Charles M. KING is the efficient and popular agent for the American Railway Express in the City of Mount Ayr, judicial center of Ringgold County, and is a native son of Iowa, as well as a representative of one of the sterling pioneer families of this state. He was born on a farm near Dixon, Scott County, in the year 1866, and was reared to the sturdy discipline of the pioneer farm, he having been a lad of ten years when his parents moved to Ringgold County, in 1876, and here established the family home on a farm in Grant Township.

Mr. KING, whose early education was obtained in the public schools of Scott and Ringgold counties, is a son of the late Benjamin B. and Elizabeth (JACOBS) KING. Benjamin B. KING was born in Pennsylvania and came to Iowa in the early '50s, he having here become a pioneer in farm development and enterprise and the closing period of his life having been passed in Ringgold County, where he died in 1898, his wife who was a native of the State of New York and who was a birthright member of the Society of Friends, having died in 1884.

The boyhood and early youth of Charles M. KING were marked by his close association with the work and management of the home farm, and he continued his alliance with farm enterprise in Ringgold County until 1888, when he entered Saint Paul Railroad. he became skilled as a telegraph operator, and served as station agent and telegraph operator at various points in Iowa and South Dakota. He was thus engaged fifteen years, and his incidental residence in South Dakota represents his only period of absence from his native State of Iowa.

Mr. KING has ever retained secure place in popular esteem in Ringgold County, he having served several years as county sheriff and the year 1930 finding him in service as clerk of the city council of Mount Ayr. His political allegiance is given to the Republican party and he and his wife are zealous members of the Methodist Episcopal Church in their home community.

In 1885 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. KING to Miss Mary J. STAHL, who likewise was born and reared in this state, she being a daughter of Michael and Mary (TALLEY) STAHL, who gained much of pioneer prestige in Iowa, Mr. STAHL having been born and reared in Indiana and having thence come to Iowa, in 1854, the greater part of his active life having been given to farm industry, of which he was a pioneer exponent in Ringgold County. Mrs. KING still owns a part of the farm estate of 600 acres that was purchased by her father from the Government in 1854, at the rate of $1.25 an acre, and she retains also the historic deed to this property, the same bearing the signature of President BUCHANAN. Mr. and Mrs. KING have four children. Nellie is the wife of Dr. C. J. SWAN, a leading physician and surgeon at Clearfield, Iowa, and they have six children: Mary, Margaret, Lois, Charles, Susan and George. Helen M. is the wife of R. S. CLOUGH, of Lenox, this state, and they have four children: Evelyn, Merrill, Mary Birdice and Maurice. Merrill S., only son of the subject of this review, was in overseas service in the World war, with rank of sergeant with the Three Hundred Thirteenth Engineers, Eighty-eighth Division of the American Expeditionary Forces, and he is now in the employ of the American Railway Express, with headquarters in Mount Ayr. Birdice B., youngest of the children, is the wife of John E. HORN, of Mount Ayr.

Mary B. (TALLEY) and Michael STAHL Biography

SOURCE: HARLAN, Edgar Rubey, LL.B., A.M., Curator of the Historical, Memorial and Art Department of Iowa, A Narrative History of the People of Iowa with Special Treatment of Their Chief Enterprises in Education, Religion, Valor, Industry, Business, Volume IV, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago & New York. 1931.

Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, 2008

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