Biography of Joseph E. Kirkland
JOSEPH E. KIRKLAND. – Mr. Kirkland was born in 1831 in Illinois. He was the son of a farmer who removed in 1832 to Arkansas, where he gave his children the advantages of a common-school education. In 1851 the family crossed the plains with oxen to Lane county, Oregon, the journey occupying four months. They took a Donation claim, and worked in the Southern Oregon mines from 1852 to 1857, perfecting, in the meantime, their title to their Donation. At the time of the Indian disturbance, Joseph Kirkland and his father owned pack trains; and, when the volunteers bivouacked on … Read more