Jenkins Cemetery
Heath Creek Township, Section 33
Pettis County, Missouri
See also: Miller's Chapel Cemetery
On J a half-mile north of Joplin Mill Road, on the east of J, three miles south of Saline County. On Melvin Leicher's property. About midway between Longwood and Postal as the crow flies. I didn't find this in 2003. Condition unknown. (GCW 2004) Recorded by Mrs. J. R. Carter.
Update Dec 2016: Cynthia Farmer-Nold has been trying to clean up the information about this cemetery and has given me permission to use her email correspondence to update this page. Thanks, Cynthia!
From Cynthia on 18 June 2016:
There appears to be some really old confusion regarding Jenkins family burials in Pettis County. There is a list that has been circulated for years for Jenkins family cemetery. It is currently listed on MoGen as located: "Heath's Creek Township - Section 33 (SW in SW quarter) [T48N, R20W]. On J a half-mile north of Joplin Mill Road, on the east of J, three miles south of Saline County. On Melvin Leicher's property. About midway between Longwood and Postal as the crow flies."
The last time someone with MoGen went looking for the cemetery was apparently 2003, and they said this on the MoGen Pettis page: "I didn't find this in 2003. Condition unknown. GCW"
Interment.net reports that Laura Paxton sent them the same burial list in 2000 and that it was originally compiled by J. R. Carter and published in 1997.
Only one of the burials is 1910 or later, so only one death certificate is available. That one is for Thomas H. Jenkins, and the death certificate said he was to be buried "at home" in Heath Creek Township. See his Find A Grave page and click on the old plat map to see more detail.
Notice that about a mile northeast of the Jenkins family cemetery that does show up on the plat map, there is a Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Later plat map shows the church had a cemetery. By map comparison this church known historically as Heath Creek Cumberland Presbyterian Church appears to be the same as Miller's Chapel. Some of the same Jenkins listed in the Jenkins family cemetery have tombstones in the church cemetery listed as Millers Chapel on Find A Grave.
Generally, if a tombstone was placed, that is a good indication that a person was buried there. Look at this example:
Lucy Clark Jenkins in Jenkins cemetery
Lucy Clark Jenkins in Millers Chapel a.k.a. Heath Creek Cumberland Presbyterian
There are a couple of tombstone photos posted to the Jenkins family graveyard, but those photos were actually taken at Miller's Chapel, a.k.a Heath Creek Cumberland Presbyterian.
Is there any way to straighten this out. Some original error must have been made long ago and is self perpetuating.
From Cynthia on 19 June 2016:
I asked a question of Gale Yokum who posted a photo to the Jenkins Cemetery and she said it was taken at Millers Chapel, not the family cemetery. This is what she emailed me: "There are several small family cemeteries in this area. To save on gas, because at the time back in December of 2013 gas was much higher than it is today, I attempted to locate those which were close to each other. According to the info I had concerning the location of the Jenkins Cemetery, I found nothing was there at that location. Additional research revealed that the stone were moved to the Miller's Chapel Cemetery. I doubt that the bodies were moved when this happened. Miller's Chapel was a Methodist Church. Most Methodist Churches in olden times contained "chapel" in their names. The church building of the Miller's Chapel Church was blown away by a tornado a few years ago. Pictures of this event are on a bulletin board at the cemetery. I found the gravestone of Aaron Jenkins in the Miller's Chapel Cemetery. There is another cemetery just east of Miller's Chapel but the name escapes me currently. It is a small cemetery also with "chapel" in its name too. Gale Yocum"
So the tombstones must have been moved after the reading reported here.
I've hit this kind of confusion in Saline County, but usually only a tombstone or two moved, not a whole small family cemetery. But actually, if the bodies are still in the ground (and they must be), the Jenkins site is still a cemetery no matter where the stones went.
I've checked present maps and old plat maps (1896, 1916, 1930) and the Millers Chapel site is the same as the Heath's Creek Cumberland Presbyterian Church site. Best guess is that the Cumberland church organized 1831 must have been reorganized 1851 as Millers.
I will probably still visit the old Jenkins site, look around, perhaps talk to present land owner.
From Cynthia on 17 July 2016:
I went to the farm on which the Jenkins cemetery lies, had a nice chat with the resident, later called his mother who remembered that a Jenkins descendant had a bunch of tombstones moved at least 20 years ago. The stones were relocated to Millers Chapel. After learning what had happened, I notified the Find A Grave Jenkins family memorial page makers, and they amended their pages to relate the relocation of tombstones to a maintained cemetery.
The Jenkins cemetery still exists, since the bodies were not moved. and I learned that there might be some tombstones left in the little grove that marks the cemetery location. I did not go explore because cattle were pastured there, and I don't boldly go through a herd that I don't know and that doesn't know me. Cattle will be out late this year, and I plan to return with a camera and see what's left. The cemetery is not fenced off so black Angus take shelter under the trees in the cemetery.
GPS coordinates at the center of the cemetery appear to be: 38.887935, -93.126994
Here's a link to something I added to a Jenkins page in the cemetery. Click on the plat map clip to read the details.
Thanks for the interest.