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Submitted: 11/19/20 • Approved: 11/20/20 • Last Updated: 11/23/20 • R367357-G367357-S3
Dibrell B.
March 2, 1879-May 5, 1957
Minnie C.
December 24, 1879-November 19, 1963
*Photo/information, courtesy of Edith Guynes Stanley
*Obituary for Dibrell
"Hutchinson County of Bust" seemed to describe Dib Kirk as he struggled to file on land in 1900. He had to cross the Canadian River. A cowboy, who hated farmers, assured him it was perfectly safe. But halfway across, the turbulent water upset his wagon and quicksand panicked his mules. He unhitched them and was swimming out when the metal box containing filing money floated where he could grab it. With sheer determination, and the help of another farmer, he got his wagon and team together again, filed his claim and put down a dugout to bring his family to. The cowboy bragged about getting rid of another farmer.
Six weeks in a covered wagon from Erath County brought Minnie, Dib's wife, and three children, one baby, Mattie, was not old enough to eat solid food. She cried constantly from sheer hunger. She now lives in Pampa, Texas near her sons, Kirk and Ray. But a bawling baby was no match for the chilling blizzard that hit them at the caprock. Hurrying to get against Fort Elliot's crumbling walls, they huddled in the wagon. Prayers that they would not freeze to death were answered.
In 1901, a prairie fire burned Dib beyond recovery, the doctor thought, but his father arrived with Anphogestine and Pickrick Acid. Dib had his first rest in 17 days.
Dib's farming started with seeds dropped from a hole in a bucket behind a walking plow. His methods improved. He bought a threshing machine. That year, he threshed wheat for his neighbors. Then rains started and he found his own crop rotting in the stack.
Dib loved the cattle he bought, but in 1918 snow lay 31 inches deep. Art, Dib's son, freighted continuously, on a sled, for 29 days, with never a night at home, to keep the starving cows supplied with cake.
Food was frighted in - a year's supply. The war orders were to eat cornbread. Many 100-pound sacks of flour were ruined by mice and worms.
The Kirk children, Delon, Mattie, Art, Faye, Bill, Herbert, Raymond, Buster and Dorris, had severe cases of typhoid fever, pneumonia and flu. There was a near-drowning, Carbolic Acid mistakenly given for a medicine and one rocked herself onto a hot bachelor stove, but they were all present to celebrate their parent's 60th wedding anniversary, December 18, 1955.
It was church every Sunday, if the old mare, Florence, didn't balk. Education was important, too. Though Dib never passed the fourth grade, he helped haul lumber for Lackey School, was trustee for many years and sometimes boarded the teachers. With inbred determination, his children became teachers, an engineer, an inventor, machinists, farmers and ranchers.
Disappointments, near tragedies and losses, including the hired man's cigarette burning up his cotton crop at the gin, Dib and Minnie never lost sight of their goal. For 12 years, Dib served as commissioner. The Borger hospital was built; schools established; ruts turned into paved highways. He and Minnie were happy they had decided on Hutchinson County. After 78 years, their children still farm the land they so optimistically clung to.
Submitted by Mattie Kirk Duncan for inclusion in the 'History of Hutchinson County Texas, 104 Years, 1876-1980' which was published in 1980 by the Hutchinson County Historical Commission.
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Texas, Death Certificates, 1903-1982
Name: Dibrell Benjamin Kirk
Birth Date: 2 Mar 1879
Birth Place: Lawrence, Tennessee
Gender: Male
Race: White
Residence: Rural, Hansford, Texas
Father: Joseph N Kirk
Mother: Lucy Sims
Age at Death: 78
Death Date: 5 May 1957
Death Place: Spearman, Hamilton, Texas, USA [Hansford] Incorrect transcription
*Obituary for Minnie
Texas, Death Certificates, 1903–1982
Name: Minnie C Kirk
[Minnie C Crawford]
Birth Date: 24 Dec 1879
Birth Place: Texas
Gender: Female
Race: White
Residence: Spearman, Hansford, Texas
Father: William Carrol Crawford
Mother: Mattie Pope
Age at Death: 83
Death Date: 19 Nov 1963
Death Place: Spearman, Hansford, Texas, USA
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SPEARMAN, Nov. 22 (Special) - Mrs. Minnie C. Kirk, 83, pioneer Hutchinson County ranch woman, was found dead today at her home, 720 S. Barkley. The family physician said death was due to natural causes.
Mrs. Kirk, 83, came to the Plains area in 1900 and was well known on the North Plains. Funeral arrangements will be announced by the Boxwells Funeral Directors of Spearman.
Mrs. Kirk was born Dec. 24, 1879, in Dublin, Tex. and attended Stephen Academy at Stephensville.
Survivors include five sons, Delon of Spearman, Raymond, Herbert, and Buster, all of Spearman and A.D. of Lake Jackson; three daughters, Mrs. Ivy E. Duncan, Mrs. C.W. Stowell, both of Pampa, Mrs. Doris Maxey of Lubbock; two brothers, Hubert Crawford of Canyon and Carroll Crawford of Abilene; nine grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
(Published in Amarillo Daily News, November 23, 1963)
Contributed on 11/19/20 by neldapat
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Record #: 367357