After years of useful industry in various lines and different places, Charles T. Jenkins, of Mesa county, settled down to the occupation of the old patriarchs, and has since been successfully conducting and developing his valuable and productive ranch on the George mesa, in Plateau valley. He was born in 1852, in Fulton county, Illinois, and is the son of Joseph N. and Melinda (Ellis) Jenkins. The father was born at Washington D.C., and came to Fulton county, Illinois, in 1832, where he was married to Miss Ellis. Some years later he moved to Kansas, and after a residence of many years in that state, came farther west, settling at Denver, Colorado, where they have since resided. They are the parents of five children, of whom their son Charles is the oldest. He lived with his parents in Illinois until 1874 and then accompanied them to Kansas. His education having been finished in the schools of his native state, on his arrival in Kansas he engaged in farming and continued in this line of work until he was twenty-nine years of age. He then turned his attention to the grocery and hardware trade and followed that until 1888. In that year he moved to Grand Junction, this state, where he remained nine years working in the round-house and finally running a locomotive on the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad. Tiring of railroading at the end of this period, he bought the ranch which he is now operating and which has been his home continuously since that time. It is located in one of the best agricultural regions in his part of the state and has been made very productive by his well applied industry and rendered valuable by the improvements he has made on it. He was married in 1881 to Miss Mary Beye, and they have had seven children, four of whom are living, Floyd, Hazel, Bessie and Clarence. Three others, Edna, Clyde and Winifred, died in childhood. Mr. Jenkins is industrious in his farming operations and progressive, as he has been in all other pursuits, and he is winning a gratifying success. He also stands well in his community and is generally esteemed.
Source: Bowen, A. W. Progressive Men of Western Colorado. Chicago: A. W. Bowen & Co., Publishers. 1905.