Plumas County Biographies

Alexander Kirby

Transcribed by Craig Hahn, Oct 2004

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

 
He is a veteran of the Mexican war; was born near Bowling Green, Warren county, 
Kentucky, on the thirteenth of March, 1821. His parents were Samuel and Mary 
Kirby, who emigrated to Missouri in 1830. On the fourth of June, 1846, Alexander 
volunteered for the Mexican war at Fort Leavenworth, and while in the service 
passed through the engagements of Brasceto, Saltello, Buena Vista, and was with 
General Wool at Monterey. On the second of May, 1849, he started from 
Independence, Missouri, across the plains, and landed at Hangtown (Placerville) 
September 13. He was married January 24, 1860, to Miss Harriett J. Honn, a 
native of Muskingum county, Ohio. By this union there have been eleven children: 
Mary, Susan (deceased), Louisa, Cora, Henry H., George M., Kate, Laura, Eva, 
Annette, and Frances. Both Mr. and Mrs. Kirby belong to long-lived and large 
families. In his family were ten children, and in hers twelve. His grandfather 
lived to the age of 102, his grandmother to 97, having lived together for eighty 
years. Mr. Kirby owns the old Beckwourth ranch in Sierra valley.  
 
Illustrated History of Plumas, Lassen & Sierra Counties, with California from 
1513 to 1850. - Fariss and Smith, San Francisco,  1882. p 262