John Wesley Jenkins, born in 1874, owned a 40 acre turpentine operation in 1915 when he married Amelia Taylor, and as his turpentine resources declined, they turned to growing potatoes. By the time of John Wesley’s death in 1935, before the birth of their tenth child, the farm had expanded to 120 acres. Through Amelia Jenkins’s strict and tireless work schedule, she and her children made the farm profitable with hay, peanuts, potatoes, and other vegetables. By the 1950s, the operation encompassed 1052 acres under her son Hilliard’s management, with siblings John handling accounting and payroll, Samuel personnel, and Shelly machinery. It became one of the largest and highest grossing African American farms in Alabama, with 960 acres in cultivated crops and hay and the remaining acreage devoted to animal husbandry, including Aberdeen, Angus, and Hereford steers. The Jenkins Farmhouse, constructed circa 1935, was the family residence through the 1970s; built primarily of timber on brick piers with front elevation brick base columns, it featured American Craftsman architecture, and two porches were added soon after construction. John Wesley Jenkins died the year the house was completed, and Amelia Jenkins, who lived from 1894 to 1966, and her children occupied it over the next 30 years. The farm and family received national recognition in the 1950s and 1960s as a successful African American family during segregation in Alabama, and the farm was designated an Alabama Century and Heritage Farm and included on the National and State Historic Registries.