James Thomas JENKIN

                   On July 1, 2005 I spoke by phone to Aunt Frances Larson and she gave me what information she had about her grandmother and grandfather, Mary Ann Rowe and James Thomas Jenkin.
Aunt Frances Larson says that her grandmother Mary Ann Rowe came to the United States from London, England.  But she also remembers hearing that she came from Silver Wells, Agnes Shire, England.  She was engaged to a man in England but came to visit someone in the gold mining area of California.  Aunt Francis wasn't sure who she came to visit, while she was here she broke her engagement and married James Thomas Jenkin who was from Wales, he was working as a miner in the mines in or around Nevada City, California. He came to the United States in 1869.  He mined the gold that was used to make her wedding ring.  Aunt Frances was in possession of the ring but since she was no longer living in her home she felt that it was now in the possession of her daughter-in-law Diane Larson.  Mary Ann Rowe was one of 12 children,there were only 3 surviving children, Mary Ann and two boys.  I remember being told that she came to California to visit her brother who was a miner.  Aunt Francis says that she knows one brother remained in England she doesn't know about the other brother.  James Thomas Jenkin developed some kind of miners disease and they left Nevada City and went to Los Angeles, California.  Mary Ann worked as a practical nurse and seamstress.  Aunt Frances believes that she was the sole provider of the family because of James Thomas illness.  Ethel Winifred went to teachers college after they moved to Southern California and was teaching in Pine Flat when she married Marshall Foster DeMasters.

Mary Ann and James Thomas had four children:  Elizabeth(Bessie), James Thomas (Jim), Ethel Winifred born in 1881 and Irene.  Elizabeth married Lester Stevens, they moved to Redding, California and had four children.  Lester Stevens abandoned his family and Grandpa Marshall Foster DeMasters went to Redding to rescue her and her children and bring them to Southern California.She later married ? Bland.  James married Maggie ? and they had 3 children.  Later in life he married May?.  He was a councilman for the City of Pasadena and worked for the Pasadena Star News.  He sometimes spelled Jenkin with an s.  Ethel married Marshall Foster and they lived east of Reedley.  They had 6 children, one, a daughter died at birth.  Irene married ? Privette and they lived in Los Angeles.  They had one daughter.  Aunt Francis believes that all four of James Thomas and Mary Ann's children were born in Nevada City, California.
Elizabeth's daughter Emily married into the Putnam family that founded Porterville.