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 Arkansas Gravestone Photo Project. On this site you can upload gravestone photos, locate ancestors and perform genealogy research. If you have a relative buried in Arkansas, 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: 7/22/21 • Approved: 7/26/21 • Last Updated: 7/29/21 • R1383479-G0-S3
Company F Buck Brown's Partisan Battalion
Civil War Confederate
March 10, 1945 - January 11, 1916
*Obituary
Prairie Grove Herald
Thursday, January 20, 1916
KIRBY, James Christopher – (Cane Hill Items) Mr. Chris Kirby of Westville, Oklahoma, was brought here for burial last week. He is an old citizen of this place, having moved to Westville some two or three years ago. He died of pneumonia. He was well liked and was a stockman of some note.
Mr. J.C. Kirby Passes to His Reward – The following tribute to Mr. Chris Kirby is by his pastor, Rev. David H. Bryant, and is copied from the Westville (Okla.) Record:
One of the oldest citizens of Westville and one of the most highly esteemed and successful businessmen, passed away Tuesday, January 11th, 1916 at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Clyde Jones of this city. He was sick of pneumonia only a few days. His natural career ended in the tender care and surrounded by loving children. The body accompanied by his children was taken to Cane Hill and was laid to rest by the side of his wife and daughter, Margaret. The burial service was conducted by David H. Bryant, pastor of the Presbyterian church in Westville.
Mr. Kirby was born at Cane Hill, Arkansas March 10, 1845 and at the time of his departure was 70 years, 10 months and 1 day old. He was of fine mental ability and enjoyed the accomplishments of a splendid, practical education. He was married to Miss Mary Irwin of Cane Hill, December 7, 1870; this union was blessed with 7 children, three boys and four girls. Six of the children survive him. In his business life Mr. Kirby was a success. He was a farmer and stock dealer; having bought and sold stock in Arkansas and Indian Territory for more than 30 years retaining the confidence and esteem of all parties with whom he dealt.
Mr. Kirby professed faith in Christ and united with the Presbyterian church, U.S. in early manhood, with true devotion to his church, of which he was a ruling elder, he lived a long and useful Christian life. He was a splendid citizen, devoted husband, loving father, a faithful Christian and a man whom the country, the host of friends and relatives with one accord mourn his loss. “The Birthday Bells on high” have rung for him. All for him, here, is now over. We wish he could have lived, but Heaven has claimed him and we must let go the jealous hold upon him of our detaining affection and resign him to fellowship infinitely richer and more rewarding. He came to “live with Mary this winter,” he said, but after an affliction, for a few days, never as before he saw in the majestic cathedral of the blue sky, not only God standing within the shadows, but God made evident to his waiting soul. He knew the Lord face to face in all joy, The Lord with whom he had walked for more than a quarter of a century. His going was so easy. “So when his sweet journey ends, soul and body part like friends –no quarrels, no murmurs, no delays; a kiss, a sigh, and so away.” He was unassuming and unpretentious, but as bright as a star. He was a most companionable man. He was a friend in sunshine and shadows. “We never heard man say aught against Mr. Kirby. So beautifully adorned with the unstained graces of a true and faithful life, that it would be unpardonable now to obscure the sweet, natural memory of it with manufactured rhetoric. Just to remember the manliness, the wholesomeness, the truthfulness of him is a comfort which the effort to praise him in words would hinder rather than enhance. To his dear children, we offer deepest sympathy and beseech you to look beyond this parting and by faith see that House of many Mansions where we soon shall meet our loved ones and never more be parted. God grant it.
*Source: Sons of Confederate Veterans, Washington County, Arkansas 2009
Compiled by William W Degge
Contributed on 7/22/21 by judyfrog
Email This Contributor
Suggest a Correction
Record #: 1383479