Collection (1855-1958) of manuscript and printed materials compiled by Antoinette S. Jenkins, including a history of St. Peter's Church, Salem, Massachusetts, 1958; notebook containing records of the botanical research conducted by Hugh M. Neisler of Taylor, Georgia, 1866-1881; photocopy typescript account of the 45th Georgia Infantry Regiment (C.S.A.) during Civil War battles at Richmond, Cedar Run, 2nd Manassas, Harpers Ferry, Shepherdstown, and others, by Joseph A. Walker, 1864; General Store sales records of Nicholas Bascom Jenkins from Nashville, Nash County, North Carolina, 1905-1935; genealogical materials relating to the Letcher, Mitchell, Neisler [Neischler], Jenkins, and Howard families of Nash county, North Carolina; Taylor, Georgia; and Salem, Massachusetts), 1897; also letters and obituary and newspaper articles, including an excerpt from Western Maryland College yearbook relating to on George Stockton Wills, of Westminster, Maryland, 1930-1956; in English, Greek and Latin language.
The Antoinette Smith Jenkins Collections contains materials relating to the Mitchell family of Maryland and Georgia, ca. 1912; the Neisler family of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia dating from 1867 to 1912; the Letcher family of Virginia and Georgia the material, ca. 1912; the Jenkins family of North Carolina, 1904 to 1954; and the Howard family, 1897 to 1983.
These families have produced several distinguished individuals, including a governor of Virginia, members of Congress, and educators, including botanist Hugh Neisler, who studied plants in Taylor County, Georgia, 1867-1881; Nicholas Bascom Jenkins, who owned a general store in Nash County, North Carolina, 1934; George Stockton Wills, who was a doctor in North Carolina and a graduate of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and who corresponded with Antoinette Jenkins, 1930-1956; it also contains an account of the 45th Georgia Infantry Regiment battles during the Civil War, 1864-1865, at 2nd Manassas, Cedar Run, Richmond, Harpers Ferry, and Shepherdstown. The regiment was commanded by Colonel Thomas Hardeman Jr.
The collection consists of family-related material by and about members of the Howard, Jenkins, Letcher, Mitchell, and Neisler (Neischler) families of Nash County, North Carolina; Taylor County, Georgia, and Westminster, Maryland. These families are closely related and the donor is directly descended from the individuals represented in the papers.
The Neisler-Letcher-Mitchell family history is a fifty-two-page typescript containing poems, sketches, biographical notes, speeches, correspondence, and genealogical information and charts concerning various members of the aforementioned families. An account of the Civil War prisoner-of-war camp at Point Lookout, Maryland, is in the Neisler section of the genealogy, as are a number of war experiences and family legends dating from the American Revolution.
Of particular interest is the botanical notebook (1867-1881) of Dr. Hugh M. Neisler,1805-1884. The book identifies in Latin the names of hundreds of plants found in Taylor County, Georgia, and surrounding counties. Dr. Neisler was an imminent authority on botanical science and freshwater mollusk and a variety of Iris bear his name as discoverer. The notebook also contains his holograph notes in English and Greek on the individual species that he identified; also copies of his correspondence with other scientists. Unfortunately, his correspondents are not identified.
The third item in the collection is a typescript history of the 45th Georgia Infantry Regiment as written by 1st Lt. Joseph A. Walker, of Company K, in 1864. The fifteen-page account describes the activities of the regiment from its formation in 1862 through the campaigns in Northern Virginia in August of 1864 and includes accounts of the battles of 2nd Manassas, Cedar Run, Richmond, Harpers Ferry, and Shepherdstown.
Loaned by Mrs. Antoinette S. Jenkins
Gift of Dr. Edgar Bryan Jenkins
Gift of Mrs. Antoinette S. Jenkins
Processed by D. Lennon, ca. 1992; Encoded by Apex Data Services, March 2002; Processing revised and Finding Aid by Douglas Tuers, April 26, 2011; Finding aid revised by Jonathan Dembo, June 20, 2012; Encoded by Jonathan Dembo, June 26, 2012; Finding aid & Encoding revised by Jonathan Dembo, July 20, 2012.
Literary rights to specific documents are retained by the authors or their descendants in accordance with U.S. copyright law.
Greek; Latin