(By Stephen Kelley. People’s Defender 1985)
Governor Thomas Kirker died in 1837 having outlived his wife by 12 years. They were both interred on their farm in the burial grounds known today as the Kirker Cemetery.
Although simple tablets of marble originally marked their graves, a large granite monument was later directed nearby to honor the Irish immigrant who served as the second governor of the Buckeye State.
Following the governor’s death, the farm became the property of George S. Kirker. Of the governor’s thirteen children, George was eleventh in line and the youngest son. He was born is his parents’ stone house in 1813 and continued to reside on the old homestead until 1875, just four years before his death. George was married in 1840 to Mary Cunningham who subsequently bore him 12 children. Sorrow pierced the hearts of this couple six times as half of their offspring died in infancy.
Although a civic-minded man, George was not politically inclined as was his father, and never actively sought public office. He was popular however and was prescribed as “a man of great public spirit”. Kirker’s primary vocation was that of “farmer and stock-raiser.” Under his ownership and supervision, his parents’ former homestead became a model of modern agricultural practices and animal husbandry. It was he who decided to enlarge the stone house erected in 1805 by his governor-father.
Needing more room than the small stone house afforded, George and Mary proceeded to erect a substantial two-story frame addition on the south end of the original home. This new wing was begun in 1858 and completed the following year. It looked down upon the Maysville Road, part of the old Zane’s Trace. In later years this section of the Maysville Road was abandoned by the state when the Maysville and Zanesville Pike was constructed where Ohio 41 is located today. Just a short stretch of Zane’s Trace is still open at the Kirker farm today and is known as Pixley Township Road.
By the time of the Civil War, George was 48 years old and unable to forego rigorous combat duty. However, he did want to participate in the war effort and joined the 84th Battalion of the Ohio National Guard in Adams County. As the war continued and the need for manpower increased, this battalion was mustered into active duty on May 14, 1864 at Gallipolis. Although age 51, George was brevetted captain and placed in command of Company I of the 141st Ohio Volunteer Infantry. This regiment was ordered to serve guard duty for Rebel prisoners held at Charleston, West Virginia. The 141st served a period of one hundred days and was mustered out on September 3, 1864.
Pictured this week is Captain George S. Kirker, second owner of the Kirker farm in Liberty Township. Courtesy of Charles S. Kirker II, great grandson of the captain. Also shown is a contemporary view of the large Pennsylvania bank barn which stands to the north of the old stone house.
According to Kirker family tradition, George Kirker had just begun construction of this building when called to active duty during the Civil War. Work ceased until George’s safe return when the structure was completed. Although it is now over 120 years old, this barn is as straight and sound as when first completed. Its exterior siding is the original plank made of Pennsylvania grown Hemlock. These trees were bought as standing timber, cut and rafted down the Ohio River to Manchester where they were sawn into large boards for the Kirker barn.
