In 2001, Jack Kellett from England wrote a note on an internet message board asking for information about his Kellett ancestors who came to America in 1888.
Kirkland Heritage Society and visitors took the evening of May 25 to thank our WWII veterans and home front residents.
The first celebration of Founders’ Day in Kirkland was the 1922 Bicentennial to honor Samuel, Caroline and Harry French who arrived at Pleasant Bay in 1872. Founders’ Day was again celebrated with the Founders’ Centennial in 1972. That Centennial gave Kirkland our first Moss Bay Days and first public art: the bronze Founders’ Fountain by James Fitzgerald at Marina Park.
The French family was not the first to settle in the area, but they were the first to stay. Three generations of French’s are buried in the Kirkland Cemetery and their home is the city’s oldest known dwelling. The Centennial Fountain was one of Fitzgerald’s last commissioned works before he died in 1973.
