Our trip to Brownwood

We left Sunday (July 20) around 10:00 am and drove from DFW on Hwy 377. We stopped briefly in Granbury, just to check it out and have a Blue Bell ice cream cone. As we approached Brownwood, we saw a sign that read "Jenkins Springs Cemetery" so off we went in search of great grandpa's grave. We drove down this 2 lane paved road for what seemed like a hundred miles, but turns out it was only 4 miles, when we came upon the cemetery. And there we found the tombstone for Elder R. Jenkins, born January 8, 1850, died February 18, 1904. (According to Mother, her mother never knew him. Mother's parents were married in June of 1904 and apparently met sometime after the middle of February. Must have been a whirlwind romance.)

From there we drove on in to Brownwood and checked in to our hotel. Since it was still early afternoon, we decided to go over to Coleman County to see if we could find Mount View Cemetery - where I've decided that Great Grandma Jenkins is buried. But, alas, our directions were not detailed enough and neither one of us has any sense of direction so we couldn't find it. We did, however, stumble across Oplin Cemetery, which is where Cousin William (Sonny) Esman told me that Great Grandpa Esman is buried. So we stopped and searched all the headstones, but no luck. There were several unmarked graves, though, so he's probably there. I wrote down the address of the secretary of the cemetery committee and intend to write her to see if there's any record of who's in the unmarked graves. Keep your fingers crossed.

After that, we decided to head back to the hotel and relax. We got up the next morning and headed downtown to the Brown County Courthouse, where we looked through marriage, birth and death records. Since the original courthouse burned in 1880, no records before that time survived the fire. But here are the records we did find.

Marriage record for George Ward & Nancy Jenkins - August 22, 1888 (Although the index lists her as U.H. Jenkins, looking at the actual record, you can that it's an N and not a U - as for the H, it could be an M...which is what I show her middle initial as). [Book A, page 357]

Marriage record for John Sanders & Josie Jenkins - January 4, 1898 [Book 4, page 50]

Marriage record for William Gabbert & Delia Jenkins - December 24, 1896 [Book B, page 418]

Birth record for male born to William Gabbert & Delia Jenkins - April 30, 1906 [#1522]

Death record for William Gabbert - February 2, 1864 - of pneumonia [Book B, page 418]

Birth record for Winborn Nelson Jenkins born to Richard Jenkins and Frona Gaines - October 1, 1906 - 7 miles southwest of Rising Star, Texas - This record states that Frona Gaines was born in Arkansas and that she is 18 years old.

Marriage record for Winborn Jenkins and Mrs. A.M. Brown - June 20, 1900 [Book 4, page 242}

Marriage record for Walter Jenkins and Jennie Lou Gafford - July 27, 1904 [Book 5, page 237]

Birth record for Letta May Jenkins to Walter Jenkins and Lou Gafford - April 14, 1906 [#1496]

Birth record for female to Walter Jenkins and Lou Gafford - April 21, 1907 [#1952] (This would be Leola)

Birth record for female to Walter Jenkins and Lou Gafford - September 8, 1909 [#2974] (This would be Florence)

Marriage record for James Jenkins and Myrtle Esmon - June 5, 1904 [Book 5, page 226]

Having found all we could there, we headed to Coleman and the Coleman County Courthouse. We were assisted by a very helpful lady at the courthouse who looked up all the Jenkins in the birth indexes for us. The only records we could find were:

Birth record for female born to James Jenkins and Myrtle Esman - September 14, 1915 - in Burkett, Coleman County. (This is Juanita)

and

Birth record for female born to James Jenkins and Myrtle Esmon - May 9, 1918 - in Burkett, Coleman County. (This is Gathelee)