is also identified with
the Grange. In politics he maintains an independent course nor has he ever been
an office seeker. While living in Cowlitz county, Washington, however, in young
manhood he served for seven years as school clerk. He prefers to give his
undivided time and attention to his business affairs, which are wisely and
carefully conducted and are bringing to him substantial success as the reward of
his industry and perseverance. He has always lived it the northwest and the
spirit of western enterprise has actuated him in all that he has undertaken. His
labors have been untiring and resultant and his property is yearly increasing in
value owing to the improvements which he puts thereon.

********************************
Submitted to the Washington Bios Project in January 2008 by Jeffrey L. Elmer.
Submitter has no additional information about the subject of this article.