John Carmichael Jenkins

John Carmichael Jenkins (1809–1855) was an American plantation owner, medical doctor and horticulturalist in the Antebellum South.

Biography

Early life Jenkins was born on December 13, 1809, at the Windsor Forge Mansion in Churchtown, Pennsylvania. His parents were Robert Jenkins (1769–1848), a Congressman from Pennsylvania, and Catherine Carmichael (1774–1853). He had one brother, David Jenkins (1800–1850), and six sisters, Elizabeth Jenkins (1803–1870), Mary Jenkins (1805–1859), Martha Jenkins (1805–1890), Phoebe Ann Jenkins (1807–1872), Catharine Jenkins (1812–1886), and Sarah Jenkins (1817-unknown).

He graduated from Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and received a Doctorate in Medicine from the Medical School at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia in 1833.

He owned several plantations in the Natchez District, some of which he inherited, some of which he purchased and developed. For example, he owned the Cold Spring Plantation in Pinckneyville, Mississippi. Additionally, he owned several other plantations like the Stock Farm Plantation near Nesbit, Mississippi, in DeSoto County, Mississippi, the Tarbert Plantation in Wilkinson County, Mississippi, and another plantation in West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana.

A horticulturalist, he would use his Natchez residence, Elgin, as a plant nursery for different varieties of fruit trees and cotton he would later use on other plantations. Additionally, he was a wine connoisseur and collector of wine vintages. He kept a diary from 1841 to 1855. Seal, Albert G.. 'John Carmichael Jenkins, Scientific Planter of Natchez District'. Journal of Mississippi History. I (1939):14–28.