Both she and her husband gained a wide influence among the indigenous people of the region, many of whom they were afterwards and during the American Revolutionary War, able to win over to the colonialist cause.
Entering with a sustained enthusiasm into the plans of her husband, she shortly, after her marriage, accompanied him to his post of duty in the wilderness near Fort Stanwix, where Rome, New York, is now situated.
This was literally on the frontier, in the midst of a dense forest which extended for hundreds of miles in every direction, and was the abode of numerous Native American tribes, some of which were hostile to the colonial settlers.
Seated in circles on the greensward beneath the spreading arches of giant oaks and maples, they listened to her teachings.
[1] Mrs. Kirkland and her husband had the distinction of being recommended by the Continental Congress as adapted to labor among the Native Americans, and as alone able to preserve their neutrality toward the Revolutionary War.
[7] When John achieved national prominence as president of Harvard College,[1] his biographer wrote, “It was from a mother of distinguished public spirit, energy, wisdom and devotedness that he received the rudiments of his high intellectual and manly resolutions.”[2] Daughter Jerusha was the mother of the clergyman, Samuel Kirkland Lothrop.