FAMILY DONATION LAND CLAIMS: Joseph and Louisiana Matheny Kirkwood DLC

Louisiana Catherine Matheny (Her name was Louisa but went by Lucy Ann in her younger years and Louisiana later.), (1829-1908) married Joseph Kirkwood in 1847. She was the younger of the two daughters of Henry and Rachel Cooper Matheny. Louisa was born March 8, 1829, in Owen County, IN. She was eight when the family moved to Missouri and fourteen when they crossed the plains to Oregon.
At the age of fifteen, on December 6, 1844, Louisa married James Cave, Junior, of a poor family told about in Into the Eye of the Setting Sun. The marriage was performed by James O’Neil, J.P. (who had sold Daniel and Mary Matheny his claim to the future site of Wheatland). Cave died shortly after their marriage; there do not appear to have been any children. At eighteen she married her second husband, Joseph Kirkwood, on April 16, 1847, and by him had twelve children.
Joseph was born April 16, 1820, the son of James Kirkwood, a Scottish immigrant. Kirkwood and three sons headed west after the death of Mrs. Kirkwood in the East. It was 1846 and neither Oregon nor California were certain to become American. Along the trail, apparently there was some kind of trouble. Joseph chose to head to Oregon, whereas his father and two brothers headed to California.
In Oregon Joseph found his way to the area where the Mathenys had settled in Yamhill County. On 16 April 1847, he and the young widow, Louisa Matheny Cave, were married. The couple settled on land next to Louisa’s family on the east slopes of the Eola Hills.
It was in late 1849 that Joseph’s father and brothers were talking to a man in the California gold fields (Aaron Layson or Isaiah Matheny). When he heard that their last name was Kirkwood, he said, “My brother-in-law in Oregon is named Kirkwood, Joseph Kirkwood.” When the father and his son John heard of Joseph’s location, they set out immediately for Oregon. The other brother, probably the source of the trouble with Joseph, did not choose to join his father and brother on the trip to Oregon. He remained in the gold fields and was never heard from again. The two Kirkwoods arrived at Matheny’s Ferry at Wheatland and asked the way to Joseph and Louisa’s home. It had to have been a very pleasant reunion for Joseph, who by then had three children. The father and brother, John, never left the area. John married Charlotte Matheny soon afterward, and, like his brother, lived to an advanced age on his Yamhill County farm.
Roland Crosiar of Polk County says that his father, Ruthford Crosiar, told him that “Old Joe Kirkwood” did not trust banks. In his tack room he drilled the holes for the wooden pegs to hold harnesses; he drilled them extra deep so as to hide his gold coins behind the pegs. Many people who knew him say that Joe Kirkwood was a very difficult man.
Louisa, who went by “Lucy Ann” in her youth and “Louisiana” in her later years, died January 6, 1908, at the age of eighty-two at Hopewell. Joseph died there February 12, 1912, at the age of ninety-one. Both are buried at the Hopewell Cemetery.

DESCENDANTS: Their children were (1) Henry Kirkwood, born February 25, 1848, married Catharine M. Groshong, died January 16, 1932, Donald, Marion County, OR; (2) Ellen Kirkwood,born February 25, 1848 (a twin), Hopewell, married James McDonald, July 28, 1879, died December 20, l917, McMinnville, OR; (3) Perilla Kirkwood, born December 29, 1849, Hopewell, married Virgil Smith, December 8, 1874, died August 20, 1896; (4) James K. Kirkwood, born 1851, Hopewell, not married, died September 28, 1935, Eugene, OR; (5) Joseph Kirkwood, Jr., born 1853, Hopewell, married Sarah Cooper Russell (his mother’s first cousin, daughter of William S. Cooper), ca.1879, died ca.1930; (6) Daniel David Kirkwood, born July 28, 1855, Hopewell, married Elizabeth Blake (his second cousin, granddaughter of William S.Cooper), April 10, 1881, Colfax, WA, died June 26, 1911, Davenport, WA; (7) Homer C. Kirkwood, born May 31, 1857, Hopewell, married Hester M. Miller, September 29, 1885, Yamhill County, OR, died January 29, 1903, Hopewell; (8) Romietta Kirkwood, born June 30, 1859, Hopewell, married Charles E. Magers, September 7, 1895, Yamhill County, OR, died August 29, 1931, Salem, OR; (9) Thomas T. Kirkwood, born June 30, 1864, Hopewell, married Emma Sampson, December 26, 1888, died May 15, 1958, McMinnville, OR; (10) John Milton Kirkwood, born August 16, 1867, Hopewell, married ?, died May 6, 1961, Gladstone, OR; (11) Hester Lillie Kirkwood, born August 1870, Hopewell, married first: Francis M. Allison, 1892, second Amos Branson, died February 11, 1924, Polk County, OR; (12) Fred Kirkwood born March 1873, Hopewell, married Pearl Miller, February 1, 1902, Yamhill County, OR, died May 27, 1963, Salem, OR.

LOCATION: Back in the trees, behind Hopewell cemetery is a spring where Joe Kirkwood and family lived. Before arriving at Hopewell, turn left on Jerusalem Hill Road. Proceed to the site of the Joseph Kirkwood DLC .

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