John Wesley Kirk

Male, #32476, (18 Nov 1844 - 17 Jul 1930)

Birth*18 Nov 1844 John was born at Georgia on 18 Nov 1844. 
Civil War*between 1861 and 1865 He served in the War Between the States between 1861 and 1865. 
Marriage*27 Nov 1865 He married Florela Caroline Culpepper at Randolph Co., Alabama, on 27 Nov 1865. 
1870 Census*5 Jul 1870 John was listed as the head of a family on the 1870 Census at Louina, Randolph Co., Alabama. 22 m-581 hh 145. 
1880 Census*2 Jun 1880 John was listed as the head of a family on the 1880 Census at Randolph Co., Alabama. 34 m-Beat 8 p 315 hh 34. 
1900 Census*1900 John was listed as the head of a family on the 1900 Census at Flat Rock, Randolph Co., Alabama. 54 m-Pct 8 p. 58 hh 8. 
Photographed*circa 1906 He was photographed from Carlos F. Robertson:
Left to Right: Lilly Kathern Kirk (oldest daughter of Daniel P Kirk), Iva D. Kirk (my mother), Emma (Brown) Kirk (D. P. Kirk's 1st wife), Leon Kirk (oldest son of D.P. Kirk), Florela (Culpepper) Kirk, Daniel P. Kirk, John W. Kirk, last two unknown.

The attached picture was found in, my mother, Iva D. Kirk’s collection. On the back it was labeled as follows:

Grand Daddy Kirk

John Wesley. Kirk

Frollia C. Kirk (Grand Mother)

Dan P. Kirk

Eulas Kirk

George Kirk

Lula Kirk

Kate Kirk

Leon Kirk

Iva D. Kirk

1901 (I know this date is wrong, as my mother (Iva) was not born until 1905??) circa 1906 at Randolph Co., Alabama.1
John Wesley Kirk family
Photographed*say 1910 He and Florela Caroline Culpepper were photographed say 1910 at Randolph Co., Alabama.2
John Wesley & Florela C. (Culpepper) Kirk
1910 Census*1910 John was listed as the head of a family on the 1910 Census at Randolph Co., Alabama. 65 m-ED 149 sheet 1B. 
Death*17 Jul 1930 He died at Wadley, Randolph Co., Alabama, on 17 Jul 1930. 
Burial* His body was interred at Wadley, Randolph Co., Alabama. 
Biography* L. Hoyt Kirk wrote 3 that his grandfather, John Wesley Kirk, had "bright blue eyes" like J. W. Kirk's father, James Patrick Kirk. John Wesley Kirk would have been approximately 16 years old when the Civil War began. L. Hoyt Kirk wrote:4

My Grandfather fought in the Civil War four years. I asked him one time if he ever shot a man during the war and he said, "I don't know and I don't want to know. I shot at them, but in those days we used black powder and it made so much smoke that we would have to wait until the smoke cleared away and by that time another man may have stepped up to his place. Grandfather never discussed much about the war. He did tell me about the soldiers picking up the corn that the horses wasted when they were fed and washing the grains of corn and making hominy, and about the farmers butchering their hogs and hiding the meat in hollow trees in the woods but the Yankee soldiers would find it and take everything they found. Grandmother told me some days it would be real smokey and they would say, "The soldiers are fighting close today, it is so smokey." They fought all over Alabama, Horse Shoe Bend on the Tallapoosa River and the Railway Freight Depot in Scottsboro, the oldest brick building in Scottsboro, built before the Civil War and today there are signs where the Freight Depot was damaged by gun fire during the Civil War.

After the War, John Wesley Kirk married Florela Culpepper. L. Hoyt Kirk wrote:5

John Wesley Kirk... reared his family on the farm on what is known locally as Cotton Ridge which is about four miles west of [what is now the town of] Wadley in Randolph County, Alabama. About 1912, all of my grandfather's children lived within a ten mile radius of where they grew up. All of his sons were farmers and all of his daughters married farmers.... Farming is an honorable occupation, but it is not a profitable occupation, or was not back in those days on small farms by mule in Randolph, Clay, Chambers, and Tallapoosa counties. And today with all the mechanical equipment and large acreage farming, most farmers are in debt.... But they [Kirk's] were honorable citizens, church goers, honest, paid their debts, their word was their bond. If a Kirk had two dollars and you needed one, he would give you one.... For several years, my father and I would cut firewood for grandfather and haul it to him in the winter months. One cold windy day we carried grandfather a load of wood. When we unloaded the wood, grandfather came out with his overcoat on and got on the wagon to go home with us. He sat on the back of the wagon bed with his feet hanging off and Dad said, "John, you are not going to sit back there. Come up here on this spring seat." When we got home, my Dad stopped the mules in front of the wagon shelter and grandfather said, "Turn around, turn around." When Dad turned the mules around, he turned too short and the front wheel caught the side of the wagon bed and raised it up and out went grandfather, head first on the tongue of the wagon between the mules. Dad reached down and caught him by the seat of the pants and pulled him back up on the spring seat and said, "Did it hurt you, John?" Grandfather said, "Yes, by grassis, you know it hurt me." He got mad and would not say a word. He went on to the house. Dad and I put up the mules and went in to eat lunch and sat down to the dinner table and Dad said, "Ask the blessing John, and make it short, I am hungry." That tickled my grandfather and started him laughing. He couldn't be mad any longer....

John Wesley Kirk was a Mason. 

Family

Florela Caroline Culpepper (22 Jan 1849 - 18 Aug 1929)

Last Edited 18 Oct 2008

Citations

  1. E-mail from Carlos F. Robertson, e-mail address, Carrollton, Georgia to Lew Griffin, July 2006.
  2. Correspondence from Leonard Hoyt Kirk to Lew Griffin.
  3. letter 14 Sep 1992
  4. letter 28 Sep 1992
  5. letter 15 Oct 1992