James Jenner was born in 1807 in New Jersey. He married Sophia R. Hathaway. To their union were born four children.
On December 4, 1833, James signed the “Testimony of 51 Neighbors,” later printed in Mormonism Unvailed. In 1825, he purchased a house built by Pliny Sexton. James was a jeweler by trade and opened the first jewelry store in Palmyra. He also ran a furniture factory and store in the James Jenner Block on Main Street in Palmyra. He was a leading member of Palmyra’s Western Presbyterian Church and a stockholder in the new Palmyra hotel.[1]
At age forty-three, James lived in Palmyra with Sophia R. Jenner (age 38), Henry Jenner (age 17), William Jenner (age 10), Eliza Jenner (age 13), Charlotte Jenner (age 6), Elizabeth Sanford (age 20), and Charles Hathaway (age 23).[2] James died on August 4, 1853 and was buried in the Palmyra City Cemetery.
[1] Howe, Mormonism Unvailed, pp. 366–677; Cook, Palmyra and Vicinity, pp. 61, 63, 89; Vogel, Early Mormon Documents, 2:51.
[2] US Federal Census, 1850.