Hon. William P. Jenks and Sara(h) C. Corbett

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Husband Hon. William P. Jenks ^{1 2}

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           Born: 27 May 1821 - Jefferson Co, PA 3
     Christened: 
           Died: 25 Apr 1902 4
         Buried: 

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         Father: Dr. John Wildman Jenks (1793-1850) 1 5
         Mother: Mary Dey Barclay (1798-Aft 1850) 1 6

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       Marriage: 23 Dec 1845 4

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Wife Sara(h) C. Corbett ^{1 7}

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            AKA: Sarah Catharine Corbet 4
           Born: 
     Christened: 
           Died: 1894 1
         Buried: 

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         Father: James Corbett (1794-1866) 8
         Mother: Rebecca Armstrong (      -1863) 7

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Children

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General Notes: Husband - Hon. William P. Jenks

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His early education was received at home, being supplemented by one year at Jefferson College shortly before that institution and Washington College were united to form Washington and Jefferson University. He studied law with his eldest brother, David Barclay Jenks, and was admitted to the bar Sept. 9, 1845. With the strong confidence of youth he started practice for himself; legal business was but scanty, however, and the first years were times of privation and struggle. To his last days he remembered the relief with which he received one of his earliest fees, a bushel of potatoes, which came to him in the first winter of his marriage. He had a fine voice and was very fond of music. His knowledge of this art was a great pleasure to him throughout his life, and of some service to him in the early years of his struggle. During one winter he taught a singing school at Port Barnett, walking out to that place one evening of each week during the season. For the winter's work he received the sum of fifteen dollars, which was a very welcome addition to his legal earnings. On Dec. 8, 1845, he was appointed district attorney (deputy attorney general) of the county, and his practice gradually extended to all the neighboring counties. In 1866 he was elected to the legislature from the Assembly district of Clarion and Jefferson counties. In 1871 he was elected president judge of the Eighteenth Judicial district, which at that time was composed of Clarion, Jefferson and Forest counties. During his term the discovery of oil in the district, and the shifting of the center of oil production toward it, rendered it for a while one of the busiest and most important districts in the State. The controversy between the producers and the pipe line interests, involving, as it did, railway transportation problems and the system of secret rebates, centered there for a time. His insistence that both sides come out into the open cost him dear personally, but, at a time when both lawyers and business men throughout the country were groping more or less blindly for a solution, it helped point the only way by which justice could be secured. After retiring from the bench he resumed the practice of law, which he continued until old age necessitated his retirement.

He and his wife were the parents of five children; three were still living in 1898.

1 —, Commemorative Biographical Record of Central Pennsylvania, Including the Counties of Centre, Clearfield, Jefferson and Clarion. (Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co., 1898), Pg 1140.

2 —, Jefferson County, Pennsylvania, Her Pioneers and People, Vol. II (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Company, 1917), Pg 14, 38, 78.

3 —, Jefferson County, Pennsylvania, Her Pioneers and People, Vol. II (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Company, 1917), Pg 14, 38.

4 —, Jefferson County, Pennsylvania, Her Pioneers and People, Vol. II (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Company, 1917), Pg 14.

5 —, Jefferson County, Pennsylvania, Her Pioneers and People, Vol. II (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Company, 1917), Pg 10, 14, 37.

6 —, Jefferson County, Pennsylvania, Her Pioneers and People, Vol. II (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Company, 1917), Pg 10, 37.

7 —, Jefferson County, Pennsylvania, Her Pioneers and People, Vol. II (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Company, 1917), Pg 78.

8 John W. Jordan, LL.D., Genealogical and Personal History of the Allegheny Valley, Pennsylvania (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1913), Pg 469.