OHIO STATEWIDE FILES - Know your Ohio: Recollections of Early Governors -- Article 2

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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by
Darlene E. Kelley
http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00026.html#0006374
October 30, 2002.
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Historical Collections of Ohio
Series of Articles 
by S.L. Kelly
And Then They Went West
Recollections of Early Governors
reprinted by 
Darlene E. Kelley. 
Article 2--
==================================

Article 2--

THOMAS KIRKER -- 1807-- 1808.

When Edward Tiffin resigned the governorship of Ohio in March 1807 to
take a seat in the United States Senate, Thomas Kirker, then speaker of
the Ohio Senate, became acting Governor until December, when Tiffin's
term expired. In the election of October 1807, Return J. Meigs, Jr.,
received a majority of the popular vote over Nathaniel Massie, but the
general assembly ruled tat Meigs was ineligible because he had not
resided continuously in the State for four years prior to the election,
as required by the constitution. As a result of the decision,  
Kirker continued as acting governor for the 1807-8 term.

Ohio's second Governor, Thomas Kirker, was born in Tyrone County,
Ireland, in 1760. His father being unable to make a living for a large
family on the poor soil of his native country, brought the family to
America when Thomas was nineteen. They settled in Lancaster,
Pennslyvania, where in a few years the father died. In 1790, he married
Sarah Smith, a young woman from a good Lancaster family. 
Not long afterwards they moved to Kentucky on a hazardous journey from
there to the journeys end on the frontier conditions. One account states
that they were targets for Indian arrows during the trip.

Thomas Kirker and family left Kentucky, 
[ whether for economic conditions or because of his opposition to
slavery is uncertain ] and moved to Manchester, Ohio, around 1793. About
two years later he settled on a farm in Liberty Township, Adams County,
which was his home for the rest of his life. This is said to have been
the first settlement in the county outside a stockade. In family
tradition, the future governor and his wife, leaving three children at
home, would take a gun and walk twelve miles through the woods to church
and back. From 1808 until his death Kirker was a ruling elder in the
Presbyterian church at West Union, as also were four of his five sons.
In 1809 he was appointed one out of three to receive subscriptions for a
stone church building , and his name heads the subscription lists.

He became a leading citizen of his community and often called upon by
common consent to arbitrate disputes among his neighbors. He was
appointed by Governor St Clair as a justice of the peace and was
therefore a member of the first court of quarter sessions which met at
Manchester in 1797. He was chosen as one of the delegates from Adams
County to the first constitutional convention. In March 1803, he
represented his county in the lower house of the first general assembly.
That fall of the same year he was elected to the State Senate and was
reelected to that body for eleven consecutve general assemblies (1804
thru 1815), serving as speaker for seven terms.

After the close of the thirteenth general assembly Kirker was absent
from the legislature for one term. Then he was elected to the house of
representatives fo the fifteenth and to the senate for the twentieth
through the twenty third general assemblies ( 1816-17, 1821-25), serving
as speaker of the senate in the fifteenth. It was while serving as
speaker of the senate in the fifth general assembly that he became
acting governor.

Kirker was a kind and loving father and was very devoted to his wife.
The settlers in the western section of the state, during his first year
as acting governor, was alarmed by the threat of an Indian uprising. In
order to provide for the security of the outlying settlements, in
September of 1807, Governor Kirker issued general orders, calling up the
first and second divisions of the Ohio militia. Also at the same time he
sent Thomas Worthington and Duncan McArthur on a mission to Greenville
and other towns on the frontier to ascertain whether there was danger of
an attack by the Indians. In their report, they found no indication of
hostility on the part of the tribes and brought one of the chiefs to
Chillicothe to convince Governor Kirker of their peaceful intentions.
Therefore Kirker countermanded his orders mobilizing the militia.

In 1808, there were three candidates  in the gubernational race, Kirker,
Worthington, and Samuel Huntington, all Democratic Republicans. The main
issue
in the contest was the question of judicial review of legislative acts.
Huntington, who was the chief justice of the state supreme court,
favored the power of the courts to declare laws unconstitutional, while
Worthington was the chief advocate of the supremecy of the legislature.
Kirker held the position simular to Worthington and this divided the
vote of those who opposed a strong court. Huntington won the vote.

After his defeat, Kirker returned to his duties as a legislator and to
other public services. From January to October 1821, he was an associate
judge of the court of common pleas in Adams County, and in 1824, he
served as a presidential elector, casting his vote for Henry Clay. At
the end of his career as a public servant he retired to his Liberty
township farm. His wife had died in 1824. He lived on until 1837, and
upon his death was buried in the family burial plot on the farm.  
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Continued in part 3 --