Kirkland is a city of over 88,000 today, but when the US government opened the eastern shore of Lake Washington for homesteading in 1870, it was an unforgiving, mostly unpopulated primeval forest of giant old-growth conifers and tangles of undergrowth. Over the next two decades, hardscrabble pioneers gradually braved the wilds to stake and prove up 80- and 160-acre land claims. In 1887, a consortium of speculators, developers, and dreamers headed by a dynamic English steel industrialist sought to transform the scattered wilderness ranches into a steel manufacturing center, the "Pittsburgh of the West." A boomtown was born, but within a few years, the steel scheme imploded, leaving in its ruins a few resilient families who undertook the arduous, decades-long struggle to forge a town. Early Kirkland provides a new look into Kirkland's past, from its beginning to 1940.

A story of Harriet Potter who became a legend during the battle for Texas independence.

This book has the ancestry of the Henry County Alabama pioneer family of- THE KIRKLAND and then proceeds to list as much information as possible on the descendants. Beginning with the history of the KIRKLAND surname begins in the home country as Protector of the Church [Kirk}. Immigrating to the United States; South Carolina, South Alabama-Henry Co.; South Georgia to Donaldsonville and Bainbridge area. The last three generations settle in Leon Co. & Madison Co. Florida. This book is full of historical data, census records, wills, family stories, state and county records, churches, cemeteries, etc. Excellent for those who have the name KIRKLAND.

Running with Scissors meets Grey Gardens in this “vivid tragicomedy” (People), a riveting riches-to-rags tale of a wealthy family who lost it all and the unforgettable journey of a man coming to terms with his family’s deep flaws and his own hidden secrets. “Wake up, you filthy beasts!” Wendy Hamill would shout to her children in the mornings before school. Startled from their dreams, Kirk and his two brothers couldn’t help but wonder—would they find enough food in the house for breakfast? Following a hostile exit from New York’s upper-class society, newly divorced Wendy and her three sons are exiled from the East Coast elite circle. Wendy’s middle son, Kirk, is eight when she moves the family to her native Bermuda, leaving the three young boys to fend for themselves as she chases after the highs of her old life: alcohol, a wealthy new suitor, and other indulgences. After eventually leaving his mother’s dysfunctional orbit for college in New Orleans, Kirk begins to realize how different his family and upbringing is from that of his friends and peers. Split between rich privilege—early years living in luxury on his family’s private compound—and bare survival—rationing food and water during the height of his mother’s alcoholism—Kirk is used to keeping up appearances and burying his inconvenient truths from the world, until he’s eighteen and falls in love for the first time. A keenly observed, fascinating window into the life of extreme privilege and a powerful story of self-acceptance, Filthy Beasts is “a stunning, deeply satisfying story about how we outlive our upbringings” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review).