KING, Perry - 1890 Bio (1844-1923)

KING, LANDES, BERRY

Posted By: Joey Stark
Date: 8/12/2007 at 20:16:15

Portrait and Biographical Album of Jefferson and Van Buren Counties, Iowa, Printed 1890 by Lake City Publishing Co., Chicago
Pages 228-229

Perry KING is a grocer of Fairfield, Iowa. He carries a general line of groceries, provisions and crockery, and since he established business in 1880, his trade has steadily increased until he has become one of the leading merchants of the place. Mr. KING was born on the 26th of May, 1844, in Highland County, Ohio, and is the twelfth in a family of thirteen children, whose parents were Morris and Susannah KING. His father, a native of New Jersey, died in 1851 when our subject was a lad of six years. He married Susannah LANDES, who was born in North Carolina in March, 1802. During her childhood she removed thence to Kentucky and when a maiden of twelve summers, accompanied her family to Ohio, where she is still living at the advanced age of eighty-eight years. She still enjoys a fair degree of health and, in 1889, made a visit from Ohio to Mr. KING in Fairfield. The family is worthy of special mention for various reasons. It consisted of six sons and seven daughters, all of whom lived to mature years and were married. None of the sons ever used whiskey or tobacco, three of the number wore the blue in the late war, one was killed in Missouri by deserters from the Union army during the war, one is a farmer in O'Brien County, Iowa, and the other was a teacher of prominence, and died in Fairfield while visiting friends in that place.

We now turn to the personal history of our subject which we feel will be received with intererst by many of our readers. As before stated, he is a native of Ohio and, in the common and select schools of the Buckeye State, he acquired his education. At the early age of sixteen years he began teaching and followed that profession continuously for a fifth of a century, or until his removal to Fairfield in 1880. It seems almost unnecessary to say that he met with success in this line as his long continued service plainly indicates that fact. Just prior to his removal to Iowa he was the principal of the Lynchburg schools of Highland County, Ohio, his native county. His labors as an instructor were only once interrupted, and that, when he was engaged in his country's service. He served for one month in the State Militia of Ohio, and then enlisted on the 2d day of May, 1864, in Company B, of the One Hundred and Sixty-eighth Ohio Infantry, in which he served until the 8th of September following. At Cynthiana, Ky., seven companies of the regiment were captured, but our subject succeeded in making his escape.

Mr. KING was married in Highland County, Ohio, May 4, 1865, to Miss Phœbe Ann BERRY, a native of that county and a daughter of John BERRY. Their union is blessed with five children, two sons and three daughters, all of whom were born in Highland County, Ohio. In the order of birth they are as follows: Emma Edna, Mary Ellen, Lina C., Wirt B. and Lee A. The three daughters are graduates of the Fairfield Union School, and Emma E. and Mary E. are now students in Parsons College of Fairfield. The mother died on the 4th of October, 1889. She was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and her loss was felt by many outside of her immediate family.

In politics, Mr. KING is a Republican and is a man well informed on all matters of general interest. both political and otherwise. He takes an active interest in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and belongs to Jefferson Lodge, No. 4, of Fairfield. He has twice been sent as representative to the Grand Lodge and is President of the Southeastern Association, I. O. O. F., comprising six counties. He takes a lively interest in educational affairs, has been President of the Fairfield School Board for three years, and for five years has been connected with the library, and is serving as President pro tem. of the same during the absence of Senator James F. Wilson.

*Transcribed for genealogy purposes; I have no relation to the person(s) mentioned.