S. M. King, M.D.

page 517

Dr. S. M. King was born in Portage county, Ohio, September 27, 1836, on a farm, and when two years old his parents moved to Illinois. His parents were Joel E. and Emeline (Barnes) King, both natives of Massachusetts. The father’s parents were Robert and Bridget (Morgan) King, natives of Massachusetts, and great-grandfather Robert King was a native of Ireland and died in Berkshire county, Massachusetts, in 1802, aged sixty-two years. His wife was also a native of Ireland, and he married in Ireland and they had eleven children. He was a practicing physician. His son, Dr. Robert King, was also a practicing physician and participated in the War of 1812, as a captain of the Massachusetts militia. He removed from Massachusetts to Portage county, Ohio, in 1826, and lived and died there. He had twelve children, of whom was Joel Elisha King, our subject’s father, born in 1813 and died in 1890 in Fairfield, Iowa. His wife is living in Mount Pleasant, Iowa; she was born December 24, 1813.

They had eight children, six now living. He, too, was a physician and in 1861 enlisted in Company E., Twentieth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, and was detailed to the hospital service. In 1862 he was discharged on account of physical disability. He moved to Fairfield, Iowa, in 1865 and practiced there up to his death. He was a Republican and a Methodist. When he went to Illinois from Ohio it was to preach, but he gave up the ministry for medicine.

Sylvester Morgan King was the eldest of the children and he was reared in Illinois. On April 19, 1861, he enlisted in Company E, Twentieth Illinois Volunteer Infantry; as a private, and was at Fredericksburg, Fort Donelson and Shiloh, being severely wounded at the last battle. On October 12, 1862, he was discharged and August 15, 1864, re-enlisted from Akron, Ohio, in Company I, Sixth Ohio Volunteer Cavalry, and served in all the engagements, including Hatcher’s Run, Five Forks, Dinwiddie, Sailor’s Creek, Farmville, and on to Appomattox under Sheridan.

He was discharged May 30, 1865, at the close of the war, and then came to Iowa. He soon went to Cleveland, Ohio, and there attended the Cleveland Homeopathic College, in 1866, and then came to Iowa and located at Eddyville, where he remained till 1870, when he came to Albia. He has been in active practice ever since. In 1878 he graduated from the Hahnermann Hospital College at Chicago. He is a member of the Iowa Homeopathic Medical Society and the American Institute of Homeopathy. He is also a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and is a thirty-second degree Mason, of the Scottish Rite, is a Knight of Pythias, a Modern Woodman, and belongs to the Ancient Order of United Workman. He was married in 1866 to Louisa M. Chaffee.