Howard County IN Archives Biographies.....Kingston, George 1863 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com April 15, 2006, 4:12 pm

Author: Jackson Morrow

GEORGE KINGSTON.

   Theories look well on paper, and have a mellifluous sound when proclaimed
from the platform, but in the present rushing age the value of things is tested
by the stern rule of experience, it is the practical man who makes his influence
felt and whose services and discourses are largely sought. The present is
essentially an age of progress and in every line of activity the man of
practical ideas is in evidence. The world of industry owes him a debt beyond
estimate, and to him is due the credit of bringing to humanity, privileges and
blessings, which, if simply hinted at a half century ago, would have subjected
the one uttering them to the charge of harmless lunacy or perhaps brought about
his incarceration in an asylum for the hopelessly insane. But times have changed
as the world has moved and the wild dreams and vague chimeras of yesterday have
become the familiar facts of today. To the clear brain, trained mind and skilled
fingers of the wide-awake, far-seeing, practical artisans, therefore, who
inaugurate these conditions and crystalize into the probable and actual, what
appears to be the wildest flights of fancy or imagination, all honor be due. It
is of such a one the chronicler essays to write in this connection but with
little hope of rendering adequate justice to his achievements or to the
usefulness accomplished in his various spheres of endeavor.

   George Kingston, a native of Michigan, was born March 22, 1863, and spent his
early life on a farm near the town of Ionia, where his parents, Daniel and
Hannah Kingston, had settled a number of years before. Studious and of an
investigating nature from his youth, he made the most of his opportunities for
obtaining an education, but being unable to prosecute his studies to the extent
desired, he gave free rein to his natural mechanical ability by taking up the
trade of carpentry in which from the beginning he displayed much more than
ordinary proficiency and skill. After working at the trade for some time under
the direction of others, he began taking contracts in his native county, but
impressed with the idea that a more favorable opening could be found in the
West, he disposed of his interests in Michigan and during the ensuing five years
he traveled over several western states and territories, going as far as Puget
Sound, Washington, where he was instrumental in establishing a lime industry,
besides being employed for some time as superintendent and overseer of several
large manufacturing plants.

   Endowed by nature with mechanical tastes and ability of a high order and
anxious to develop and cultivate the same, but being without sufficient means to
take the technical training desired, Mr. Kingston did the next best thing by
opening negotiations with a correspondence school under the direction of which
he soon entered upon a course of mechanical, electrical and gas engineering,
which being completed in due time, he was not long in securing a remunerative
employment. Returning east, he finally made his way to Indiana and in 1901 came
to Kokomo, where he was first employed by Ford & Donley, to make patterns for
the wire drawing machinery of the new rod mill, but after a brief period with
that firm, he resigned his position to start in business for himself. The same
year, therefore, in which he severed his connection with his employers, he
embarked in a new and, for this part of the country, an untried enterprise,
namely, the manufacture of carburetors, instruments for the generating of gas
from gasoline and air to be used in gas-engines, for manufacturing and other
purposes. After a few months by himself he became associated with Charles I.
Byrne who, to facilitate operations and enable the business to be carried on
more extensively purchased the plant now occupied by the Kokomo Brass Works,
which the firm fully equipped and in due time the enterprise was on a solid
financial basis and more than meeting the expectations of the proprietors.
Subsequently a company under the name of Byrne, Kingston & Company, was duly
incorporated for the manufacture of several lines of carburators, which had been
placed on the market in addition to which all kinds of automobile accessories
were made, also several useful instruments and appliances which Mr. Kingston
invented and for which he is fully protected by patents,, the plant growing from
a modest beginnning until it is now the largest and most important establishment
of the kind in the world.

   Subsequently Mr. Kingston was instrumental in establishing a company for the
manufacture of spark-coils, plugs for gas engines, ignition appliances and
various other devices of his invention, the incorporation of which was effected
in 1904 under the name of the Kokomo Electric Company. The capital of the
concern at the present time is twenty-five thousand dollars, which has been
fully paid., the stockholders being as follows: Charles T. Byrne, James F. Ryan,
J. W. Johnson, J. P. Grace, George Kingston and Fay Beal, all except the first
two named being citizens of Kokomo, and well known in the business and
industrial circles of the city. Like the former company, this undertaking has
fully realized the expectations of the promoters, and its continued success has
made it one of the leading enterprises of the kind in the United States, its
prospects of future growth and enlargement being in every respect most encouraging.

   The original firm of Byrne & Kingston was incorporated with a capital of
three thousand dollars which has since been increased to fifty thousand dollars
and has paid over one hundred thousand dollars in dividends since its
organization, a growth unparalled [sic] in the industrial history of Kokomo. The
stockholders at this time are George Kingston, president and manager: James F.
Ryan, vice-president; J. W. Johnson, secretary, and Charles F. Byrne, treasurer.
The Kokomo Brass Works, with which Mr. Kingston is also identified, is the
legitimate outgrowth of the manufacturing interests to which reference has been
made, and is one of the successful and growing industries of the city, having a
paid-up capital of fifty thousand dollars and being managed by men of recognized
ability and high standing in the business world.

   In addition to the enterprises enumerated Mr. Kingston has various other
business interests besides being the owner of valuable property including
several desirable houses and lots in the city, to say nothing of his ample
private means, all of which has been accumulated since locating in Kokomo, which
place he reached with scarcely a dollar in his possession.

   He has won a large and permanent place in the business circles and in the
specific lines of effort to which his energies have been devoted, have given him
much more than a local reputation and today his name is a familiar sound
throughout the manufacturing world. As a citizen he is public-spirited and
energetic, fully in sympathy with the progressive ideas of the age and ready at
all times to lend his aid and influences to whatever promises to be for the best
interests of the community. Few men of his age have accomplished as much and as
a leader in the lines of endeavor in which he is now engaged he is destined to
make greater advancement in the future and win a still larger place in the
public eye.

   In a fraternal way he is a Mason of high standing, in which Brotherhood he
has risen to the thirty-second degree, and is also ^connected with the
Independent Order of Odd Fellows and Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. In
matters political he maintains an independent stand, obeying the behests of no
party or leader but supporting the policies he deems for the greatest good to
the greatest number, and voting for the candidate who, in his judgment, is best
qualified for the position to which he aspires. He has been signally blessed in
his domestic life, having a wife and a child to whom he is devoted, and a home
which to him is the dearest and most attractive spot in the world. Mrs. Kingston
was formerly Alina Vincent, at Ovid, Michigan, at which place her marriage was
solemnized. Ralph, the only pledge of this union, is a bright and interesting
young American citizen, whose birth occurred on December 25, 1905.


Additional Comments:
From:

HISTORY OF HOWARD COUNTY INDIANA
BY
JACKSON MORROW, B. A.
ILLUSTRATED
VOL. II
B. F. BOWEN & COMPANY
INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA

(circa 1909)

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