The Rev. James Kirkland left an autograph sketch of his life, extending to October, 1844, from which I have extracted as follows, viz.:

"Matthew Kirkland, my father, was of Scotch, and Rhoda, my mother, was of Irish descent. I was born in Chesterfield District, South Carolina, June 27, 1818. When I was four years old my father moved to Greene county, Tenn., where, at the age of seven, at a camp-meeting, I was so much moved by a sermon that, with tearful eyes and anxious mind, I asked my mother if I might go to the altar? She said that I was too young, that I did not know what I wanted. I said I wanted to go to heaven where the preacher said all good people would go. This incident made a deep impression on my mother--she often spoke of it after I was grown up. From my own mind the good seed sown was never entirely eradicated.

"I attach no blame to my mother, for she had not gone to the Savior herself, and was incompetent to teach her children.

"In 1829 my father moved to Bledsoe county, and in 1830 to the neighborhood of Cane Creek Church, which is six miles north of Fayetteville, Lincoln county, Tenn. Here for the next five years I was hired to different farmers. During the first year the man to whom I was hired camped at Greer's Camp-ground. Here I was again, under the preaching, deeply impressed with the necessity of religion. Being a twelve-year-old, illiterate boy, as I suppose, no one thought it worth while to care for me. For want of instruction and encouragement, I still went astray. When about seventeen, my father, being a renter, gave me leave to take care of myself. I set out in the world without one dollar or a week's schooling, and being prodigal, I made but little.

"Now, removed from parental restraint I went astray faster than before. I hired myself to another man, none of whose family were religious, with whom I lived three years, and continued to add transgression to sin. I however retained the cardinal points my father taught me, viz.: Hard labor and honest dealing. Being now grown, I was almost a young giant in strength, and from a degree of self-confidence, I encountered several men i personal combat. I drank some, but seldom to drunkenness, and I thank God that he did not give me up to destruction. While I write my mind recoils at the follies of my youth. Only two classes of men could restrain me--the gray headed and the pious. I often think that through these influences the Lord restrained me from destruction. I often quaked with a sense of accumulated guilt, and a vidvid sense of coming judgment. I could not read the Scriptures and was very ignorant of the plan of salvation. I seldom heard a heart-searaching sermon without awakenings of conscience. I was pungently convicted under a sermon by the Rev. Jas. Smith, from the text; 'For the great day of his wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand?' For a time I was not able to leave my seat. But wicked companions made sport of me. I resisted the spirit, and sensibly felt increased hardness of heart. But in this state of mind I determined if the Lord would give me another visitation of the Spirit, I would seek him with all my heart, let others do as they would.

"I went to a camp-meeting at Cane Creek in October, 1839, more to see and be seen than otherwise. On Sunday, the Rev. Robert Donnell preached a heart-searching sermon and administered the Lord's Supper. I was seriously impressed with the thought that my sins helped to nail the Savior to the cross. Mr. Donnell asked the unconverted if they were willing that all who had communed should go to heaven and leave them behind, and that this line of separation should extend to all eternity? I answered in the negative. My convictions returned in all their pungency. I felt pledged before heaven to yield to them. I repaired at once to the grove. I counted up the cost. The Spirit led me in the way I should go. I determined to seek the Lord in the pardon of my sins, and about that time on the next day I passed from death unto life. I felt and acted as I never had before. I loved every person in the world. I saw a fullness in Christ for all men.

"There was in the congregation a Mr.Calhoon, with whom I had had a personal combat. I ran to and embraced him, feeling that the religion that reconciled a sinner to his Maker also reconciled him to his fellow-man.

"I then thought my troubles were all over, but soon found I was not out of gunshot of the enemy. I could neither read nor spell. I felt if all Lincoln county belonged to me that I would freely give it all to be able to read the Bible. I had no means and no personal friend to aid me in getting an education. I felt I could not live without it, yet did not know how I could get it. I determined to live in a religious family, be more economical, and make something to enable me to go to school.

"In 1840 I joined Cane Creek Church, the Rev. A. G. Gibson being pastor. I got a spelling-book, which I carried in my pocket, and studied when not otherwise employed, and during the year began to read some in a Testament I had bought. I felt during all this time a permanent desire to preach, but could not reason myself into the possibility of performing such a responsible duty; yet I could not content myself with the idea of never trying. I laid it before the Lord in prayer and was led to the decisiion, He being my helper, I would try to preach. The question then was not, What shall I do? but, How can I do what I have determined to do? I resolved to pay out my last dollar and go to school, and when qualified teach until I could pay all my debts, which I did, the Lord prospering me When this was known every man I owed sued me. Seven warrants were served on me in one day. Even some members of the Church told me I had better go to work and try to make something.

"In January, 1841, I entered Mr. Robert Cowcert's school, working on Saturdays to pay expenses, and sold my overcoat to buy books. For six months I studied spelling, reading, writing, and arithmetic. I then sought a grammar school, but not succeeding, I called on the Rev. Henry Bryson, a Seceder minister, for private instruction, who at first denied me; but seeing the impression it had on me, he asked my object in desiring an education. I told him I wished to preach. He then said if I could get board he would hear my recitations. In November, 1841, I commenced studying under him. I must say Mr. Bryson gave me more aid in getting an education than all other persons living. In about six weeks he received ten other young men, and from this sprange up Viney Grove Academy, which sent out scholars who made their mark as ministers, doctors, lawyers, and teachers. Here I continued four sessions, paying my expenses by working, often cutting and splitting two hundred rails per day. I sold another coat for books.

"In the spring of 1842 I was received under the care of Tennessee Presbytery as a candidate for the ministry. I started to walk to this meeting of the presbytery, thirty-five miles distant, but met a young man who kindly loaned me his horse. Shortly after this Mr. Bryson gave me a certificate that I was competent to teach a common school. I taught a while, and paid my debts.

"In September, 1843, at Huntsville, Ala., Tennessee Presbytery licensed me to preach. At my request a circuit was assigned me. I was asked how I could travel a circuit without a horse. I answered if I could not get one I would walk. I was dedermined to go if I had to walk, remembering 'the servant is not greater than his Lord.' My circuit included a part of Giles, Lincoln, and Franklin counties, Tenn., and Madison county, Ala. It was about three hundred miles around, and had twenty-eight appointments per month. I continued in this work until April, 1844. I preached one hundred and forty-four times, and received twenty-eight dollars. I studied what I could during this time. A friend had loaned me a horse, which I now returned.

"The presbytery at this meeting gave me the same circuit, and another friend loaned me a horse. The Lord was specially with me, and blessed me abundantly. My congregations increased much, and the Lord revived his work gloriously. I had the pleasure now to gather the fruit where I sowed the seed during the winter. I reported as the result for this six months, 248 professions, 200 accessions, and two new Churches organized. Received sixty-eight dollars.

"At the fall session of presbytery, 1844, on the spot of ground where I was converted, I was ordained to preach the gospel."

The Minutes of Tennessee Presbytery from its organization to the fall of 1848 being lost, we could get no other items of this period of his life, except the following from private memoranda, viz.: "I visited North Carolina and East Tennessee in the summer and fall of 1847; preached 120 sermons; 75 accessions; expenses, $80; receied $31. The number of sermons preached by me up to this time, October 15, 1847, is 780."

The Minutes of Tennessee Presbytery show that from the fall of 1848 to the fall of 1855, when he got a letter of dismission and recommendation, that he, by presbyterial direction, had charge, for periods of greater or less time, of New Garden, Liberty, Elkton, Kelley's Creek, New Market, and Concord Churches.

Brother Kirkland after this joined Elk Presbytery, and commenced his pastoral work in Bear Creek Church on the fourth Sabbath in October, 1855. He spent the remainder of his life in this presbytery, except a few years in Richland Presbytery, serving a number of congregations, and doing much successful evangelical work. He, as a presbyter, as a strong man, following closely the footsteps of the fathers, and was never absent unless providentially hindered. He was for years the chairman of the presbyterial Committee on Temperance, and his reports were always strong documents and words on this subject full of force and meaning.

For months before his death he health was declining, but he took charge of Mt. Vernon Church in Rutherford county, near Eagleville, and preached his first sermon there on Sabbath, the 21st of November last, which was regarded as one of the most successful efforts of his life. On leaving there he said to one of his elders, "I feel now more like doing good work for the Master than I have felt in five years." On his way home on the 23d he got very wet in a rain shower, attended with severe chilliness. Though quite unwell, on Saturday night, the 27th, by request he delivered an address before the Temperance Alliance at Evergreen Church in Maury county, but, being more indisposed did not preach the next day. In the afternoon he returned home. This was his last public effort to advance the cause of his Master. On Tuesday night, December 2, he was seized with violent congestion of the lungs, and for some time death seemed inevitable. Drs. Orr and Williamson were called to him during the night in the latter part of which they succeeded in affording relief from the congestion, but he was very much prostrated; and though he had the attention and skill of his physicians, and was tenderly nursed by his wife, family, neighbors, and friends, and though at times there were some indications of recovering, all, all, proved unavailing; and after much suffering for twenty-seven days, on Monday morning, December 27, at 6 o'clock, he fell asleep in Jesus, aged just sixty-eight years and six months. He was buried the next day at Bear Creek Cemetery, after an appropriate service held in the church by Brother J. M. Brown.

Brother Kirkland sent for me. I got to him on December 7. He said he wished me to stay with him, and preach a memorial sermon before he was buried, and at the meeting of Elk Presbytery. Knowing that I was engaged to dedicate Liberty Church on the 26th instant near Elora, Lincoln county, he said he wanted me to go (which I did on the 23d), that I could be notified by telegram in time to be at his burial; but the telegram came a little too late for me to get there in time.

From the first of his illness he made full and repeated declarations of his assurance that "he should have an entrance ministered unto him abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." While I was with him, his conversations were at times most edifying, his sky unclouded, his cup full and running over, his joys ecstatic, his visions of Christ rapturous, his utterances sublime, he was full of faith and the Holy Ghost.

From what has been presented, it is manifest that Brother Kirkland's character and history are, in some respects, unique and striking. From childhood to his conversion, his surroundings, tendencies, habits, and ambitions all leading him in the way of sin and destruction, make his conversion a marked instance of the great mercy, almighty power, and amazing grace of God in "plucking him as a brand out of the fire." He evinced remarkable will-power, indomitable courage, wonderful tenacity of purpose, and unyielding perseverance, coupled with deep humility, true self-denial, and full consecration to the service of Christ. Where can one be found whose case more fully exemplifies that Christ is able to save the chief of sinners, or who deserves more honor and respect for what he did as a Christian and minister for the welfare of society and the salvation of men? He was a man of decided character, deep convictions, and beyond doubt had the courage of his convictions, and hence was the earnest, zealous advocate of every thing virtuous, lovely, and of good report; and an uncompromising opposer of every evil work in high as well as low places.

It was by Brother Kirkland's request that I used the following text in the memorial sermon at the meeting of Elk Presbytery at Petersburg, Lincoln county, on April 23, 1887--viz.: "He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing bringing his sheaves with him." (Ps. cxxvi. 6.)

Brother Kirkland left his widow, six married daughters, and little Jimmie, ten years old the day he died, to "sorrow for him, but not as those who have no hope."
[Source: The Cumberland Presbyterian, August 11, 1887, page 2]