John Wesley Jenkins (1849 - abt. 1912)

In the 1850 census in St. Clair, Alabama, John Wesley Jenkins is listed as a 1 year old son of John and Amanda Jenkins. In 1860 census in Blount Co., Alabama, John Wesley is listed as 11 year old son of John Jackson and Amanda Jenkins. He isn't listed on the 1870 census in Winston, Co., Alabama. In 1880, John Wesley is listed as 31 and living with John and Sarah Jenkins. John Wesley's parents couldn't read or write. They were identified as white in lieu of black or mulatto. Indian was not a designated choice(possibly because of the Indian removal to Oklahoma only a few years previously.) There was a man named George Burris in Mississippi who told his mother that john Wesley's real name was Turnipseed out of North Carolina and thought he had been adopted. There were rumors and claims from some of the descendents of John Wesley that he was adopted and was an Indian (Souix). Other descendents knew he was part Indian but had never heard that he was adopted. His youngest daughter never talked about him being adopted, but she was very proud of his Indian heritage. She had a large oval picture of John and his wife that now belongs to her youngest son, Paul Eugene Tidwell.