Early Life and Family
Jennings was born in 1825 in Fairfield, Connecticut to Abraham Gold Jennings and Anna Burr. At a young age he came to New York to learn the dry goods business. In 1849 he headed West to seek his fortune in the California Gold Rush. He set up a general mercantile store in San Francisco with Benjamin Brewster and amassed a considerable fortune by outfitting prospecting camps along the coast and around Sacramento.
On December 13, 1854, he married Esther Judson Goodsell (1828–1908) in Fairfield. Her sister, Almira Geraldine Goodsell, married William Rockefeller in 1864. They had five children:
- Annie Burr Jennings
- Walter Jennings (director of Standard Oil Company of New Jersey; president of the Jekyll Island Club, 1927–1933)
- Helen Goodsell Jennings (married Dr. Walter James, president of the Jekyll Island Club, 1919–1927)
- Emma Brewster Jennings (married Hugh Dudley Auchincloss, Sr.; mother of Hugh Dudley Auchincloss, Jr.)
- Oliver Gould Jennings (married Mary Dows Brewster, daughter of Benjamin Brewster and Elmina Hersey Dows; father of Benjamin Brewster Jennings)
Read more about this topic: Oliver Burr Jennings
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