In Memoriam. William Henry Jenks

En flaemoriam. WILLIAM HENRY JENKS. William Henry Jenks, a member and former director of the Society, died at his residence, 124 Chestnut Avenue, Chestnut Hill, on February 2, 1909. He joined the Genealogical Society on April 11, 1892, his residence then being at 2004 Arch Street, in the city. On November 20, 1893, he was elected a member of the Board of Directors to fill the unexpired term of Charles R. Hildeburn, resigned. Mr. Jenks resigned from the Board in February, 1896. William H. Jenks was born in Howard County, Maryland, on November 11, 1842, being the son of the late William Pearson Jenks, who was at that time engaged in the manufacture of cotton goods near Ellicott City, but who later came to Philadelphia. The latter, however, was a native of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, where he was born on the old family estate in Middletown Township ; being descended from Thomas Jenks, who came from Shropshire, England, with his widowed mother, Susan Jenks, about 1700, and settling first in Wrightstown Township, but afterward moving to Middletown Township, where he built Jenks Hall in 1734. The Jenks family has ever since ranked as one of the first families of Bucks County, having among their descendants Thomas Jenks, member of the Constitutional Convention of 1790, and State Senator from Bucks County : his son Dr. Phineas Jenks of Newtown, who married first a daughter of General Francis Murray, and secondly a daughter of Governor Simon Snyder : Judge Michael Hutchinson Jenks of Newtown, an uncle of our member, and George A. Jenks, member of Congress and Democratic candidate for Governor in 1898. Beside his Jenks ancestry William H. Jenks was de( 119 ) 120 William Henry Jenks. scended from such prominent Bucks County families as the Hutchinsons, Kirkbrides, Palmers, Cutlers, Storys, Richardsons and Paxsons, some of these lines coming through his mother, who was Elizabeth Story, daughter of David and Rachel (Richardson) Story, of Bucks County. Mr. Jenks was a member of the Arch Street body of the Society of Friends, and was educated in the well-known school conducted by that Society at Westtown, Penna., and later at the Polytechnic College, Philadelphia. Afterwards he became a member of the firm of Randolph & Jenks, Cotton Merchants in Philadelphia, a business founded by his father about 60 years ago. He was at one time a member of the Board of Managers of Haverford College and of the Friends' Asylum, at Frankford, and a director of the Girard Trust Company. At the time of his death he was director of the Franklin National Bank, the Philadelphia Saving Fund Society, the Germantown Saving Fund, and the Philadelphia Belt Line Railroad Company, and President of the Cherokee Construction Company. He had been a life member of the Union League since 1865, and in 1904 and 1905 was a member of its board of directors. William Henry Jenks married September 9, 1869, Hannah Mifflin Hacker, daughter of Jonathan and Beulah (Morris) Hacker, who survives him, with their four children.