A day trip to the old Thomas Jenkins farmstead was made by Bill and Teri Jenkins with Bill’s cousin Pam Jenkins and her husband Mark Hamel. Pam and Mark had never seen the old farmstead before. On this property stands the original barn built in 1880. Timbers were clearly hewn by hand with ax. In one photo (above) with Bill and Pam is Amy, current owner of the farm. She has owned it with her boyfriend for 4 years.
Thomas Jenkins immigrated to America from Wales in 1858 with his father Evan Sr. Thomas was 17 years old that year. Evan was a coal miner seeking a better life for his family. The rest of the family, Evan’s wife Margaret and their 4 other children, followed a year later. Evan Sr. started a dairy farm in the Fish Creek area; at its zenith he owned over 580 acres. In 1874 Thomas married and bought his own farm in Pleasant Valley near Leon, on which the original barn (shown above) still stands. Thomas eventually expanded his dairy farm to 380 acres. After Thomas’ death in 1920, the farm remained in the Jenkins family until 1966, the year that Thomas’s son Hallet passed away. The farmstead now stands on only 16 acres, with the rest of the acreage having been sold off to adjacent farmers.
