BIO: A. M. KIRK & Son, Clearfield County, PA Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Judy Banja & Sally Copyright 2005. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/clearfield/ NOTE: Use this web address to access other bios: http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/clearfield/1picts/swoope/swoope.htm _____________________________________________________________ From Twentieth Century History of Clearfield County, Pennsylvania, and Representative Citizens, by Roland D. Swoope, Jr., Chicago: Richmond-Arnold Publishing Company, 1911, pages 654 & 655. _____________________________________________________________ A. M. KIRK & SON, jewelers, with business location on the corner of Filbert and State streets, Curwensville, Pa., is a business name of much importance in this borough and for many years it has been one that is a synonym for business integrity. The founder of the business was the late A. M. Kirk, who later associated his son, Henry P. Kirk, with him and the present firm style was then adopted. A. M. Kirk was born October 5, 1849, at Lumber City, Pa., and died at Curwensville, September 19, 1904. He was a son of Samuel and Alice (Moore) Kirk, the former of whom was an extensive lumberman at one time and with his father, A. M. Kirk, was in the same business for some years. In 1870 he married and continued to reside at Lumber City for two more years, living on a farm adjoining the town, and then came to Curwensville, where he learned the jeweler trade and opened his first store on the corner opposite to the present building, which he erected in 1882, having lost his first one by fire. He became one of the representative citizens of Curwensville, taking his part in public matters as became a good citizen, investing in property and furthering laudable enterprises of different kinds. He was one of the charter directors of the Citizens' National Bank of Curwensville. In his political views he was a Republican and occasionally he consented to serve in such offices as school director, from a sense of duty. He was a birthright member of the Society of Friends, but attended the Presbyterian church with his family and served as a trustee of the same. Fraternally he was identified with the Odd Fellows and the Masons, having attained the thirty-second degree in the latter organization and his funeral, at Oak Hill cemetery, was under the direction of the local Masonic lodge. On March 31, 1870, A. M. Kirk was married to Miss Rebecca Port, a daughter of Henry and Rebecca (Clover) Port, and six children were born to them, namely: Samuel B., who was born near Lumber City, is a graduate of Swarthmore College and is now in the drug business in Philadelphia, and married Cecelia Morgan of that city; Henry P., who was born near Lumber City, is a graduate of Horological Institute, Philadelphia, is now at the head of the firm of A. M. Kirk & Son, at Curwensville, and married Laura Haworth; Frank H., who was born at Curwensville, is a graduate of Swarthmore College and is in the drug business at Memphis, Tenn.; Alice, who is a graduate of the Women's College, at Frederick, Md.; M. D., who is a graduate of Lehigh University, resides at Ebensburg, being a mining engineer; and Fred S., who is also a college graduate, is in business at Philadelphia, Pa.