My Great Great Grandfather was Jeremiah Adkins. My Great Grandfather was James Columbia Adkins. My Grandfather was Jeremiah (Jerry) Adkins. My father was Jack Vantine Adkins. Jerry Adkins married Margaret Vantine on Jan. 24th,1920. My father, Jack was born Jan. 17th, 1921. Margaret died 13 days later on Jan 30th, 1921. While Jerry worked in oil fields, Jack lived with James Columbia and Lucy until he was 12 years old. During this time he did pretty much as he pleased, with an occasional cigar, hunting in the woods with his rifle, playing cards with the hired hands, and adored Ola, who took him under her wing. Jack had to return to live with his father, Jerry, and his stepmother when he was 12 years old. There are many stories Jack told me about this time period, but as a whole they were not happy years. Jack went into the United States Coast Guard when he was 21 years old. He served on a LCI in W.W.II at places like Okinawa. His home port was South Port, North Carolina, which he loved, especially the beach.
Jack married Mary Ellen DeLancy on Jan. 10, 1943. In Yale Oklahoma. An interesting side note: The DeLancy family was large and so they had many relatives in and around Yale, and still do. Unknowingly the descendants of Effie Francis Adkins through the Grahams and Staffords were also in Yale and actually went to school with DeLancys.
Jack and Mary had two children, Georgia Ann 1943, and Ronnie Mack 1946. My sister and I both grew up in Coffeyville, Kansas where my father worked for Jensen Bros. Mfg. Co. for 25 years. Jack started Palmer College of Chiropractic in 1972, and after a four year program graduated with Ronnie and Ronnie's wife, Debbie. Jack practiced from 1972 to 1996 until his death. Mary, my mother also died in 1996.
Georgia lives in Tyro Kansas with her husband Jerald Medsker. They have three married children, Lori, Marcy, and Craig, and 7 grandchildren. Ronnie has practiced for 26 years in Saline, Michigan. Ronnie and Debbie have two children Kelly 24, graduated from Michigan State University with a Mechanical Engineering Degree and is employed by Williams Mfg. in Novi, Michigan where he lives. Kaci is a freshman at Michigan State University also majoring in Mechanical Engineering.
Jack loved genealogy, but did not have the computer age for help. I found his real mother by chance on line while he looked for years for her. His obsession as is mine was finding Jeremiah. I think all Adkins should be proud of an individual that went on the Oregon Trail in it's early stages, and then still restless set out for gold in California. In the mid 1960s Jack found the original cabin that James Columbia staked on the II Oklahoma land rush. Jack restored the cabin without electric tools and using everything natural as possible, and taking many weekends, many times by himself to restore it to it's original state. My sister and I share the ownership today. Time and vandals have deteriorated the cabin but it still remains as an original land mark for the Adkins heritage.