Kirk

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Additional Plate: This marker placed here by members of the Curry Family in honor of William Clinton Curry and Carrie Purchase Burdette Curry and all past and present Kirk residents. 

Marker No: 2960 

27 x 42 Aluminum Subject Marker 

Geographic: 31.587412, -96.729050

Location: ​FM 339, 6 miles south of Prairie Hill

Marker Text: Settlement began in this area in the 1870s-1880s. A community here, originally called Elm Grove, became known as Kirk when a post office established in 1887 was named for local merchant Jepitha N. Kirk. The first postmaster was William Hume McKnight. In 1884 G. W. and M. J. Swafford donated land for a school and cemetery. William M. and Annie J. Jacobs sold adjoining land in 1887 for the graveyard, a school, and for churches in Kirk.
     At its peak, Kirk was a thriving community of several hundred people and included homes, businesses, churches, and a post office. It also contained cotton gins, fraternal organizations and a telephone exchange. A two-story school containing six classrooms was built in 1911 at this site. In 1927 the community, led by school board president W.C. Curry and school principals Vernon Evans and J. B. Brown, Jr., built a large gymnasium/community hall (known locally as the Community House) just north of the school.
​    Kirk's decline began with the great depression of the 1930s. In 1942 the last class graduated from Kirk High School, and the Kirk School consolidated with schools in Mart in 1952. Only a few homes and the cemetery remain in the area. (1997)