Jane Edkins (1859-1941) was born at Wickhamford on 31st August 1859, the sixth of eight children of George Edkins and his wife, Elizabeth (née Neal). She was registered with the name of Jane. Some time in the late 1860s, her father took up market gardening in Wickhamford. Jane would have attended the National School in Badsey, and would have walked across the field each day with her sisters to get to school.
In 1874, Jane’s two elder sisters, Emma Jelfs and Ellen Edkins, emigrated to America. The following year, 16-year-old Jane and her parents and four of her siblings left Liverpool in steerage class on “City of New York”, arriving in New York on 15th October 1875, so now the whole family was in America. They settled in the state of Ohio, where a number of Badsey and Wickhamford families were already living. By 1880, they were living in Bainbridge, Geauga County, Ohio, where Jane’s father was a farmer. By now, Jane was being known as Jennie and from then on she appears in all documentation as Jennie.
Jennie married American-born Abraham Lincoln Beardsley in the mid-1880s and had two sons: Glenn R (1886-1971) and Merton A (1893-1979).
In 1900, Jennie and Lincoln were living with their two sons in the home of Lincoln’s widowed father, Alvin, in Huntsburg, Geauga County, Ohio. Both Lincoln and his father were farmers. Lincoln died on 2nd August 1908 and was buried in Huntsburg Township Cemetery. In 1910, Glen, the elder son was head of the household, which comprised his widowed mother, his brother, his grandfather, and a boarder by the name of Anna Edkins. This was Jennie’s widowed step-mother, who had married George Edkins. But she was also listed on the census return for Jennie’s sister, Alice, so presumably she moved between the homes.
By 1920, Jennie was living in Huntsburg next-door to her younger son, Merton, by now married and with a young son. She was described as a nurse working for a private family, which may well have been working for her son. A City Directory for 1926 describes her as a housekeeper living at 28 Blaine, Ashtabula, Ohio. In 1930 she was living with Glenn and wife and daughter in Huntsburg.
Jennie died on 3rd April 1941, aged 81, at Huntsburg and was buried at Huntsburg Township Cemetery beside her husband.
See also:
- George Edkins – emigrated 1875
- Elizabeth Edkins – emigrated 1875
- Betsey Edkins – emigrated 1875
- Caroline Edkins – emigrated 1875
- Alice Edkins – emigrated 1875
- Oliver Edkins – emigrated 1875
- Ellen Edkins – emigrated 1874
- Emma Jelfs (née Edkins) – emigrated 1874
- Thomas Jelfs – emigrated 1874
- Jesse Jelfs – emigrated 1874
- George Edkins – Wickhamford’s First Market Gardener