Obit: Jenks, Maxwell (1886 - 1945)

Contact: Stan

Surnames: Jenks, Griffith, Dixon, Sorenson, Gruenwald, Hoffman, Parker, Schubert, Perry, Wing, Treat

----Sources: Colby Phonograph (Colby, Clark County, Wis.) 05/10/1945

Jenks, Maxwell (14 May 1886 - 7 May 1945)

Maxwell Jenks of Abbotsford, grand lecturer of the Masonic Grand Lodge of Wisconsin, died at the Marshfield, Wisconsin Hospital at 5:00 p.m. on Monday of a cerebral hemorrhage. Mr. Jenks became ill at Oconomowoc last Tuesday and returned home. He suffered a second attack at home and a third soon after he was taken to the hospital last Friday.

Funeral services were conducted at the Abbotsford armory at 2:00 p.m. Wednesday with Rev. George Griffith, pastor of the Abbotsford Presbyterian church, in charge of the religious service. Masonic rites were conducted by Past Grand Master Herbert W. Dixon of Menomonie. Internment was made in the Abbotsford cemetery. Pall bearers were Chas. Hoffman, Van Dyke Parker, Wm. Schubert, O. N. Perry, Frank Wing and Harry Treat.

Mr. Jenks, who had been a resident of Abbotsford since 1918, had long been prominent in state Masonic circles, and the fact that he, his father, Judge Aldro Jenks, and his brother, Frank Jenks of Madison, had all served as grand masters of the Wisconsin Grand Lodge, was unique, if not unprecedented, in Masonic history.

He was born at Dodgeville on May 14th, 1886, and was a graduate of the Dodgeville State Teachers College. Originally a teacher by profession, he served as principal of the schools at Merrimac, Chetek, Medford and Abbotsford, Wis.

He was postmaster of Abbotsford for three years during the late 1930’s and was also active in the insurance business there for a time.

His affiliation with the Masonic order began in Chetek in 1914 and he was later transferred to the Abbotsford lodge and became master of the Blue Lodge there for the year of 1926-27. His elevation to the office of Wisconsin grand master came in 1937, and in 1939 he was made grand lecturer, a position which kept him traveling through the state much of the time.

He is survived by his wife, the former Minnie Sorenson of Madison, to whom he was married in that city on Oct. 12, 1912, and by one son, Merle, an infantry private now serving in the Marianas in the South Pacific.

He also leaves five brothers and a sister - Bernard of Dodgeville, Frank of Madison, Alle P. of LaJolla, Calif., Aldro of Hartford, Conn., and Goodsell of Los Angeles, Calif., and Mrs. Foy (Isabel) Gruenwald of Dodgeville.

Responses

Re: Obit: Jenks, Maxwell (1886 - 1945)

Contact: Maxine Jenks
Email: maxinejenks@yahoo.com

Maxwell Jenks was my grandfather. His wife died in 1975 in Austin, Texas.

 

 


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