61. Wayne's great greatgrandfather, Phillip Kirk, "Burned in effigy"
Today, I want to tell the story of Wayne's great great grandfather, Phillip Kirk, and his wife Mary Ann Taylor. The story comes from the book we have written about Wayne's parents and ancestors. Mary Ann was 17 years old when she married Philip Kirk, 20 years old. They had 10 children, four of whom died young. Early in the 1840’s, Mormon missionaries had been sent to England to tell the people there of a new religion in America. In 1849 some traveling Elders found the Philip Kirk family in Arnold, Nottingham, England. He was then a baker with a pastry shop. His conversion to the Latter Day Saint religion was the result of a dream. He dreamed that as he was standing by his gate, he saw two men coming down the road toward him. He then awoke. Several days later he saw the two men of his dream coming down the road toward him as he stood by the gate. They told him they had a message for him and he asked them into his home. They were missionaries, and in due t