Cyrus's GGG Grandfather Thomas Kirby came in 1834 to Virginia.

Cyrus's Grandfather, David Kirby, supported the American Revolution and signed an Oath of Alligiance in 1777.

Cyrus's Father, Jesse B. Kirby, was a soldier in the Revolutionary War, fought at the Battle of Yorktown and witnessed the surrender of Cornwallis.

David and Jesse migrated to Kentucky from VA after the War.
They are buried in Warren Co. Ky.
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Cyrus's maternal grandfather , Tully Choice Sr of Virginia, signed an Oath of Alligiance.

Two of his mother's brothers have distinguished Revolutionary War records.

Capt. Tully Choice Jr.
Lt. William Choice.

Cyrus's Great Grandfather, John Choice, was born 1886 in England and died 1707, the year after Tully Choice Sr was born.
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HISTORY OF MENARD COUNTY
1879 History of Menard & Mason Counties
Chicago
Published by: O.L. Baskin & Co., Historical Publishers
186 Dearborn Street

Cyrus Kirby came from Kentucky about 1822 or 1823, and settled in the grove. (Clary's Grove) He was rather poor, and had no team to plow and break his ground, but took a mattock and dug up two acres of prairie and planted it in corn.
Think of this, ye "silk stockinged" farmers, as you ride over your broad fields upon your sulky plows, and watch with pride your reapers and "headers" gliding through the golden grain, and remember that half a century ago, perhaps some indigent farmer was toiling upon the same spot, like Cyrus Kirby, to make bread for his little ones.

When Kirby died here some years ago, this memorable mattock was sold at his sale and bought by one of his sons, who still keeps it as a relic of the pioneer days.
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Illustrated Atlas Map of Menard County, Illinois 1874
Published by W.R. Brink & Co., of Illinois
exerpt of Son George Kirby's bio page 31b:

Cyrus Kirby, who is worthily represented in the immediate subject of this sketch, was a farmer - the product of rustic growth and culture. His youth was spent on the farm of his father in Kentucky, and he early became inured to the hardships and privations incident to a life in the "Dark and Bloody Ground" at that early period - a period when the war-woop of the savage resounded through its forests, which were then but too often lit up by the lurid glare of the settler's burning cabin. Mr. K.'s early education was only that he was enabled to obtain in floorless log cabins, where schools were taught a few months in each year by well-disposed but half-tutored preceptors. Removing to Illinois with his family, about the year 1811, he settled in what was then St. Clair County, but which subsequently comprised a part of Madison (the third county organized), in 1812. He served under General Samuel Whitesides, in the ranger service, previous and subsequent to the war of 1812-14, and was in several battles and skirmishes. At the conclusion of hostilities Mr. K. again returned to his farm in Madison County, where he remained until the organization of Sangamon County, in 1821, about which period he removed to what was then known as "Clary's Grove," now embraced within the limits of Menard County. To illustrate the hardships many of the pioneers underwent in opening farms, we will here state that Mr. Kirby planted one of his first crops of cereals by digging up the ground with a common mattock. The wooden mold-board plow, which merely rooted up the surface, was even at that period a luxury that was not within the reach of many of the first settlers. Farming, in those days, we are assured, was comparatively a slavish occupation, and when we take into consideration the indifferent implements with which they were compelled to labor, we feel to pardon much of the evident aversion of the hardy pioneers to farm-labor. Reaping wheat with a sickle, threshing it with a flail, or tramping it with horses, and winnowing it with a sheet, and grinding it in a hand-mill, or, in the case of corn, beating it in a mortar, were not operations that were calculated to impress the early farmers with a fondness for agricultural pursuits. Cotton and flax were, at the period of which we write, universally grown and worked up into home-made woolens, cottons, and linens of their own manufacture, and wore moccasins (when they wore anything) on their feet. Men then wore leather shoes considerably, with pants of buckskin, and generally a hunting-shirt. Dandies affected a blanket-coat and a fox-skin cap, with the tail turned up over the top. We mention these incidents that the youth who con over these pages may understand something of the habits, customs, and inconveniences to which the first settlers were subjected, and that those who read may, by comparison, more fully appreciate the grand strides that have been made in our civilization within the last half-century.

Mr. Kirby, however, kept even pace with the spirit of improvement that characterized the advancing years, and, as his sun descended and neared its eternal setting, he looked with pride upon his broad acres that lay smilingly before him, wrought to he highest state of perfection in tillage by his own tireless energy. His life throughout was one of incessant toil, and it may be truthfully said of him that he never, during his long and active career, tasted the bread of idleness. Generous and charitable to a high degree, upright in his demeanor, honest in his convictions, and pure-minded and truthful in all his dealings with men, Mr. Kirby left to his posterity a legacy of virtues, more priceless in intrinsic value than royal titles or magnificent estates. Mr. Kirby died in 1858, at the advanced age of seventy years. Mrs. K. Preceeded her husband to the grave as early as 1834.
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Cyrus tilled his land with a hand mattock,it is on display in the Illinois State Museum at Springfield, Illinois