Will County IL Archives Biographies.....King, James B 1820 - 
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Deb Haines ddhaines@gmail.com May 5, 2007, 6:39 pm

Author: Portraits & Bio Sketches, 1890

JAMES B. KING is a prominent citizen of DuPage Township, where for nearly 
forty years he has been actively engaged in agricultural pursuits, and to his 
sturdy enterprise is it greatly indebted for its present substantial 
prosperity. He was born September 17, 1820, amid the pleasant scenes of the 
pretty New England town of Benson, Rutland County, Vt. He came of sterling New 
England stock, his ancestors having come from old England to that part of the 
country in early Colonial times. His parents, Eli and Eliza (Johnson) King, 
were natives of New England, and his paternal grandfather, Eli King, bore an 
honorable part in the Revolution that set the Colonies free from the mother 
country, serving through the entire war, and the father of our subject was 
also a patriotic soldier in that contest. Our subject was the oldest son of a 
family of five children, and was reared to man's estate on a farm among his 
native hills. He received his early education in the district schools, and by 
careful reading has added to it, and to-day is an exceedingly well-informed 
mail. He began his career in the calling to which he had been bred on his 
native soil. In 1854 he embraced the fine opportunity offered him to locate on 
the farm where he is now living to better his fortunes. Here he and his wife 
have a well-appointed farm, supplied with a substantial set of commodious 
buildings, with farming machinery of the most approved manufacture, and the 
whole place bears an air of neatness and thrift that make it attractive, and 
show that it is under the management of a master hand and mind. Mr. King was 
married October 28, 1840, in his native State, to Diana Branch, who bore him 
two daughters: Eliza, wife of E. A. Bartoo, of Indiana; and Affa, wife of 
George Dunlap, of Plainfield, Ill. Mr. King married for his second wife Laura 
Branch. They had no children. Our subject was married a third time, November 
3, 1856, taking for his wife Miss Mary A. Alden. Mrs. King is a native of this 
county, born June 24, 1839, a daughter of Ebenezer and Mary Alden, who were of 
good old New England stock, and were natives of Massachusetts, and she is a 
descendant of the famous John Alden, the scholar of the "Mayflower," who was a 
successful rival of Miles Standish in his courtship. Mrs. King's father was a 
prominent pioneer of this county, coming here in the fall of 1832. Mrs. King's 
mother did not come until the spring of 1835. Mr. Alden squatted on the land 
before it was in the market and when the land sale occurred he secured a 
patent from the Government, which parchment is still owned by Mrs. King and 
was signed by President Tyler. Her parents were among the earliest settlers of 
DuPage Township, and at the time he came here the country was in a very wild 
condition. Indians were still living here and a portion of the farm, on which 
Mr. King now resides, was covered with Indian mounds or graves, and it is 
supposed to have been an old Indian battle ground. They had to endure many of 
the hardships of pioneer life and to live without the enjoyment of many things 
they had thought to be necessaries in their old home, but by years of toil and 
struggle, they succeeded in accumulating a comfortable property and at the 
time of his death, Mr. Alden left an estate of three hundred and eighteen 
acres. Both he and his wife died of consumption, his death occurring October 
17, 1850, and the mother dying February 28, 1857. They were the parents of six 
children, two of whom are now living, Mrs. King, and Martha, wife of O. S. 
Smith, of Cheboygan County, Mich. Their other children were Franklin, Judson, 
Hattie and Angelia. Mrs. King's father was a sincere Christian and a member of 
the Baptist Church. In his death the county lost one of its most enterprising 
pioneers, who was doing his full share to promote its growth. Mr. and Mrs. 
King's wedded life has been blessed to them by the birth of one son, Charles. 
They have also an adopted daughter, Hattie, whom, in the kindness of their 
hearts, they have taken to their home and are giving her every advantage as if 
she were of their own flesh and blood. Mr. King came here in pioneer days, and 
it may be his pride that he has had a hand in shaping the prosperity of the 
county. He is a sagacious far-seeing man, of excellent business capacity, is 
friendly and obliging in his relations with his neighbors, and is in every way 
a man of irreproachable character. His fellow citizens, fully cognizant of his 
worth, have called him to office at various times, and he has served as 
Supervisor of DuPage Township two terms, and has been district School Director 
for a number of years, and as a public official shows himself to be honest and 
progressive. In his political affiliations he is a Republican. He and his wife 
are members of the Congregational Church at Naperville, and are identified 
with its every good work. They are people of high social standing, and their 
home is the center of that true hospitality where host and hostess vie with 
each other in entertaining and making comfortable all who cross its 
threshhold, be they friends or strangers.

Additional Comments:
Portrait and Biographical Album of Will County, Illinois, Containing Full Page 
Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens 
of the County; Chicago: Chapman Bros., 1890 
 


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