Kirkland,   Warren     head        w   m      Aug. 1867    32  mar  8        Ala   Ala   Ala
"             ,   Maggie    wife         w   f        Jan   1875    27  mar  8        Ark   SC    SC
"             ,   Forrest     son          w   m      Nov   1892     7    s               Ark   Ark    Ark
"             ,   Jannie      dau          w   f        June  1894     5    s                Ark   Ark    Ark
"             ,   Robie       son          w  m       Dec   1895     4    s               Ark   Ark    Ark
"             ,   William    son          w  m       Mar   1898     2    s               Ark   Ark    Ark
O'Dell,       Willey      boarder    w  m       May  1879   21    s               Ala    Ala     Ala
Forrest Kirkland                      Leroy Carpenter                       Claudia Carpenter
Nannie May Roney                 Pauline Dunn                            Eva Bradley
Columbus Johnson                  Charlie Sawyer                         Andrew Johnson
William Whitlow                     Mallie Standard                        Lane Blanks
William Scarlett, President                   Glen Simpson, Vice -President                Mabel Baker, Secretary
Eunice Oates, Treasurer                        William Hamilton                                    Sadie Holloway (sic)
James King                                            Ruth Linzy                                               Exene Owens
Jeanne Porter                                         Percy Renfrow                                         Donald Rogers
Annie Lee Ross                                     Paddock   Roys                                         Florence Rye
William Teeter                                       Elizabeth Tinsley                 [card in possession of EC]
My dear Papa,
      No doubt your have been expecting a letter for several days.  I intended to have written but many things turn up to prevent.  As you know I have been in the hospital. There I had worlds of time but I couldn't get paper.  Now I am out and time is the scarce article.  I was in hospital 21 days with the mumps.  Then I came to convalescent camp.  Have been here since the 3rd.  It was a rather dull time we had at the hospital.  We couldn't get out at all.  But here we have a jolly good. time. 
      There's something doing all the time--- concerts, lectures parades, games drill and feeds.  I am particularly interested in the feeds for I certainly have an appetite since i have gotten up from the mumps.  We get lots of good English grub-- 4 meals a day, -- and have a good place to sleep. 
      You know how I have always liked to meet new people.  Well I am in hogs heaven here.  This is a British camp and for the present I an attached to a British Co. In our company are men from every part of the world.  There are men from England, Ireland, Scotland, Australia, New Zeland, Canada and America.  They treat us Sammies royally.  It is certainly interesting to mix with the Tommies and Auzies (Australians) They are all dandy good fellows.
     A am always learning something new.  The British drill is used here and I am having a time learning it.  I am due to be here another week by that time I will be a good Tommie I think.  I am also learning to play the English games. 
     We are allowed to go into the city every other afternoon.  The French cities can't compare with our cities of the same size.  They are not modern.  You should have seen me shopping in a big French department store.  I got what I wanted alright.  I have me a French grammar.  If I stay here long I hope to be able to speak a little French.  i am already getting so I can read a little. 
     You are probably having pretty weather for cotton picking.  It is rainy and bad here but not nearly so cold as I expected.  We have just had frost enough to bit the tomato plants.  But today it is colder and has been sleeting some.  We are longing for more good weather so we can keep driving old Jerry (the Germans)  back.  He's getting tired of our blows but we are determined to give him a thorough thrashing before we quit.
      (line written on fold and unreadable)....
from you in about another month. Don't you know I'm getting anxious.  Se that my babies are always happy and don't worry.  Give my love to all and don't forget to write.
                                                      Your devoted son
                                                            Forrest
Pvt. Olea F. Kirkland
13th co. camp Pike J. A. R. D.
A. E. F. France
My dear Mamma,
      Have you been expecting a letter for some time? I know I should have written sooner but over here the there are many things to hinder me.  It's hard some times to get a letter off to my little girlies once a week.  I know too that our letters have to go through several hands before they even get started to you and I am not at all sure that they all reach you.   So if you don't get a letter every two weeks it isn't any sigh that I am not alright.  If any thinkg should happen to me you would certainly be notified.  I am the one that has to worry.  Half of you may be dead for what I know and there is no way of my knowing.
      I have no hopes of hearing from you now until you answer this .  That will be about Christmas.   There could be no better Christmas present for me over here than a letter from home.  I am so anxious to know how you are and how my little girls.  The address I am giving you now will probably be my permanent address. 
     At last I have what I have been wanting.  I have been assigned to an old company where most of the boys have been at the front almost as long as I have been in the army.  Now either we go up to the line I wll be with experienced boys.  That will a great advantage to me.  Besides I think the boys win the old companies have a better time than those in companies made up of "rookies".  At any rate I am have there easiest time that I have had since I have been in the army.
      Would you love to know exactly what I am doing here in France?  Well I'll tell you about us much as I think will pass the censor.  I am drill a little all the time,  but not hard like I use to in the States.   I hike often especially when touring France as I have been doing.   Its fun hiking under a 75 lb. pack believe me.   Just this morning I took a little eight mile hike right though the rain.  Of course it wasn't sloppy after about 10,000 other soldiers had just marched down the same road  head of us.  But little things like that don't bother us.  You know it rains about half  the time over.  With the drilling and hiking we also have some fun. Recently we have been having a series on track meets.  Battalion,  regiment,  division etc.  Among the attractions were foot races. horse and mule races, boxing and resling.
They proved quite a diversion from the regular rotine   Occasionly we enjoy shows of every kind in some respects better than the ones we see in the States.  I was very much amussed a a vaudeville show I saw the other night.  It was out in the edge of a little shell riddled village in an old barn whose end I believe had been torn away by a bum(sic). The barn was  built of hewed timbers and mud, like a mud chimney is made and covered with tile.  The ground was its floor. Gee it was gloomy looking theater.  But inside was a beautiful little stage, piano, and electric foot lights.  And we enjoyed one of the very best shows I have every seen, although all through the performanced the rats played across the joists above the actors.  I always feel well and sleep sound every night.  I have a variety of beds from time to time in a variety of places.  Sometimes it's a tent with board floor usually it's the bare earth.  Sometimes it's the grass, or maybe the mud  with the heavens for a cover.  Sometimes the ruins of building, a dugout, a cellar, a box car or passenger coach.  The trains are fast flyers here. Not long ago I started out on a little trip of about 75 miles. I boarded the train about 9 oclock at night road all the night, lay over the next day road all of the second night and at 2 oclock the second day landed at my destination I am certainly seeing my part of France.  Since I started this letter I have learned something that my prove to be some awfully good new to you.  But it will be several days before it will develope so I won't tell you what it is until my next letter. If it does happen however I will have a new job and new address when I write.
      I must stop now I am getting chilly.  It's rather wild over here for the time of the year.  The grass is still greener and only about half the leaves are off the trees.  It's seldom we need an over-coat. We depend on our clothes to keep us warm. 
      Write me all the news at once for a letter to this address will come strait to me.  Give my love to all.
                                     Your devoted son
                                                 Forrest
Pvt.  Olea F. Kirkland
Co. E. 120 Infantry
A. E. F.  Via  N. Y.
Station List

His Message
by Pvt. Olea F. Kirkland
    I see you standing by the window.
        Your eyes are looking out so far.
    I see our darling on your bosom.
        And there's a single service star.

    Those eyes of blue are sad but brilliant.
         They speak the acheing of your heart.
    Glow there the embers of devotion,
         But there is pain that makes me start.

    I do not see the fields and forests
         That spread before your eyes advance.
    But far across the great Atlantic,
         You see your comrad here in France.

    Upon your cheek I see a jewel.
         Sparkling pearly little tear.
    Shed for your boy clad in Kakhi
        So far away and yet so dear.

    And as you stand beside your window,
         Your boy clad in kakhi pants
    Sends you this message by the wireless
         Between your hears, though he's in France.

    Take courage, darling , cease your weeping.
         Dry away those bitter tears.
    For God has banished war for ever.
         Let him dispell your many fears.

    God has kept me from all danger.
         His gracious hand has guarded you.
    And in due time He will unite us
         To live and serve and love anew.   [undated, in collection of EC]

 cigarettes
a pen and ink drawing done during WWI
by Forrest Kirkland 1919


On another page but may have been written at a different time


THAT SHALL BE A TRULY PERFICT(sic) PEACE

All the air is filled with shouts and cheers,
Rings loud the bells that silent stood for years.
Shouts and lasts of whistles rend the air.
The joyous news of peace is every  where.
The shouts and bells and music still increase.
             But till these areas of mine,
             About my wife and babe entwine,
There can never be a truly perfect peace.

Silent are the cannons on the line,
Whose hellish charges burst and whiz and whine,
Striking down our young and gallant braves.
No more our boys shall fill untimely graves.
How grand it is this glorious change to see!
             Still until my ars entwine
             About those precious girls of mine.
Perfect peace can never come to me.

Sounds no more the cries of little girls,
Outraged, debauched and murdered by the world's
Common enemy. Defeat, his fate.
Though murder, rape and crimes of war shall cease,
              Still until I see her face
              And hold her in my fond embrace,
There can never come a truly perfect peace.

Soon we men who've sufferedall but death,
Who've longed for those at home with every breath,
Will, out tired faces, turn toward home.
Ere long we'll sail across the stormy foam.
And then the longings of my heart shall cease.
              I'll clasp my darlings to my heart
               Death alone can make us part.
And that shall be a truly perfect peace.  [unsigned and undated
                                                                       original in collection of EC]
 Forrest and Sadie Hoeing in Arkansas
Forrest and Sadie hoeing in Arkansas about 1918
photo from the collection of Elroy Christenson

Mardis, W. H.           head   renting     m w  68    mar       Miss    Ala    Geo     farming   gen. farm.
"            Mollie          wife                    f w   43    mar       Ala     Ala    Ala
 "           Lula             dau                      f  w  23  s             Tex     Miss   Ala
"            John             son                      m w 21  s             Tex     Miss   Ala
"            J. M.            son                      m w 19  s             Tex     Miss   Ala
Warren Kirkland and family      Holloway.willy.sadie.violet about 1936/8
Sadie w/ Roy and Warren, Margaret Kirkland and Violet abt 1924                   Willie Hollaway with Sadie and Violet in Dallas, abt 1936/38
photos from the collection of Elroy Christenson
Sadie Kirkland
vs.
Forrest Kirkland        suit pending in the Judicial District Court in and for Dallas County, Texas.
"Examples of Indian basketry, the first to be discovered in the Abilene region, have been added to the archeological and paleontological exhibit of the West Texas Resource and Museum institute, in the headquarters building of the West Texas chamber of commerce. 
   The discoveries were made last week while Forest Kirkland, Dallas commercial artist who copies Indian paintings as a hobby, was working in a cave in Nolan county." The basket was discovered by the land owners nephew and part of a burial ceremony with a child's skull and a flint knife.  It was projected at that time to be from 2000 to 4000 years old.  Forest contacted Dr. Cyrus N. Ray who did the actual excavation. [Abilene Morning Reporter-News, Abilene, Texas, pages 1and 9]
Sweetwater -  Years of research, painting and compiling information were culminated when a new book , "The  Rock Art of Texas Indians," came off the press.
          Collaborating on the work was Mrs. Forrest Kirkland, who worked  with her late husband and Big Bend Country in some 80 sites. She took pictuere, copied rock paintings and did research.
         Her husband drew pictographs in scale in permanent water colors.
          With publication of the volume by University of Texas Press, Mrs Kirkland attended an autograph part at the Texas Memorial Museum at the University.
         Text was written by museum director Dr. W. W. Newcomb Jr.
         Kirkland's paintings were displayed during the book publication months of April and May.  They will be at Amon Carter Museum of Western Art in Fort Worth until Wednesday.
         Mrs. Kirkland has been invited to visit the museum while her husband's work is on display.
         Pictographs of Indian rock art - no owned by the University of Texas, will be on loan to other museums throughout Texas next year. 
         Her next job will be compilation of her husband's correspondence with archeological societies - set for inclusion in the UT museum display.
         "Our interest in Indian rock art started as a summertime hobby,"  Mrs. Kirkland explained, "but we found ourselves devoting more and more to it in the eight years we worked with it." 
         Kirkland, also a writer and lecturer, operated an advertising art studio in Dallas.  Mrs. Kirkland helped in the business after working as a technical illustrator for aircraft companies and as an artist.   They spent years from 1933-41 in field work.  He died in 1942. "We never expected to make money from the research and paintings or ever write about it,"  she said.  "Our prime goal was to preserve these painting for posterity."
         Mrs. Kirkland moved to Sweetwater in 1963.  
         Creative Art Club has ordered a copy of the new book for the County-City Library. 
                                              [clipping Abilene Reporter News, June 22, 1967]
Sweetwater  - Funeral was held at 9:30 a. m. Friday in Patterson Funeral Home Chaple of Memories here for Mrs. Lula M. Kirkland, 69, who died at 1/45 p. m. Thursday in Simmons Memorial hospital following a lengthy illness.
         The Rev. James I. Kensey, pastor of Highland Baptist Church, officiated. Burial was in Laurel land Cemetery in Dallas.
      She was born in Rotan May 9, 1898, and married Forrest Kirkland in Dallas in 1931.  He died in 1943. 
      For 35 years, she was a commercial artist in Dallas.  She was associated with her husband in Kirkland Commercial Art Studio, and together they wrote the book, "Rock Art of Texas Indians" published by the University of Texas Press.
      Survivors include a stepson, Maj. Roy Kirkland of Dyess AFB, Abilene; a stepdaughter, Mrs. C. M. Christenson of Grand Prairie, two brothers, James J. Mardis of Sweetwater and John W. Mardis of Union Grove, Ala. and several nieces and nephews. [obituary clipping from an unidentified source and date.]
"Austin - Two art exhibits  - both dealing with aspects of Texana, but extremely different  - are on display through April at the Texas Memorial Museum at the University of Texas. 
      The first exhibit consists of the paintings of Texas wildflowers by Mary Motz Wills.  Mrs. Wills' work, which took more than a half century to complete, is represented in a book, "The Roadside Flowers of Texas."
      The second exhibit is a reproduction of the works of the late Forrest Kirkland of Dallas on Indian pictographs.  The pictographs were recreated by the Texas Archeological Salvage Project and are from Panther Cave in the Armistead Reservoir area in the Val Verde County.
      The Museum is located at 24th and Trinity Streets and is open 9 am to 5 pm Monday through Sunday and 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Sundays.  The is no admission charge." [Abilene Morning Reporter-News, Abilene, Texas, page 15c]
Mrs. Eddie M. (Sadie) Johnson died November 3 in the Chris Christenson home in Grand Prairie, after a long battle with cancer.
     Mrs. Johnson was born February 13, 1897, in Portland, Arkansas, to Willie and Eugenia Hollaway.  She had an older sister, Clyde Bainbridge, who proceeded her in death several years ago.  She still has an older brother, Ernest Hollaway, living in Corning, Arkansas.
     She was married to Forest Kirkland in 1917 in Arkansas.   To this marriage, two children were born, a daughter, Mrs. Chris (Violet) Christenson of Grand Prairie, and a son, Roy Kirkland of Lake Alvarado.  This marriage lasted thirteen years.
     In July 1934, she married Eddie M. Johnson in Hamilton.  They lived several years at Cranfills Gap and then Eddie went to work at U. S. Steel Mill in Gary, Indiana.  He worked 25 years there and retired to build a house at Cranfills Gap.  They lived there until her last illness, during which time they lived with her daughter, Violet.
     Survivors include her husband, one daughter, one son, five grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.
     Funeral services were held at St. Olaf Lutheran Church, where she was a member, November 5, at 4:30 p. m. Services ere conducted by Rev. Lawrence Jenson, and Mrs. Jenson sang two songs accompanied on the organ by Mrs. Albert Meissner.
     Pallbearers were Thomas Johnson, Eugene Perry, Glenn Perry, Grand Prairie; C/W 3 Dean Lovett, Fort Polk, Louisiana;' B. A. Johnson, Waco; and Ivan Johnson, Joshua.  Mrs. Johnson was buried in the St. Olaf Cemetery.
                                                  [The Clifton Record, Nov. 27, p. 5B]