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Maurice Kirby was a distinguished educator in Kentucky. He was orphaned at the age of 14, adopted by Dr. Ezra Keller and his wife Caroline, and went to college at Wittenberg College, Springfield, Ohio, founded by Dr. Keller. He married the young widow Marianna in 1859. He and his wife traveled with his brother-in-law John Dillard Collins and family on a trek of several years during the Civil War from Henderson, KY south through Arkansas to Louisiana, ahead of the Union Army, returning to Henderson at the end of the war. As described in biographical notes written by his niece Rosalie A. Collins, he taught in schools in Arkansas and Texas during the trek. After returning to Kentucky, he founded a female teaching academy in Henderson, was Professor at the State College in Lexington, and then Principal of the Louisville Male High School, then operating also as a college.

1850 US census, Ohio, Clark Co., Springfield, 16 July 1850:
Caroline Keller, 35, $1500, b:MD
Martin Keller, 8, b:MD
Sarah Keller, 5, b:Ohio
Morris Kirby, 21, student, b:Ireland
Wm. Cutter(?), 25, student, b:Germany
J. P?. Brickley?, 23, student, b:Germany

1859 Kentucky Marriages (ancestry.com):
Maurice Kirby, Marganna B. Lester, 12 Jan 1859, Henderson Co., KY.

1860 US census, no record of Maurice nor of his wife of one year, Mariana or Anna.

1870 US census, Kentucky, Henderson Co., Henderson City, Ward 1, 15 Jul 1870:
Morris Kirby, 40, schoolteacher, $3000, $500, b:DC, father and mother foreign born
Mariana Kirby, 38, b:KY
[Note: The couple is living in a boarding house].

1880 US census, no record of Maurice Kirby could be found. His wife Anna died in about 1879.

1887, Louisville, Kentucky Directory (ancestry.com):
Maurice Kirby, Professor, Staniford Hotel-boarder

1890 census substitute (ancestry.com), Louisville, Kentucky Directories, 1890:
Maurice Kirby, 108 E. Jacob Street, Principal, Male High School. A history of Male Hish School is at http://www.jefferson.k12.ky.us/Schools/High/Male/SchoolHistory.html.

Maurice died in 1896 according to Rosalie Collins's biographical notes or very early in 1897 according to the obituary below.

Obituary: "A Noted Teacher"
Prof. Maurice KIRBY, principal of the Male High School, Louisville, Ky., and one of the foremost and most widely known educators in Kentucky, died at 6 o'clock Sunday evening at St. Joseph Infirmary, where he had been confined to his bed for several months. During his long career as a teacher he lived in Western Kentucky, Lexington and Louisville, and many men now prominent in business and the professions were among his pupils. He at one time taught school in Madisonville and is kindly remembered by many of our people. For many years he has been in Louisville. (Source: Madisonville (Ky.) Hustler, Tue., Jan. 5, 1897) [Courtesy of a posting by Philip R. Brown on the Hopkins Co. Rootsweb message board, 10 Oct 2003. who estimates that he died 3 Jan 1897].

• Married: 12 Jan 1859 in Henderson Co., Kentucky