FOURTH GENERATION

86. James Gillham Kirkpatrick was born about 1769 in South Carolina. He died in 1846 in Mifflin, Iowa Co., Wisconsin. James Gillham Kirkpatrick, would appear to be the second eldest child o f James and Susannah Kirkpatrick. We make this assumption because alon g with Thomas, his brother, James is the only other Kirkpatrick that re ceived land in 1788 in Georgia. James and Thomas both received grants i n 1788 in Franklin County, one of Georgia's original counties.* We as sume that this pair were the only ones of age to receive such a grant.

James appears in other land transactions in Georgia of which more later . His brother Francis appears in a Georgia land transaction but not unt il about ten years later in 1798. John according to our search, does n ot appear in any Georgia land transaction. John Fletcher Kirkpatrick, a s on of John asserts that his father was youngest of the quartet. Becaus e of the land deals in 1788 we think both Thomas and James were adults b y 1788. Thomas' birth date is given as 1766. That would make him 22 i n 1788. James was probably born about 1769. Confirmation of this spec ulation comes from the COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD OF THE COUNTIE S OF ROCK, GREEN, GRANT, IOWAS AND LAFAYETTE, WISCONSIN (1901) which st ates that the died in 1846 at the age of seventy-seven. This would pla ce his birth at about 1769. The place is the colony of South Carolina, b ut the specific locale we do not know of.

James shows up in the Illinois Census of 1820 with the middle initial o f G. It is the only time we have found this initial. Because his older b rother had a middle name, we assume he had one as well. We speculate t hat it is Gillham after his mother's family.

James was married to Sarah Pettyjohn in Georgia. The year is usually g iven as 1801. In part this may be deduced from their oldest son's birt h year, 1803. If not 1801, then the year would be very close. As usua l we are involved with backwoods America with it's lack of clergymen, l ack of record keeping and generally wild tenor. Neither the Carolina b ackcountry nor this corner of Georgia (Jackson County) was settled to a ny great degree at this time.

Sarah's birth year has been given variously as 1780 (1860 Census), 1783 ( obituary) and 1789 (County History). The latter date is suspect becaus e she would have been only about twelve at the time of her marriage. 17 80-1783 are more probable dates.

Sarah's parents were Jacob and Betsy Pettyjohn. Jacob Pettyjohn's will i s filed in the Jackson County courthouse in Jefferson, Georgia (Book A, 1 803-1860) recording survivors as wife Betsy, daughter Sally Kirkpatrick , and sons Reuben, Abram and Warren. The date of the will is 13 Decemb er, 1810. It is signed Jacob Pettyjohn without his mark, probably an a uthentic signature. The spelling given here uses the "Y" rather than t he "I".

James seems to have been the stay-at-home. While his three brothers mo ved to Illinois, most of them probably in 1802, James remained behind i n the same area as his mother, Susannah (Gillham) Kirkpatrick Scott, wi fe of Joseph Scott.**

The 1788 grant to James Kirkpatrick was for 300 acres in Franklin Count y, GA, described as bordered on the southeast by Scott's lands and on a ll other sides by vacant land. James also signed up for the 1805 Land L ottery as #282 but his two draws were both blank and he acquired no lan d from the lottery. (Registration for the 1805 lottery was in 1803). I n 1808 James Kirkpatrick of Jackson County bought from Reuben Pettyjohn , also of Jackson County, for $300, 157 acres in Franklin County on the w aters of the "Togaloe River". Reuben Pettyjohn was James Kirkpatrick's B rother-In-Law.***

In 1805 James sold to his brother Thomas for $500, 300 acres on the Cur ries Creek, being "part of a tract of three hundred acres granted to th e said James Kirkpatrick from the aforesaid state office." This land is i n Jackson County, recorded 15 Aug 1805.****

James and Sarah both signed a deed of sale that was made the 6 day of N ovember 1807 but not recorded until 1825 in the Jackson County Courthou se. The Justice of the Peace records that James Kirkpatrick acknowledg ed before him that the deed was passed over 26 Mar 1811 although the ag reement had been made in 1807. The sale is to John Allen for a parcel o f land in Jackson County on Curry's Creek and the sum of money is $1100 . The deed states that the land is 226 3/4 acres, the "same more or le ss which was originally granted to Thomas Kirkpatrick in the year one t housand and seven hundred and eighty-eight.*****

In yet another land transaction made in 11 November 1817, David Bergen ( or Burgan--both spellings are given) and James Kirkpatrick jointly sell t o Cornelius Atkinson, for the sum of $1500, three tracts of land contai ning 350 acres.******

All the above seem to indicate that James was in Franklin County, Georg ia early on, from at least 1788, and remained there in the new county o f Jackson until 1818.

After the death of Joseph Scott, apparently in 1817, James Kirkpatrick a nd his family and the widow Scott (his mother Susannah) removed to Bond C ounty, Illinois and there joined his brothers. John Fletcher Kirkpatri ck, son of John Kirkpatrick, James' brother, wrote that John Kirkpatric k went to Georgia to fetch Susannah and James and his family.

The thread on James get rather thin here. It is said he laid out the t own of Mills in Bond County in 1820. This is perhaps true but there ar e two James Kirkpatrick's in the county at this time whom we believe to b e cousins.******* No special profession seems to emerge as James' so o ur assumption is that he was a farmer. We have no land transactions at t his writing so we do not know if he owned his own land in Bond County, I llinois.

James spent some time in Bond County, and then moved northward with his w ife Sarah into Wisconsin Territory. His eldest son Franceis Criswell K irkpatrick had removed to Iowa County (then part of Michigan Territory) i n 1827. James G. Kirkpatrick is listed in the 1820 US Census for Bond C ounty, Illinois, living not far from brothers Francis and John. The 18 30 census has two James Kirkpatricks, but by this date there appears to b e a double enumeration of the same James and we do not know which of th e original Jameses remains.

In the first territorial census of Wisconsin in 1836, James is recorded i n Iowa County in the southwestern corner of the territory. He died in 1 846. No will or estate papers of any kind have ever been found.

A county history tells us "James Kirkpatrick, father of Francis C., joi ned this colony (Wisconsin) early in the nineteenth century. In 1834 h e came to Wisconsin and his death occurred in the town of Mifflin, Iowa C ounty, when he was aged seventy-seven years. His wife, Sarah Pettijohn K irkpatrick died in the same place, at the age of seventy-four years."** ******

Sarah died 15 February 1863 at Lima. Both Sarah and James are presumed t o be buried in the Kirkpatrick Cemetery in Iowa County, Wisconsin, near t he little town of Rewey. No markers or records exist, but the cemetery e xisted at the time of the deaths of the couple.

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* Grant Book PPP, page 310, Georgia Department of Archives & History, A tlanta.

**Here is where the confusion arises in Madison County, Illinois. Anoth er James lived adjacent to the Kirkpatrick's and Gillhams in Madison Co unty in the decade between 1805 and 1815. There seems to be at the sam e time, one too many John Kirkpatricks. It is from this that we deduce t hat two children of Thomas(2) joined the Western trek.

*** This transaction is recorded in Franklin County Deeds, Vol. RRR, Dr awer 33, Box 6, pp. 27A and B, and 28A, dated 5 September 1808 (Georgia D epartment of Archives & History, Atlanta).

**** Jackson County Deeds, D-265

***** Jackson County Deeds, H-249 and H-250

****** Jackson County Deeds, K-514

******* See item No. 14 on John Kirkpatrick with note on James Kirkpatr ick.

******** COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD OF THE COUNTYS OF ROCK, GREE N, GRANT, IOWA AND LAFAYETTE, WISCONSIN. Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co., 1 901

He was married to Sarah Pettyjohn (daughter of Jacob Pettyjohn and Betsy ???) in 1801 in Jackson Co., Georgia. Sarah Pettyjohn was born in 1780 in Virginia. ^(36)(37) She died on 15 Feb 1863 in Lima, Pepin Co., Wisconsin. Buried in the Kirkpatrick Cemetery, Lima, WI with husband, James Gillha m Kirkpatrick.[JPKirk1.FTW]

James Gillham Kirkpatrick and Sarah Pettyjohn had the following children:

+240 i. Francis Criswell Kirkpatrick.
+241 ii. Sarah Kirkpatrick.
+242 iii. William M. Kirkpatrick.
+243 iv. Elizabeth Louisa Kirkpatrick.
+244 v. Susannah Caroline Kirkpatrick.
+245 vi. James Gillham Kirkpatrick Jr..
+246 vii. John J. Kirkpatrick.
+247 viii. Mary Ann Kirkpatrick.