KIRK, JOSEPH NEWTON (CLOSEUP) - Hutchinson County, Texas | JOSEPH NEWTON (CLOSEUP) KIRK - Texas Gravestone Photos

Joseph Newton (closeup) KIRK

Holt Cemetery
Hutchinson County,
Texas

January 2, 1854-June 1, 1919

*Photo/information, courtesy of Edith Guynes Stanley

*Obituary
Joseph Newton Kirk, born Jan 2, 1854 in Lawrence Co. Tenn., died June 1, 1919, Hutchinson Co. Tex. married 1st Lucy M. Sims, Mar 23, 1873 in Lawrence Co. Tenn., married 2nd in Erath Co. Texas, Dartha Ann Schooler.

Dartha Ann Schooler, born Oct. 15, 1854, Shelby Co. Tex, died Mar 18 1933, Amarillo, Tex., daughter of Ben Henry Schooler and his wife Rosanna Francis Wilburn.

Joseph Newton Kirk and his wife Lucy lived in Lawrence County, Tenn. where four children were born - Jesse Robert Kirk, Margaret Seline Kirk (Mrs. Carroll Jackson Crawford), Dibrell Benjamin Kirk and Millie Anne Kirk (Mrs. Walter Franklin Harris). Joseph migrated to Dallas County, Texas where his last child by this marriage, Sallie Kirk (Mrs. Edgar Lambert), was born. He migrated to Erath County, Texas before December 1884, and December 5, 1889 married Dartha Ann Schooler and two more children were born - Birda May Kirk (Mrs. Benjamin Calvin Holt) and Bertha Lee Kirk (Mrs. Benjamin A. Jenkins).

Some of Joseph's first family of children migrated to Hutchinson County in the Panhandle in 1900. Joseph went to see them, bought Sec. R66, made arrangements to have a water well dug, and a pasture fenced, in the fall of 1901. Joseph chartered cattle cars and immigrant cars from the railroad in Dublin, Erath County, Texas, for the move, in which he shipped his herd of sixty-two-year-old black heifers, a milk cow, six horses, chickens, wagons, tools, machinery, cottonseed, tents, household furniture, and the bountiful food supply which had been dried, cured, canned and preserved to feed the family until another crop was made. The family traveled by passenger train.

Upon arrival the wagons were loaded with the necessary supplies, bedding, clothing, storing the remainder in Channing, Texas and they started for the new home to be developed on Section R66 in Hutchinson County. By this time it was cold, their temporary living quarters consisted of two tents, the smaller used for cooking, the larger for sleeping and living had a heater in the middle, and it was surprising how warm and comfortable they were. So much vital work had to be done, it wasn't until the next summer that efforts were devoted to digging a large half-dugout 15 x 20 feet located near the large tent. In 1904 two new rooms were built above ground with an inside stairway leading down into the dugout.

Joseph Newton Kirk, a devout Methodist, believed in tithing, and never worked on Sunday. He was very progressive, accumulated land for himself and each of his first family of children. When he died in 1919 all of his children had been married several years and lived in the Holt Community near him.

One of these children of Joseph Newton Kirk and his wife Dortha Ann Schooler Kirk was eleven years old when they migrated to the Panhandle. She attended the first and second schools on section 14 and section 50. Then when her parents were making plans to send her south to school, a young bachelor, Benjamin Calvin Holt, had other plans for her future. After Birda May married she moved a mile to her new home. She reared six children with grace and diligence.

Quoted from History of Hutchinson County, Texas: 104 years, 1876-1980

Contributed on 11/19/20 by neldapat
Email This Contributor

Suggest a Correction

Record #: 367356

To request a copy of this photo for your own personal use, please contact our state coordinator. If you are not a family member or the original photographer — please refrain from copying or distributing this photo to other websites.

Thank you for visiting the Texas Gravestone Photo Project. On this site you can upload gravestone photos, locate ancestors and perform genealogy research. If you have a relative buried in Texas, we encourage you to upload a digital image using our Submit a Photo page. Contributing to this genealogy archive helps family historians and genealogy researchers locate their relatives and complete their family tree.

Submitted: 11/19/20 • Approved: 11/20/20 • Last Updated: 11/23/20 • R367356-G0-S3

Surnames  |  Other GPP Projects  |  Contact Us  |  Terms of Use  |  Site Map  |  Admin Login