Today, well, 141 years ago today, my great great great grandfather, Morris Jenks passed away in the house he built in Southfield, Oakland Co, Michigan.  Morris was born on 7 October 1801 in Berkshire, New York to Laban and Prudence White Jenks and migrated with the family into Oakland County, Michigan in 1820.  On 20 November 1828, in Bloomfield Twp, Oakland Co, Morris married Almira Botsford.  The two had four children: Leman Case (1830), Esther (1832) [my great great grandmother], Oliver Torrey (1835), and Minerva B (1838).  As an early pioneer of Southfield, Morris was elected one of the township’s first three Road Commissioners in that first township meeting on April 4, 1831.   Like his father, Laban, Morris served in the Militia and was a Captain in the Michigan Militia.  He was elected Assessor in 1844.  The first home he built was a log cabin, but in 1851 he built a second home for the family that still stands on Berg Road in Southfield.

Morris was laid to rest in the Southfield Cemetery, where his marker has fallen and broken and is in disrepair.  Luckily, I found it a number of years ago before it was totally destroyed.