Fredericka supplemented the family income by taking paying guests into their large home.

From 1894-96 he served as State Senator for South Carolina.

In 1901 or 1902, he purchased the historic plantation home, "Cool Springs."

In 1905, Volume 1 of "Historic Camden" was published.

In 1912, he served as State Representative. Cool Springs was sold that year and in 1913, was converted into a tourist home known as "Kirkland Villa."

In 1913, he succeeded L.L. Clyburn as president of Loan & Savings Bank, Camden and worked there until1926 or later.

In 1926, Volume 2 of "Historic Camden" published by the State Company, in Columbia, South Carolina.

On October 3, 1936, Thomas Jefferson Kirkland died in Camden, South Carolina.

His son Lawrence Alexander Kirkland, in his memoirs, wrote:

Cool Springs, 1901-1912

"This was a large place located 3 ½ miles north of Camden. It was built by Col. Chestnut in 1820. While constructed of very solid heart pine - some of the house was in very bad condition - requiring extensive repairs. My father purchased this place about 1901 or 1902 and put it in reasonably good condition. It had 14 rooms with 14' ceilings. Each of the main rooms were at least 25' by 25' with a large center hallway about 14' wide. The house had porches on three sides with sixty four supporting columns, all constructed of virgin growth heart pine made up in sections about 6' wide - when the house was sold in 1912, all the timbers in the house were sound and solid.

"On the south side of the property, the ground sloped away down some 25' to 30' in elevation to a natural spring where the water bubbled up all year around regardless of rainfall or temperature, being the beginning of a small creek. All drinking water for the family and animals had to be brought up the hill by hand. There was plenty of help for this, as several colored families lived on the same 110 acres surrounding the place.

"One of the natural springs was so located that it emptied out into a low swamp area, adjoining some high ground, which lent itself perfectly to the construction of a dam which would provide a pond about one acre in area. Along with visiting friends from town and colored boys from families living on the place, we impressed labor to construct the dam, which took a few months to complete - all done by hand labor and wheelbarrows, bringing clay from a hillside nearby.

"My father went to his law office in Camden generally by train, which stopped in front of the house some few hundred feet away. Often with my brothers, we would ride the train in to school. The fare was 15¢ for adults and 10¢ for children. My father paid the fares. At or near the week end the conductor would return the money, but always to the kids - unknown to my father. Sometimes we rode on credit for several days at a time - often the conductor would stop the train and come to the house to see what was holding up the passengers.

"Water was pumped to the tank by a very heavy cumbersome engine - I don't know to this day what made the thing run. It would run, however, if you built a hot enough fire. There was no steam generated and no exhaust, just hot air - it would pump at full speed about 15 gallons an hour or about two days to fill the 2000 gal. tank, requiring a lot of dry wood and a hot fire. It had a 250 pound fly wheel of cast iron with four spokes, and being about 30' in diameter.

"All road construction in the county was done by the county chain gang. They worked with mules, wagons, and mule-drawn graders, etc. Mr. Jones, our overseer disappeared and no one seemed to know where he had gone or why. On a horse and buggy trip with my father of some ten miles or more over back-country roads, we ran across the chain gang working on the road and one of the first men I saw was Mr. Jones in his stupid suit - my father was very embarrassed as he stopped to talk with Mr. Jones. My parents had decided that the children, then six in number, should not be told Mr. Jones was on the chain gang. They had even maneuvered his arrest so none of the children would know. I was given a cock and bull story as to why he was on the chain gang. A few years later we learned the truth. Mr. Jones was convicted and given six months for living with a negro woman. We had known this for some time, but didn't know it was against the law. Mr. Jones lived in a log cabin some one half mile away with our cook at that time and had three children. Since we had played with negro children, it all seemed a puzzle to us.

We had no white neighbors within two to three miles, though there were always boys from town visiting to go fishing, swimming or hunting, etc.

"I had one older brother and two frying size younger ones, big enough to play baseball, with two or three visitors and about five draftee colored girls, we could get up two teams. The girls could only play in outfield, mostly to chase balls, unless there was a shortage or they were needed to balance the two teams, but they were not allowed to bat.

"On Sundays, often a negro baseball game was organized. The noise, racket and laughter was unbelievable, with an audience of some 30 or 40 blacks of all ages rooting and howling at each play. There were no masks, gloves or mitts - everything was bare handed. The bats were homemade hickory. It was not unusual for the catcher to get knocked out from a foul to his head. The games were really more fun, and the comments from players and audiences priceless. The scores would run up to seventy and eighty by both sides. They seemed to have more fun than white people out of nothing much. Later in life, I attended many big league baseball games, but they were tame and orderly.

"The train schedules changed and the kids had to either walk to school or go by horse and buggy. We had a little black horse named "Pet." The four older children drove to school. The younger kids were deposited at the grammar school and the older ones went to the high school some two blocks away.

"The horse was supposed to be unhitched and haltered during school hours. Sometimes this was not done and with a loose throat latch, a smart horse could slip out of his bridle. The horse would not go off with a buggy, but unhitched and not haltered, he could slip his bridle and be home in thirty minutes. This occurred often and my father said Pet was learning more at school than any of his children.

"My father was noted for being absent minded. Occasionally if there was no school in the summer, he would drive a horse and buggy to his office in town. On the other hand, he often walked the three and one half miles. On several occasions, he would leave his office and walk home, and forget about the horse tied up back of his office.

"We really did not walk to school but ran all the way at a "dog trot." School was out at about two o'clock. Generally we went back to play baseball in the afternoon or to go swimming in a pond on the edge of town. This all added up to about fourteen miles of dog trotting about four or five time a week. We didn't mind it of course, because we didn't know any better. Mr. Jones needed the horses to do farming, which my mother managed and while my father was more interested in his vegetable garden. Often when too busy at his office, he would come home about dark and work in his garden by lantern light. He had two old negros as garden helpers - Uncle Richard and Uncle Ephrim and the kids pestered these two to death. Uncle Ephrim was about sixty five or seventy, a preacher and occasional handy man. He had a very solemn expression and pompous way of talking - with practically no education.

"Uncle Ephrim lived in a one room log cabin about half mile from our home, owned about a six dollar oxen and a two wheeled cart. He had been married at one time but his wife had left him some time ago. He came to the house to see my father on some very important business, but he was away in Columbia attending the State legislature.

"After several trips to the house to find my father, my mother said to Ephrim, 'What is it so important that you have to see the lawyer about?' Ephrim said, 'Well, Ma'am, I wants him to marry me this coming Sunday.'

"My father returned before the weekend and sent word to Ephrim to be on our front porch with his intended bride at ten Sunday morning. Ephrim being a sort of a local celebrity, had created a lot of interest in the negro community. Sunday morning there were about 50 to 75 negros on our front steps attending the ceremony."

Kirkland Source Book of Records, Volumes 1 and 2, compiled by Mae Ruth Green and Wilma C. Kirkland, 1988

Historic Camden, Volumes 1 and 2, by T.J. Kirkland and Kennedy, Published by the R.L. Bryan Co., Columbia, S.C.

"Recollections of Lawrence Lennox Kirkland," family manuscript

Kershaw County Cousins, by Charlotte Boykin Salmond Brunson

Correspondence with Randolph Withers Kirkland, Jr.

Interview with Edith Hollyday

Special thanks to:

Randolph Withers Kirkland for the pictures

Edith Hollyday