Fitzgerald enterprise. (Fitzgerald, Ga.) 1895-1912, 1910-11-17
Obituary
C. A. KIRKE

O1ldl ICO "A. 1A1lhC WOO UOl1- HI
St.Mary's County, Nd, July 18th
1846, being the youngest child and
seventh son of Nelson and Charlotte
Kirke. His mother was a daughter
of Chef Justice Thomas Todd Fabh
and first cousin of Gen. Robert E
Lee; and she was also a relative OF
Chief Justice Marshall. Both pa
rents died when Charles was about
four years of age, and he went tC
Washington to live with his cousin
and guardian, Judge Lawrence, who
was the private legal adviser and
life long frined of President Pierce
and during his administration
Charles was a frequent and welcome
visitor at the Whitehouse. Up tC
the age of eleven, when his guardian
died, his education was under the
supervision of private tutors at
Washington. Afterwards he was
sent to Charlotte Hall, a Military
School in Maryland. In 1868, he
left school to join his six brothers
who were in the confederate army
in Louisiana, the oldest being 6
major and brother-in-laW of P. O
Herbert, who was Governor of that
State during the war Charles en-
listed in the End La. Calvary with
Capt. Furman, y.but was later trans.
ferred to Capt. Benjamin's company
general escort and body guard tC
Gen. Buckner, where he served til
the end of the war.
The plantations of the family
having been devastated and most
of their fortune swept away by the
war, although afflicted by partial
deafness from the exposure and
cannonading, he began earning his
living as travelling salesman, which
occupation he continued to follow
and for the last quarter of a century
had been with the Superior Type
Company of Chicago.
He located headquarters for his
business in Atlanta in 1884, and
had since made Georgia his home
but for reasons Of health and bus
mess, he had spent much of the time
travelling in other sections of the
United States, Canada and Mexico
On May 10Th, 1895, he was mar
ried to Miss Jenny .Stantly at>Madi-
son, and in the spring Of 1897, they
moved to Fitzgerald, where he had
since made his home.
He was a communicate of the
Episcopal Church, but on account
of very defective hearing, since the
war, he seldom attended church, or
any social functions. He spent all
his spare time reading, and was a
remarkably we'll informed man of
high intelligence, and was consider
ed an authority on national politics
He was generous to a fault and
cared nothing for money except
what good he could do with it for
humanity, and although never
wealthy himself, he helped many a
stranded man, who was far from
home and friends to gain footing
that would enable him to earn an
honest living. He had been failing
in health for several years, but con-
tinued to travel part of the time till
complications ended his life, Novem-
Der 1st, 1910, at Perry, Fla, where
he had gone a few weeks previous,
with the intention of spending
sometime at Hampton Springs in
the hope of being benefited by the
water, but suddenly grew worse at
Perry, and never reached the springs.
All his fathers family had pre-
coded him to eternity and he leaves
no surviving near relative except
wife and only child, Georgia Lee, a
daughter about ten years of age.
A FRIEND OF THE FAMILY.
Every acre OF wet Bottom land in
this country can be easily drained
and cheapIy with drainage tile. One