Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial ...

Thomas Atwood Kirkham, successful
business man of Bridgeport, whose an-
cestral line goes back to the original
Kirkham, who came from England early
in the seventeenth century and trans-
planted the family tree to the beautiful
Connecticut Valley—in that region localized
by the city of Hartford and the towns
of Newington and Wethersfield—is pres-
ident and treasurer of the Berkshire
Fertilizer Company of Bridgeport, which
business he founded thirty years ago, and
has other varied and important business
interests, being a director of a number
of corporations in Bridgeport and
elsewhere. His interest in the com-
plex life of the city of Bridgeport,
while not politically active, is keen and
intelligent, and his civic duty is performed
with that fidelity which ranks
him among the substantial citizens of the
community. He is a member of the
Brooklawn Country Club, and for twenty-
eight years a member of the old Seaside
Club.
The first Kirkham, for the purposes of
this review, was:
(I) Thomas (i) Kirkham, who came
from England to Wethersfield, Connecti-
cut, in 1640, or earlier. He was tax-
gatherer in 1648-9. He died in 1677 or
earlier.
(II) Thomas (2) Kirkham, son of
Thomas (i) Kirkham, married, March 24,
1684, Jane Butler. He was appointed
town shepherd March 21, 1689, and at one
time was constable.
(III) Henry (i) Kirkham, son of
Thomas (2), married, December 21, 1719,
Martha, daughter of Samuel Burr of Hartford.
She died June 2, 1759. He fought
in the French and Indian wars.
(IV) Henry (2) Kirkham, son of Henry
(i), was born August 30, 1728. He mar-
ried Eunice Butler, October 31, 1757 (or
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
'59). He was in General Gates' Northern
Army in the Revolution, and was present
at Burgoyne's surrender. He died of
camp fever at Saratoga, New York.
—
(V) John Kirkham, son of Henry (2)
Kirkham and his wife Eunice, was born
November 5, 1760. He enlisted in the
army of the War of the Revolution at
the age of sixteen years as a musician
he was a fifer—and served till the close
of the war. He was wounded (tradition
has it that he was shot while in a tree
fifing to his comrades in arms) at the bat-
tle of Monmouth, New Jersey. When he
was given his honorable discharge from
the service he walked from Newburgh,
New York, to his home in Newington,
Connecticut, though lame from the ef-
fects of his wound, which never healed
until the week before his death, June 8,
1815. He married, June 28, 1785, Jennette,
daughter of Captain Jonathan Stoddard,
a Revolutionary officer. She was
born August 29, 1767; died June 8, 1818.
(VI) William Kirkham, son of John
and Jennette (Stoddard) Kirkham, was
born March 29, 1788, at Newington ; died
in 1868 at Newington at the age of eighty
years. In 1815 he married Sophia, daugh-
ter of Joshua and Elizabeth (Cook) Lef-
fingwell and a descendant of Thomas Leffingwell,
one of the founders of Norwich,
Connecticut. She died November 14, 1880,
at the age of eighty-four years. At Newington
Center is the beautiful Mill Pond,
a natural lake, fed by a brook of spring
water from Cedar Mountain and teeming
with trout and other fish. This body of
water owes its existence to a wonderful
ledge of rock which extends across the
lower end of the pond, with a perpendicular
outward face, giving a fall of more
than twenty feet. The top of the ledge
is of uniform width and is wide enough
to be used as a driveway. It is a natural