This small quaint seaport has roots back to April 7, 1730 when Isaac and Jonathan Green Sr. purchased from Ebenezer Harker "a certain plantation and track of land containing by estimation 441 acres situate lying and being in ye Carterett in ye county of province of aforsaid being ye west side of ye mouth off White Oak River." By 1771 Theophilus Weeks started a town on his plantation, laying out a plat and selling lots. Formerly known as Bogue, Week's Point, The Wharf and New Town, the town was officially designated by the North Carolina General Assembly on May 6, 1783. Above photo (from North Carolina State Archives) courtesy Jack Dudley, as included in Swansboro - A Pictorial Tribute

William Lawrence Kirkman House circa 1920

NATIONAL REGISTER of Historic Places: 212 Elm Street – Aluminum-sided house with shed-roofed front porch, dormer with clipped gable. NR

William Lawrence Kirkman 1882-1959 was the son of Calvin Kirkman 1849-1917 and Eveline Merrell. His siblings were: John Edward 1870-1948, George Calvin born 1873, Annie born 1874, Elizabeth born 1876 and Herman B. Kirkman 1879-1920.

William Lawrence Kirkman married Sadie Lee Dennis 1885-1965 about 1905. Like his older brother John Edward Kirkman, he was a surfman at the Bogue Inlet Lifesaving Station.

Children: Louise Kirkman 1906-1983, Margaret Paul Kirkman 1908-1920 and Doris Frances Kirkman 1911-1999. Louise married Andrew Mason, who worked at the Coast Guard Station.

In the 1900 Swansboro Census, Swansboro Village, Willie L. 17 was at home with his parents sailor Calvin and Eveline Kirkman and brother George C. 23 sailor. They were next door to Thomas Merritt and John Kirkman.

By the 1910 census Lawrence and Sadie had been married five years and were in their own home in Swansboro with two daughters, Louise 4 and one-year-old Margaret. Lawrence was noted as a fisherman.

The 1920 Swansboro Village census located Kirkman, his wife and three daughters on Walnut Street, between Abram Bell and Cicero Davis, perhaps before he moved to the Church Street home. On this census Kirkman’s occupation was noted as “Coast Guard Station”—as a member of the Bogue Inlet Lifesavers.
Bogue Inlet Lifesaving Service

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