Statewide County HI Archives Biographies.....King, Thomas James November 8, 1842 - April 6, 1919
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
J. Orr orr@hawaii.com October 5, 2009, 6:50 pm

Source: The Story of Hawaii and Its Builders. Published by The Honolulu Star Bulletin, Territory of Hawaii, 1925
Author: Edited by George F. Nellist

THOMAS JAMES KING, Merchant. A leading merchant of Honolulu for thirty years, 
the late Thomas J. King was the founder and president of the California Feed 
Co., Ltd.
  Opening his office and warehouse in the old stables of the former monarch, 
King Kalakaua, in 1890. Mr. King’s business remained there until growth of the 
city brought about its removal to the old Custom House, at the foot of Nuuanu 
St., and in 1912 a site at Alakea and Queen streets was purchased and a 
warehouse erected in the center of a grove of coconut palms.
  At first the store dealt only in hay and grain, but gradually poultry food, 
wholesale groceries, provisions and canned goods were added, and the company, 
under the direction of Thomas V. and L. C. King, sons of Thomas J. King, 
handled all these commodities until the California Feed Co. was sold to the 
Honolulu Dairymen’s Association in April, 1925.
  Mr. King’s training for the organization of his own business began upon his 
arrival in Honolulu in 1883. He immediately went to work for the Union Feed 
Co. as manager of the hay and grain departments, remaining there until he and 
his brother-in-law, J. N. Wright, organized the California Feed Co., which was 
incorporated in 1895 under the same name, California Feed Co., Ltd.
  Mr. King was always keenly interested in the organization of new lines of 
endeavor, and aided many struggling new industries and concerns. Throughout 
his career as a business man he was constantly called upon to make investments 
to assist new companies. Many of these were successful, and at the time of his 
death Mr. King had extensive business interests. He was vice-president and 
director of the Hawaiian Pineapple Co. from its organization until the time of 
his retirement from business; treasurer of the Oahu Lumber & Building Co., 
which has since gone out of existence, and manager of the People’s Ice Co. He 
was a Mason, Shriner, Odd Fellow, and an active member of the Honolulu Chamber 
of Commerce.
  Before coming to Honolulu, Mr. King was associated with his father, Richard 
King, in the operation of a planing mill in San Francisco, his parents having 
removed to California from New Brunswick, Canada, when he was a boy. His 
school days were finished in San Francisco, and when only fourteen years old 
he went to work, trying his hand at ranching before entering the mill.
  Mr. King was born in St. John, N.B., Nov. 8, 1842, the son of Richard and 
Elizabeth King. His father was a contractor and builder. In 1870 in Vallejo, 
Calif., he married Josephine Wundenberg of Honolulu and they had two sons and 
three daughters, Thomas V. and L. C. King, Mrs. C. M. V. Forster and Mrs. 
Clifford Kimball of Honolulu and Mrs. Charles A. Rice of Kauai. Mr. King died 
in Honolulu, April 6, 1919.


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