Mary Wade Family

John and his younger brother Francis travelled to the Murrumbidgee River near Wagga in the 1830's and commenced raising cattle on Tooyal Station. Francis later bought more cattle and the two brothers purchased Buckingbong Station from a Mr Best in 1833. John and Francis now had over 1000 cattle between them and they soon prospered. John established a home at Gillenbah Station, seven miles below Buckingbong and Gillenbah stations covered an area of 83,200 acres. The brothers also purchased Gall Gall station (30,000 acres) on the Murray River, near Mildura as well as Yanko Station (57,000 acres) purchased from Mr. George Hill. The brothers also purchased Little Swamp Station (18,000 acres) on the Murrumbidgee River and South Thonongah station (40,000 acres) on the Lachlan River.
After their marriage John and Maria travelled to their property near Narandera where they survived the drought and depression of the 1840s. They made a fortune running sheep and cattle to feed the growing population on the Victorian goldfields during the 1850s. John and Maria had 10 children. In the mid 1850s John purchased "Nangus" near Gundagai. The property was 57,000 acres which had belonged to William and Hannibal MacArthur. After John purchased third property he built an imposing house of Georgian design. Apart from his pastoral activities, John became involved in flour milling, the steamer trade and wine making. John was financially ruined by the failure of the Australian Joint Bank in the 1890s and the family retired to Buckingbong. From "Exploration and Settlement in Australia".
"In '54 John bought Nangus Station, near Gundagai, where he resided for many years. He was a man that went into many enterprises that did not prove as successful as his pastoral pursuits. He was active when I last saw him, he being eight-six years of age. His father had lived to over ninety years, and his sister, the widow of James Garner, an old pioneer of the Lower Murrumbidgee, lived to eight-six years. There was no man that I have met, that I have obtained so much information from about the early days on the Murrumbidgee as I did from John Jenkins. He has been a traveller on the roads with stock from his boyhood days. He had endured hard work and privation from the time he was a child. The first time he travelled to Berrima to the Murrumbidgee, he managed to procure a horse: the second time he made the trip he had to walk the whole distance. He went through the vicissitudes of a pastoralist to the fullest extent. Before gold was discovered, he had taken mobs of superior fat bullocks from his Gillenbah Station and sold them in the Sydney markets for One pound five shillings per head. Four years after he had a contract to deliver fat bullocks to the Bendigo goldfields at 24 pound each, and the quality was not required to be first class.
John was financially ruined by the failure of the Australian Joint Stock bank in the 1890s and the family retired to Buckingbong where John died on 16 October 1899, aged 83 years. He was buried in the Narrandera Cemetery.

source ref: Hull Family Tree @http://worldconnect.rootsweb.ancestry.com & Nicole Smythe

The Jenkins were among the first settlers in the Campbelltown area.

Daily Express 27 May 1922.
One of John Jenkins daughters married William Hayes who conducted the flour mill at Spring Flat near Gundagai. (Gormly's book page 367). Another daughter married Steel Beveridge the eldest son of James Beveridge of Tenandra. One daughter married George Mair jnr. of Gundagai, who was the first mayor of Gundagai.

John Jenkins owned a store kept by Alfred Besson of South Gundagai. The store was destroyed by fire in August 1862 and the building was not insured. Besson's goods were insured for £3000 (Wynyard Times).

John Jenkins was arrested for murder in 1878 - See McCullum Perkins Papers. It was something to do with John hitting someone with a loaded whip and the man died. It appears John was let off.

The above newspaper clippings are courtesy of Jenny Hodges