PEDIGREES OF LOTT AND SARAH WRIGLEY KIRKHAM

I have included the above pedigrees so that when information is published on this post, you can see where you fit in.

HIS NAME IS WHAT???? JASPER OR RUSSON

When I was young, I believed my Grandfather's middle name was Jasper. However, when I showed the records I had for him to my mother, she informed me that he HATED that name, and had never acknowledged it. However, it must have come from somewhere since so many people believed it was his middle name.

I have NOT found a birth certificate for him - so do not know what is on his birth certificate.

However, below is a typed copy of a will his mother instructed her son Thomas to write on December 8, 1929. Because of what is in this will, I have personally decided to list my Grandfather's name as Lott Russon Kirkham on my records. Even were we to find Jasper on his birth certificate, I believe that his mother thought of him as Lott Russon and therefore, I want to respect he wishes and refer to him as Lott Russon, especially since I know it to be an honor to his mother's family, and I know that Lott did not want the name of Jasper as a middle name. The typed copy of the will follows:

FIRST PAGE - All Centered

This is a Copy of the
LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT
of
SARA RUSSON KIRKHAM
Written by
Thomas Franklin Kirkham

Between six and seven A.M.
Sunday, December 8, 1929
Lehi, Utah County, Utah

Children of George and Sara Russon Kirkham
Heirs name in Will

William Kirkham
Thomas Franklin Kirkham
Lott Russon Kirkham
Maude Kirkham Russell
Oliver George Kirkham
Bessy LaVerne Kirkham\Denzil Washington Kirkham
Raymond Lee Kirkham

(Other Children, Deceased)
Joseph Kirkham unmarried at death
Sarah Kirkham unmarried at death
Avery James Kirkham unmarried at death
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Second Page - not centered

My Dear Children:
I have decided to make my will so that there will be no trouble among you and that you will all be happy and love each other. I want you all to be satisfied with what I am going to say for you to have left to you all.

Now my dear children, God bless you all, be true and faithful so we can all meet again when all is over and we have fought the good fight and won the crown. I do love you all, there is not a pin difference. You are all my dear loved ones and so dear to your Mother and Father. He loved his children. Be true to each other and united.

O my son William, may God help and bless you in your last days, be faithful:
To my son Thomas F. who has been always true and obedient to his parents, my missionary:
And my dear old Maudie, true to her mother and her Lord, my missionary girl;
And dear son Lott R., the peacemaker, true to his family and all, God bless him;
And my son, Oliver George, born in exile for our religion, or those days;
To my Bessy LaVerne who is my provider and a blessing to me, God bless her;
And dear Denzil Washington, my missionary boy, true and faithful to his Lord;
And last of all, O my baby, Raymond Lee, who is now on a mission in Germany,
And my Missionaries, and such a grand man, he is true to his God and his mother,

May God bless you, I am proud of such an honorable family. You are true and faithful children. God bless the missionaries of mine, thanks to the Lord.

I want the home to stand as it is and not to be touched till the last one is married, then to be sold and then divided equally. I want the furniture to be divided, and the pictures have the names on them and the dishes and my clothes to my two girls. Now be honest and true to each other. God bless you all. Your mother,
(Signed) Mrs. Sara Kirkham

I appoint my son, William, to be administrator of estate and request that he sees to it that my desires as expressed in this will be carried out faithefully.

(Signed) Mrs. Sara Kirkham

(The victrola is LaVerne's own)

TABLE MADE BY GEORGE KIRKHAM

This table appears in one of the houses in the Pioneer Park at Lagoon. It is one of two tables made by George Kirkham, one for each of his two wives. It is pieced with scraps of wood he brought home when working on the Salt Lake Temple. It has been said he made some railings in the temple. Some of the pieces look like they could have been cut from railing scraps.

GEORGE KIRKHAM ROCKING CHAIR

This rocking chair is in the Lehi Museum and was probably made by George Kirkham. We know that George was a master craftsman. If anyone has pictures of other items he made, please post them.

KAREN KIRKHAM TUFT

The following is background information for Karen Kirkham Tuft and how she ties into the Kirkham Wrigley Ancestors.

Background info: My dad: Robert Stoddart Kirkham
His parents: Birdie Stoddart - Joseph Hyrum Kirkham
Birdie's parents: Ada Lucy Steel - Robert Stoddart
Joseph Hyrum's parents: Joseph Kirkham - Tyresha Cragun

Joseph Kirkham was a widower for many years.Ada Lucy Steel Stoddart was a widow for many years with her unmarried daugher Mary Jane (nicknamed May) living with her and taking care of her. When Joseph Hyrum and Birdie met and married, his father Joseph Kirkham met Birdie's sister Mary Jane Stoddart. The two of them subsequently married. But that would have left Ada Stoddart alone, so she moved in with Joseph and May.

When my dad was a little boy, his family would travel from Garland, Utah down to Lehi to visit his grandma, his grandpa, and his Auntie May. In his child's mind, he couldn't figure out why his grandma wasn't married to his grandpa, especially when they all lived in the same house! ( Actually, his Grandpa was married to his Aunt.)

The relationships in the house:
His Grandma STODDART
His Grandpa KIRKHAM - married to -
His AUNTIE May Stoddart Kirkham (and step-grandma)

TEA SET OF KAREN KIRKHAM TUFT

The following was written by Karen Kirkham Tuft about this tea set. To tie this to the blogspot, Ada Lucy Steel was the mother of Edward Wrigley, who was the father of Sarah Kirkham. Therefore Edward is a half brother of Anna Forman Stoddart Barlow and Anna is an aunt of Sarah Wrigley Kirkham.





















Anna Forman Stoddart Barlow was the youngest child of Ada Lucy Steel and Robert Stoddart. Her sister Birdie Stoddart Kirkham was my grandmother. (Joseph Hyrum Kirkham was my grandfather.) . Birdie died when I was five months old, so I never knew her. Aunt Anna never had children. She was a widow for many years, and worked as a bookkeeper at the old Mormon Handicraft on South Temple, retiring at the age of seventy-eight. My father, Robert Stoddart Kirkham, played the role of son for Aunt Anna and took care of her until her death. She was my "adopted grandma". When I turned seven, she gave my a toy tea set that she said she'd gotten at the age of seven. Since she was born in 1892, that would have been in 1899. She told me that she had taken very good care of it (it is only missing the lid to the sugar bowl), and made me promise that I would, too. The set includes six 2" cups and saucers, a teapot, sugar bowl, and creamer, each showing scenes of children at play. It appears to be earthenware, with printed decals, apparently a common practice at the turn of the century. It has a surprisingly delicate design, compared to some I saw online that look a lot more sturdy and kid-durable. Karen Kirkham Tuft

SARA RUSSON KIRKHAM JOURNAL INSCRIPTION

T

This is an image of a flyleaf in a journal given by Sara Russon Kirkham to one of her sons at Christmas, 1919. This image was sent to Carolyn Christensen by Donna O-Neil in order to show that Sara did not include an "H" on her first name when she wrote her own name. If you click on this image, it should enlarge and you can see it better.

PEACH STONE INFO SUBMITTED BY KIRKHAM SMITH

Submitted by KIRKHAM SMITH, grandson of Lott and Sarah Kirkham, son of Karl and Adah Kirkham Smith.

REFLECTIONS ON AN INCIDENT IN THE LIFE
OF
LOTT KIRKHAM

AS RRELATED BY HIS SON
DONALD R. KIRKHAM
FEBRUARY 4, 1989

I have heard papa tell this story many times about the peach stone and how it came to be. Just before I went on my mission, we were sitting around the dinner table and I asked papa why he got the peach stone? Did Grandpa Kirkham make one for everyone? He said “no”. I ask why? He said “I really don’t want to talk about it”. So mom said I’ll tell you about it, so she started to tell it and he said “No, that isn’t quite right”. So he said let me tell you what really happened. He told me how old he was and I really don’t know for sure, but probably 7 or 8 years old was all. He said “My dad was being tried for polygamy. The church had a test case. They let it be known . . . leaked it to the government officials that my dad was living polygamy. His family had been hiding out for two years.”

He told me they had lived in chicken coops, straw stacks (tunneled out straw stacks) and the people in the community had hid them out in Lehi and north towards Salt Lake and the Saratoga area for two years. Grandpa could go and see them, but could never meet with them in public. If you read Essentials in Church History, you’ll find that the church decided to have a couple of test cases to see if the government would try people for something they had done before the law was passed. So they decided to leak a few of them out. . . . Now the church tells about this, but it doesn’t say that my grandpa was one of them. This was done with the permission of the families. They wanted to get it out in the open so that they could either get their families back or something. It was too hard on the families and they didn’t complain. But grandpa Kirkham didn’t like it and shed a lot of tears over his wife and her family being hid out.

And so they arrested him. And they took him to court to try him on the charge of polygamy. I don’t know anything about the trial. Dad was just a little boy. He said that they went through the whole thing, and were coming to the end of the trial when papa got involved.

He said, “They came over home and got me and my mother and brought us over to court. My mother knew that I couldn’t testify against him if he was my father”. Papa said, “Dad knew that so he didn’t think they would bring me in. They didn’t think that the law enforcement officers would bring his own family in to testify against him because it was against the law”.

They broke three major laws when they took Grandpa Kirkham to court to try him for polygamy. Our dad was just a little boy and they took him in the court room and number 1. A child could not testify against his father. That was the first law they broke . . . so the lawyer went out and got him and brought him into the courtroom, He said he was standing in the back of the courtroom kind of. And the lawyer bent down, put his arm around his shoulder and said to him “Lotty, who’s that man up there on the stand?” He said “I was so proud, that I said ‘That’s my dad’”. Then the prosecuting attorney went over by his mother and she started to cry. That convicted him right there, because that was not his family supposedly, but it was the family that was in hiding.

So they took Grandpa Kirkham right out. . . Now my dad told me this dozens of times. . . Took him right out. Put him in a wagon to take him from Lehi to prison. My dad ram to follow the wagon until he couldn’t follow it any further and he fell to the ground exhausted crying. He was crying all the way for his dad. And his dad was crying too. . .

The second law they broke was that they convicted him of a crime that was not against the law when he started it. In other words, he was married when there was not law against polygamy. The third law they broke was if you go to prison you can no longer vote, you lose your citizenship. He had his right to vote when he came out. They still allowed him to vote when he came out of prison.

The reason he carved the peach stone was because of that experience in the courtroom. He felt so bad for our dad when found out what he had done . . . convicted his dad, sent him to prison and took him away . . . that it broke his heart. So in order to make Lott feel better, he carved a peach stone watch fob and gave it to him. It has a little hole in it for a chain, but it is small for a peach stone. On one side is carved an anchor and on the other are the initials “L.K.” It’s really unique, but nothing to anybody else.

I’ve heard this so many times, and it is absolutely accurate. I ask papa a number of times before he died to repeat it to me because I have the peach stone. I have no other details than that.

THE MARTHA CHARLES FOREMAN TAPESTRY

This tapestry was stitched between 1837 and 1862 while Martha Foreman Charles was Lady-in-Waiting to Queen Victoria (who ascended the thrown of England in 1837).

The unfinished tapestry was brought to America by Lucy Charles Steel, daughter of Martha Charles.

Martha Foreman Charles - 1779-1862
Lucy Charles Steel - 1817-1923
Adah Lucy Steel Stoddart- 1847-1936
Edward Charles Wrigley - 1864-1929
Sarah Adelaide Wrigley Kirkham- 1888-1973
Doris Kirkham Johnson - 1923 -
Carolyn Johnson Christensen - 1945

Grandma Sarah Kirkham showed me this tapestry when I was young. For some reason, I felt an emotional attachment to it, and tried to determine how I could impress Grandma enough for her to leave it to me. In my early teens, I came up with the idea to give Grandma a gold painted frame for Christmas in which to hang the tapestry. At that point, she realized that it was important to me, and told me I could have the tapestry. If the picture is clicked on, the size increases and you can see better the stitching. You can also see that the tapestry was never finished. The information that Martha Charles was a Lady-in-Waiting to Queen Victoria was given to me by Grandma Sarah Kirkham. I have not been able to prove this information.

LOTT KIRKHAM'S FIRST GRADE GRADUATION CERTIFICATE

I am the happy Keeper of this document. It is Lott Kirkham's first grade graduation certificate. Wouldn't it be fun to have a picture of him at this age. The back of the certificate was used by (probably) his mother, Sara Russon Kirkham, to plan out a quilt she was making.

PICTURE PEDIGREE

When I turned 8 years old, I was so excited because I knew one of my birthday presents would be a Book of Remembrance from My Grandma Kirkham, (Sarah), who gave one of these books to each of her grandchildren as they turned 8. I was fascinated with the picture pedigree she always included. I could see seven generations of women in my grandmother's family, and I loved those pictures, even though the ladies looked quite strange to me. This is a picture of my original pedigree. You can see how I added names, got mixed up, used whiteout, and generally handled this page a lot. Wondering why she short changed my father's side? We have no pictures back further than his parents.

KIRKHAM/WRIGLEY RECORDS REPOSITORY

I have some records for the Kirkham and Wrigley families that might interest others. I also think other have the same. I did inherit the family history records of Sarah Wrigley Kirkham and would like to share them. I am also hoping there are others who want to share records about these people and their ancestors. A blog seems like a good way for all interested to see records that would otherwise sit in files and boxes in storage. I hope this site works as a way to share records for the Kirkham and Wrigley families.

ME! MY ANCESTORS

I am a granddaughter, through Doris Kirkham Johnson, of Lott and Sarah Wrigley Kirkham. Lott and Sarah were born in Lehi, Utah and later moved to Shelley, Idaho. Lott's parents were George and Sara Russon Kirkham.  Sarah Wrigley's parents were Edward Charles Steele Wrigley and Sarah Ann Robinson.