75Penelope Jenkins
Key Facts
Snapshot:farmer's wife
Parents:unknown
Born:circa 1820
Alabama or Georgia
Died:30 August 1876
Laurens County, Georgia
Buried:unknown

75Penelope Jenkins (or Mary Penelope Jenkins, as her name appears in one record1) was born circa 1820 in Georgia2,3 or Alabama.1

She married 74Randall Williams, a man approximately 25 years her elder, in Laurens County, Georgia on 5 October 1841.4 For more information about their marriage, their lives together, etc., see his profile since that information won't be repeated here.

Her husband apparently died sometime in the early to mid-1860's. An 1866 tax digest shows 75Penelope as the head of household and that she owned 300 acres in militia district 52 (map), Laurens County.5

75Penelope died on 30 August 1876 in Laurens County, Georgia. Her obituary is copied below.6 Because the copy is hard to read, I've provided a transcription beside the image.

SISTER PENELOPE WILLIAMS died August 30th
1876, in Laurens county, Ga., at an advanced
age. She was a child of suffering being
confined very closely for several years with a
lingering and painful disease. She made pre-
paration for death while in good health, by
professing religion and joining the Methodist
Episcopal church South. The writer knew
her as pastor for only nine months. These
nine months, however, were distinguished
by her gradual regular growth in grace, end-
ing a most triumphant death. She was ripe
for eternity when I first saw her; she spent
the remaining portion of her life in mellow-
ing for the garners of Heaven. Her piety is
also manifested in the fact that she trained up
her children for the Lord. All of her chil-
dren with two exceptions are members of the
church and demonstrative christians.
                                                   A. M. WILLIAMS.

"Even for the dead I will not bind
      My soul to grief: death cannot long divide.
For is it not as if the rose had climbed
      My garden wall, and blossomed on the oth-
                                                            er side."

I didn't find 75Penelope in either of these sources:

•the index to Laurens County's wills book B (1862-1867)
•the index to Laurens County's inventories & appraisements book F (1873-1908)
•the book Laurens County, Georgia Cemeteries volumes I or II (2nd printing) by June Selph Adams, Vernon Alligood, and Scott B. Thompson, Sr.

Sources Cited:

1: Montgomery County, Georgia death certificate 5522 for Mary Jane McLendon. FamilySearch, <https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JDFJ-LML>, accessed 18 December 2014.

2: 1850 U.S. Federal Census (Population Schedule). District 49, Laurens County, Georgia. Page 233A, dwelling 62, family 62, Randal Williams household. NARA microfilm publication M432, roll 75. FamilySearch, <https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-267-11929-129796-12?cc=1401638>, accessed 17 February 2015.

3: 1860 U.S. Federal Census (Population Schedule). Laurens County, Georgia. Page 583, dwelling 43, family 42, Randal Williams household. NARA microfilm publication M653, roll 129. Internet Archive, <https://archive.org/stream/populationschedu129unit#page/n90/mode/1up>, accessed 18 December 2014.

4: Houston County, Georgia. Marriage book A (1833-1852), page 78, for the marriage of Randall Williams and Penelope Jenkins on 5 October 1841. FamilySearch, <https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CS7W-J3BS-B?i=96&cc=2748952&cat=4092336>, accessed 23 October 2021.

5: Laurens County, Georgia. Tax digest book for 1866, section for Smith's militia district 52, entry for Penelope Williams. Ancestry.com ("Georgia, U.S., Property Tax Digests, 1793-1892" / Laurens / 1866 / images 111 and 112 of 146), accessed 18 May 2024.

6: "Obituary," The Sandersville Herald (Sandersville, Georgia), Thursday 7 December 1876, page 2, column 2, about halfway down the page.