Our great grandmothers and great
grandfathers are both descendants of royalty in some way or another.
Here are some instances that will prove what I'm trying to convey to you:
Great grandfather Josiah
Kirkpatrick is said to have descended from Sir Roger Kirkpatrick who was
knighted by Robert the Bruce from Scotland. This has not yet been
proven to this day. However, we who are working on the family are
vigilant in our efforts to find and document the truth concerning this
conjecture.
Great grandmother Cynthia Estes
Kirkpatrick, however, is a different story. It has been proven and
documented that she was descended from Sylvester Estes, who was from the
royal family of Este in Italy in the year 1097. It seems that
one of his sons, Francesco, fled to France and then England due to death
threats given to him by his brother, and thereby became founder of the
English line of Estes from whom we are descended.
Another well known Estes in the
family (although not of royalty) was Patrick Estes. He came to the
Missouri Territory with Daniel Boone and helped in founding Boone's
settlement there. This also has not been verified, but a great story
that has been handed down through the family.
However, there are always a few
bad apples in every family and ours has had its share. Most of them in
our family have faded into anonymity and no one ever knew the difference.
But there are a few of them who gained recognition in the 1800s.
It seems that an ancestor of ours
by the name of Ben
Franklin Kirkpatrick (or Kilpatrick--the names are sometimes confused)
married one of the "Younger Brothers" half sister. Her name was
Sophrona. It seems that Ben's mother died soon after his birth and his
grandparents took him in. However, they must not have done a very good
job in the upbringing department because he joined the "Quantrill Band" at
the age of seventeen. Through them he met Sophrona.
Ben clanned with the Youngers and
was forever dodging the law after bank and train robberies. Sophrona finally
persuaded Ben to cut loose of the Youngers, and they moved near Salem,
Arkansas. There they settled into a peaceful life. However, one
night some of the Younger Brothers stopped by to spend the night and about
midnight as all were about to retire there was a knock on the door.
Ben opened the door and was shot down without warning and a gun battle took
place between the law and the outlaws. The Youngers shot their way out
and escaped, leaving four dead and three or four wounded, including Ben, who
died the next day.
In the book titled, "The Life,
Times, and Treacherous Death of Jesse James" the author reports that a Mrs.
Kirkpatrick, kin of the deceased (meaning Jesse) was at his funeral.
He puts it this way, "The relatives, consisting of Mrs. Samuel, Mrs. James
and two children, Mr. and Mrs. Luther W. James, Mrs. Hall, Mrs. Mimms, and
Mrs. Kirkpatrick were seated beside the coffin place in front of the altar.'
Finally,
there is supposedly a descendant in our family named Ben Kirkpatrick who was
a member of the "Hole in the Wall Gang," run by Butch Cassidy. Among
the "wild bunch" he was known as a poor shot but the best rider and forger.
He was a master at copying signatures. He first joined up with his
cousin Black Jack Ketchum and when Ketchum joined up with Butch, Ben went
along.
Ben got caught during a train
robbery and spent several years in jail. After he got out he tried to
go straight for awhile but ended up back at the "Hole in the Wall" where he
and another of the gang cooked up a scheme to rob another train.
During this train robbery attempt he was shot down and killed by a guard and
was buried in an unmarked grave near Sanderson, Texas in 1912.