R M. KIRKHAM. Among the early pioneers of Nebraska who have been instrumental in developing her great agricultural resources, and are still active members of her farming community, is the gentleman whose name stands at the head of this sketch. He was an early settler of Nebraska City Precinct, locating on his present farm in the year 1856, and has ever since been numbered among the most industrious and thrifty citizens of this community. He is a native of Corydon, the county seat of Harrison County, Ind., his birth occurring in that city on the 20th of October, 1818. His father, Michael Kirkham, was born in Kentucky, a son of Henry Kirkham, a native of Ireland, and a pioneer of Kentucky, whither he went from his native land in early manhood, and casting in his lot with the early settlers, passed, it is supposed, the remainder of his life there. The father of our subject, it is thought, was reared in his Kentucky birthplace, but after marriage moved to Indiana, and became a pioneer of Harrison County. He was quite a trader, and used to traffic on the rivers. When our subject was an infant the father went down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, and died while away from home. He left a widow and two children to mourn the loss of a kind husband and loving parent. Our subject's Mother was thus left in poverty with two small children to care for, but she nobly shouldered her burden, and kept a shelter over their heads and provided them with food and clothing by taking in sewing. She subsequently married again and continued to live in Harrison County until her death. The subject of our sketch lived with his mother a part of the time, and with friends some of the time, until he was fourteen years old. Then, being a strong, well-developed lad, ready and willing to work, he chose a guardian, and was bound to learn a trade, that of carpenter and joiner, at which he was employed until he was twenty-one, receiving in return his board and clothes. He then started out in life for himself with two new suits of clothes, $5 worth of tools, $5 in cash, and plenty of pluck and resolution to make his own way in the world very successfully. He began his independent life in Laynesville, Ky., where he found work at his trade, and was busily employed there until 1841. He then returned to Indiana, and was engaged at carpentering in Harrison County until the following year, when he decided to seek work at his trade in some of the new and growing towns beyond the Mississippi River. He proceeded on his journey down the Ohio and up the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers to Liberty, Mo., and thence on foot to Union Mills, where he visited a few weeks. He then proceeded by wagon to his destination, the town of Savannah, in Andrew County, which was then a new village, with but few houses. He at once obtained work as a carpenter, and actively pursued his trade there until 1849. In the meantime, in the year 1843, he was united in marriage to Miss Tryphena Holland, who has actively aided him in the establishment of the comfortable, pleasant home in which they are passing their declining years. When Mr. Kirkham left Savannah he located in Kansas City, then only an insignificant hamlet, comprising a few small houses, of which more were built of logs than of sawed timber. He followed his trade there until the spring of 1850, when he caught the gold fever, and started with others for California in the month of May. Making the journey overland, he arrived at Diamond Springs in August, and the ensuing two years was busily engaged in mining. In May, 1852, he abandoned the rough, hard life of the mining camp, and with his savings started for home, going by the way of the Isthmus of Panama and New York, and thence to Platte County, Mo., where he bought a tract of improved land, and devoted himself to farming. In 1856 Mr. Kirkham rented his farm, and came to the then almost uninhabited Territory of Nebraska, to seek on its fertile soil a location more suited to his purposes. He came with a horse and buggy to Nebraska City, and after examining the country roundabout, he selected the claim now comprising his present farm, and as soon as the Government threw the land on the market he entered it at the land office at Nebraska City. After buying his land and securing a title to it, he went back to Missouri for his family, and returned with them to their new home in September, 1856, bringing a part of their household goods in the wagon that served as a conveyance. Ever since that time Mr. Kirkham has been an esteemed resident of Nebraska City Precinct. He is a prudent, hard-working man, and by his energetic perseverance has improved the once wild prairie land that he purchased from the Government more than thirty years ago into a valuable farm, comparing favorably with his neighbors in respect to cultivation, neat and substantial buildings, and all else that goes to make up a first-class farm. Mr. Kirkham is a sober, honest, upright man, and the respect felt for him by his fellow-citizens is but the just reward of a good life. In his religious opinions he is a believer in the doctrines of the Seventh Day Adventists; in his political sentiments he is a Democrat.