SAMUEL KING 1824-1904

KING, STITES, BRANSON, BOLSTER, TOWNSEND

Posted By: Dana Roquet (email)
Date: 1/8/2011 at 19:01:59

Portrait & Historical Record of Wayne and Appanoose Counties in Iowa
Chicago Inter-State Publishing 1886

Samuel King, farmer and stock-raiser, section 24, Union Township, postoffice Bethlehem, was born August 23, 1824, in Mason County, Kentucky. His father, John King, was a farmer of Kentucky, and married Nancy Stites, and they, with their family moved to Putnam County, Indiana, in 2828. They were amoung the early settlers of that county, literally, chopping out a farm and home, their first house being a rude log cabin. Samuel King grew to manhood in the new county, and was early inured to hard labor and poor fare, with but limited advantages for obtaining an education. In 1844 he married Annie Branson, who was born November 3, 1822, in Pittsylania County, Virginia. They began life for themselves in the dense oak, walnut and poplar forests of the Miami Reserve in Indiana. Mr. King, although accustomed all his life to swinging the ax, was finally discouraged by the endless toil, and after opening up three different farms resolved to try a prairie country. To this end he loaded all his earthly possessions on a wagon and started for Iowa. He located in the northern part of Monroe County and improved a farm, residing there fifteen years. In 1864, he came to Wayne County and bought the property of Morgan Parr, the first settler and founder of Bethlehem. Here Mr. King has done good work, and kept up the some course of improvement that has marked his previous life. He has a valuble and well-improved farm of 220 acres. His substantial and convenient barn was built in 1868, but the old Morgan Parr house is still his home. In this house were held the first religious, political and social meetings of the people of the settlement. A few of the apple-trees planted by Mr. Parr still remain. Mr. King has always been an expert horseman, and a great friend and admirer of these noble animals—man’s best friend—and has for the past thirty years been a successful breeder of improved grades, calculated to be of use in the Western country. In this industry as in others he has been a great benefactor to the farmers and business men of the county. Mr. and Mrs. King have seven living children—William, the postmaster of Bethlehem; Washington, a railroad man at Sioux Falls; Charles, a farmer of Clay County, Iowa; Calvin, a farmer near Promise City, Iowa; George, a farmer in Graham County, Kansas; Minerva F., wife of Judson Bolster, and Rebecca J., wife of Dr. Townsend, of Bethlehem. Mr. King was reared in the Democratic school of politics, but since its organization has affiliated with the Greenback party.