Overview Jabez Bunting Watkins (1845-1921), capitalist and entrepreneur in Lawrence, Kansas, built one of the largest farm mortgage businesses in the central United States during the last three decades of the 19th century. Most of these papers are business correspondence and records which chronicle the corporate life of J. B. Watkins and Company, the J. B. Watkins Land Mortgage Company, the Watkins Land Company, and various other businesses owned or controlled by J. B. Watkins. The bulk of the papers...