The Idler Farm in Kirk was homesteaded in 1887  by Gotthilf Idler. He moved his family there from Platsmouth, Nebraska where he worked on the railroad. Idler's property in Kirk was supposed to be in the path of the railroad line from St. Francis, Kansas to Denver but it was never built.  Gotthilf farmed his 160 acres with horses and a walking plow. Originally he and his family lived in a dugout, then in a sod house and later on, in a cement block house which is still standing.