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File contributed to the Fulton County ILGenWeb Project
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Source: Atlas Map of Fulton County, Illinois, 
Andreas, Lyter, and Co., Davenport, Iowa. 1871
(page 43)

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David Kirkbride, the subject of this sketch, was born on the 23d day of December. 1816, at Ross county, Ohio. At the age of 16 he went to the carpenter and cabinet trade, which he followed for several years. Was married to Miss Rebecca J. Hennis, a native of Circleville, Ohio, in 1837. She died in May, 1850. 
    
Mr. Kirkbride emigrated to Rushville, Schuyler county, Illinois, in the fall of 1839, and in 1840 came to the town of Vermont, Fulton county, Illinois, where he now resides. Worked at his trade five years; then, in July, 1844, opened the first hotel ever kept in Vermont. The American House is one of the best kept hotels in the southern part of the county. When he came to this part of the county it was one vast wilderness, and he has lived to see it become one of the most highly cultivated portions of the state. He had, by his first wife, four children -- one son and three daughters. Was married to his present wife, Miss Sarah J. Bennett, in 1852, a daughter of Robert Bennett, a native of Kentucky. They have to them ten children, three of whom are dead and seven living, all of whom live near by. His father's name was John Kirkbride, a native of Virginia, emigrated to Ohio in an early day. and settled in Circleville, Ohio, where he died in 1820. His mother's maiden name was Nancy Williams, a native of Virginia. She died in Vermont township on the 23d day of August, 1864, at the good old age of 82 years.