Francis W. Kirkham, Date of Birth, Date of Death
TweetFrancis W. Kirkham
American historian
Date of Birth: 06-Jan-1877
Date of Death: 14-Sep-1972
Profession: historian
Nationality: United States
Zodiac Sign: Capricorn 
About Francis W. Kirkham
- Francis Washington Kirkham (January 6, 1877 – September 14, 1972) was a prominent educator and the author of New Witness For Christ in America: Evidence of Divine Power in the "Coming Forth" of the Book of Mormon, one of the earliest book-length defenses of the authenticity of the Book of Mormon. Kirkham was born in Lehi, Utah Territory, to James Kirkham and his wife Mary Mercer.
- Francis Kirkham had a younger brother Oscar A.
- Kirkham, who later became a general authority in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). Kirkham studied business under James E.
- Talmage at age 15.
- He later attended Brigham Young Academy (BYA) and then served a three-year mission for the LDS Church in New Zealand.
- At the end of his mission, Kirkham wrote a grammar to help new missionaries learn the Maori language.
- After his mission, Kirkham completed his studies at BYA, graduating in 1904 as the valedictorian.In 1901 Kirkham married Martha Alzina Robison in the Salt Lake Temple.
- He then worked as a business man in Canada for about three years.
- After this, he went to the University of Michigan where he earned his bachelor's degree.
- Kirkham then taught at Brigham Young University (BYU), which had formerly been BYA, for two years.
- He next entered law school at the University of Utah, where he was in the law school's first graduating class.
- Kirkham pursued graduate studies at Stanford University and then earned his Ph.D.
- from the University of California, Berkeley. Kirkham served as president of LDS Business College, head of vocational education for the state of Utah, and superintendent of Granite School District.
- While in the last position he wrote the book Educating All the Children of All the People.
- This gained him national attention and led to his appointment as head of the New York City-based National Child Welfare Association. It was while working from New York that Kirkham did his studies on the Book of Mormon.
- This was a result of being able to access the newspapers from western New York and north-east Ohio in the time of Joseph Smith.
- In 1937, Kirkham published a compilation of these works as Source Material on the Book of Mormon.
- This material also was the main basis for his seminal work, A New Witness For Christ in America.
- The main argument of this book is built around using contemporary sources to dispute the main non-divine theories on the origin of the Book of Mormon. Later in his life, Kirkham worked as a manager for a Salt Lake City-based insurance company and did historical research in the LDS Church Archives.
- Among his works during this period were Tales of a Triumphant People: A History of Salt Lake County, Utah, 1847–1900 (with Harold Lundstrom) published in 1947.
- Kirkham was also connected with the establishment of the BYU Archeology department and served as a member of the Society for Early Historic Archaeology.
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