James Wilson Wilkins 1820-1894

B.   11 April 1820     Peterborough, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire
D.   13 December 1894  Springerville, Apache county, Arizona
Buried in Nutrioso Cemetery, Nutrioso, Arizona

Father:  Abraham Wilkins
Mother:  Mary Emmons

Mar:  Adeline Sophia Atkins     4 July 1847    Iowa?
Mar:  Lucinda Magnum      28 December 1868    Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, Utah

Children:
   James Orman Wilkins   1851-1916
   Ada Agusta Wilkins   1853-1910
   Judson Heber Wilkins   1859-1915
   Francis Sephia Wilkins   1859-1939
   Fredrick Wallace Wilkins   1863-1939
   Parley Wilkins   1873-1921
   Mary Ann Wilkins   1877-1924
   Rhoda Francis Wilkins   1879-1939
   Zina Wilkins   1881-1974
   Ernest Wilkins   1885-1974

Adeline Atkins (1825 - 1861)

Born: 14 February 1825 in Buffalo, New York
Died:  December 1861 in Menan, Idaho

Father:  Thomas Jerome Atkins (Born: 1799 in New York)
Mother:  Betsey Peas (Born: 1803)


James was born 11 April 1820 in Peterborough, New Hampshire. He moved to Massachusetts and worked in an iron factory. He and his brother George Washington Wilkins were baptized into the Mormon church on 3 January 1844. He married his first wife,  Adeline Atkins, on 14 July 1847. They had five children, the oldest born in Council Bluffs, Iowa, and the rest in Utah.

Mormon history shows that Adeline traveled to Utah with James and two other family members with the Robert Wimmer Company in 1852.  I think she was the mother to James' first five children. The records say she died in Menan, Idaho, in December of 1861, but that conflicts with Fredrick's birth date. Menan, which was the first Morman settlement in the Snake River Valley, wasn't actually founded until 1879, but I guess she could have died there anyway.

James was Brigham Young's coach driver for four years and was also the captain of the militia in Utah. At one time, he was called to go to Kanab to teach the Indians how to farm. While in southern Utah, his family lived the United Order. [an early communal utopian society within the LDS church]

While he was working on building the Washington Canal in southern Utah, he met Lucinda Magnum. They were married 28 December 1868 in the Salt Lake Endowment House. They had six children while living in Utah. [Adeline Atkins Wilkins had died in 1861.]

They moved to Alpine, Arizona in 1881. There was an Indian scare, so he moved his family to Nutrioso to horde up with other Mormons. He was hired to teach school. He later moved to Walnut Grove, Arizona, and also taught school there for a time. Two additional children were born in Arizona.

After returning to Nutrioso to live, he was chopping timber and cut through his shoe. His toe was cut and blood poisoning set in. In order to save his life, his foot had to be cut off above the ankle. He first went on crutches, then he was able to get a cork leg and foot and was able to get around much better. But he was unable to do much work after the accident, and his family was very poor.

His son Earnest was young when his father died and so had very few memories of him. He does recall playing in a neighbor's barn with his friends when he was about six. They would jump from a beam down into the hay. Ernest landed on a pitchfork and it went clear through his foot and had to be pulled out. He couldn't walk for a long time. His father James would carry him outside into the warm sunshine and sing to him.

James went to St. George, Utah, to do Temple [Mormon] work and visit his children there. He got sick while coming home and was very ill by the time he reached Springerville. He died there that night, 13 December 1894, and was buried in Nutrioso, Arizona.

[This was recorded from the memories of two of his children.]

Mormon Pioneer Overland Travel:  James traveled to Utah with the James Wimmer company in 1852, traveling with Adeline and two of their children.