John B. King
The late John B. King was born in Washington Township, Grant County, Indiana, on May 29, 1843, and he died at his farm home in Mill Township on August 4, 1913, when little past seventy years of age. All his life had been spent in Grant County, with but slight exception, and he was one of the best known and esteemed men of the county during his life time. He is remembered, and long will be, as one of the substantial and worthy citizens of the community.
Mr. King was a son of John and and Elizabeth (Bloxham) King, natives of Virginia, where the father was born in 1805 and the mother in 1800. The father was a son of John and Sarah King, who passed their lives in Virginia, and who were birthright Quakers and exemplary citizens all their days. John King, the father of the late John B. King, was a small boy when his parents died in Virginia, and he was early bound out as an apprentice to learn the trade of a tanner. He completed his apprenticeship and ion early manhood married, coming to Ohio after the birth of the two eldest children in his family. That State did not long claim his attention, and he soon found himself established in Grant County. This was in the early thirties, and in Washington Township he entered eighty acres of what seemed desirable land. He made a good deal of improvements in the place and then sold advantageously, intending at the time to go to Iowa to live. Their plan was altered, however, through the protracted illness of their son John, the subject of this review, and they settled in Marion, Grant County, Indiana, instead, the father once more resuming his work as a tanner, which he had discontinued when he settled on his Washington Township farm. In about 1850 he went to Arcana and established a tannery which he operated successfully until war times, even continuing it through a part of the war period, when he sold it and retired to a small farm in Mill Township. Here he died on October 5, 1867, when he was sixty-two years of age. His widow later went to make her home with a daughter, Mrs. Sarah Nelson, and she died there on December 18, 1874, when she lacked twenty days of having reached her seventy-fifth birthday anniversary. She was a daughter of William and Mary Bloxham, who were native Virginians, living all their lives as farming people in that State. They, too, were Quakers. John King and his wife were birthright Quakers, though in later life they became associated with the Methodist Episcopal Church. In this body they were active and prominent, prior to his death. His devoted wife was in perfect accord with him in all the issues of life, and they lived happily and to excellent purpose, being Christian people of many lovable qualities. Of their three sons and three daughters, two died young, and the names of the six were as follows: Jonathan, William S., Ruth, Mary, Sarah, John B., of this review. Ruth and Mary died in girlhood, but the other four reached mature years and reared families of their own. All are now deceased.
John B. King grew up on the home farm in Grant county and he found his early employment in work on the farm and in his father's tannery until the outbreak of the war caused the discontinuing of the tannery activities. On October 10, 1862, he was mustered in as a private in Company M, Fifth Indiana Cavalry, and with his command went to the front, and so continued until the close of the war, being honorably discharged in September, 1865. All through that period he proved in many ways his gallantry and devotion to the cause in which he had enlisted, and he participated in practically every engagement of importance in which his regiment was active. Exposure and the general hardships of war on several occasions caused his disability and confinement in hospitals, though he was never wounded in action. For years he was a member of the Jonesboro Post of the G. A. R.
After the war Mr. King settled down to farm life on the farm of his wife in Mill Township, continuing there until 1897, when the family removed to Jonesboro, three years later coming to Gas City, bur retiring to the old farm home some few months prior to his death, it being his wish that his last days might be spent there.
Mr. King was a Republican and a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. A good citizen all his days, he had his full share in the civic activities of whatever community he lived in, and he enjoyed the esteem and high regard of his contemporaries and is still remembered with genuine affection by those knew him in the various relations of life.
On March 17, 1867, Mr. King was married to Miss Elizabeth Overman, born in Mill Township on the old Overman homestead on September 18, 1840, and there reared and educated. She was the eldest child of Jesse and Jane (Griffin) Overman, an account of which family will be found elsewhere in this work. Since the death of Mr. King, Mrs. King has maintained her residence in the Gas City home, where she took up her abode after the passing of her husband on the old home place in Mill Township, and she is still active and energetic at the age of seventy-two. She still has ownership of the Mill Township property, which is a fine place of eighty acres and some desirable property in Jonesboro as well as the Gas City property, make her independent. She is the mother of the following children:
Ida J. is the wife of Lincoln Lamb. They live on the mother's farm in Mill Township and their children are Charles, Earl and Florence, the latter the wife of Benjamin Stockwell. She is the oldest of the three children. She has one child, Chelsey James. Charles King is married and has one son, Charles II. James, the second son, of John and Elizabeth King, died after his second marriage at the age of thirty-seven years. His first wife was Elizabeth Brewer, and this marriage was without issue. Two children blessed the second union. Rea, the first born, died young, and Harry B. now resides with his paternal grandmother, Mrs. King, and is attending the city schools. Jesse Albert King died aged fifteen years.
Mrs. King is a stanch member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and still retains her membership in the Griffin M. E. Chapel of Center Township, where she untied with the church many years ago. She is a woman of many virtues and is one whose life ahs been a shining example in the community all her days.
Source: Centennial History of Grant County Indiana 1812-1912. The Lewis Publishing Co., 1914, page 1043-44.