Miami County, Ohio Genealogical Researchers -- Sponsored by the Computerized Heritage Association


    HARRY KINGSLEY KIRK

    HARRY KINGSLEY KIRK, a general farmer and stock raiser in Lost Creek Township, Miami County, residing on his farm of forty acres, owns several other adjoining properties and is one of the substantial men of this section. He was born May 28, 1868, at Catawba, Clark County, Ohio, and is a son of Rev. Eli and Ruth Ann (Moore) Kirk.

    The Kirk family is of Scotch ancestry and possibly the grandfather, William Kirk, was born in Scotland. He was a resident of Brown County, Ohio, when his son Eli was born, and there the latter grew to manhood. He united early with the Methodist Episcopal Church and later became a minister in the Cincinnati Conference and preached at different points for a period covered by twelve years. He died when his son, Harry K., was a child a comparatively young man. He married Ruth Ann Moore, who was a daughter of Philip and Rebecca Moore, who came to Ohio from Pennsylvania in 1836 and settled in Lost Creek Township, Miami County. They had three children: Harry Kingsley; Dora, who died in 1890; and Mary, who died in 1903. She was the wife of John Marshall of Addison, Ohio, and is survive by one child, Ralph K. Eli Kirk died in 1870, but his widow survived to be seventy years of age, dying in 1906.

    After his father died, Harry K. Kirk removed with his mother and two sisters to St. Paris, in Champaign County, where he attended school, taking a course of three years in the high school, after which he was employed for two years as a clerk by John Poorman in his dry goods store. Mr. Kirk then came to Miami County and bought the forty acres on which he has lived ever since, which is one-half of the old Moore farm, and to this he later added forty more acres, bought of the Fickes heirs, and fifty adjoining acres of the Weatherhead heirs. The Moore family came very early to Lost Creek Township, settling on the present farm when but five acres of the land bad been partially cleared and when wild game still abounded in the forest. Philip Moore, the grandfather, was born and reared in Philadelphia County, Penna. His grandfather, Charles Moore, was killed at the battle of Germantown, in the Revolutionary War, being an old man at that time. Philip Moore brought his family to Ohio in 1836 and died in 1879 in Lost Creek Township. His wife's name was Rebecca Shutt and she died in 1885. They had eight children, namely: Joseph; William; Susan, who was the wife of James Mitchell; Charles; Ruth Ann, who was the mother of Mr. Kirk; George, who resides at St. Paris and served during the Civil War as a member of the 147th O.Vol. Inf.; John H., who was born January 30, 1840, on the Moore farm in Lost Creek Township, where he still resides, having never married; and Sarah, who also survives.

    On December 28, 1892, Harry K. Kirk was married to Miss Emma Nesbett, a daughter of James and Margaret Nesbett, of Troy, Ohio, and they have had four children: Harry Leon, Mabel, Mary and George, the eldest of whom died when aged thirteen months. Both Mr. Kirk and Mr. Moore are stanch Republicans.

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