Mrs. Atlanta H. King Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1550-1551 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. II (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

	This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit 
	organizations for their private use. 

	Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval 
	system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other 
	means requires the written approval of the file's author.


	MRS. ATLANTA H. KING.—The life of this estimable lady illustrates 
very forcibly the fact that under certain conditions women may succeed 
as well as men in conducting the stern practical affairs of life and 
achieve as great success as their brothers in a domain which from time 
immemorial has been considered the latter's special province. Atlanta 
Smith, daughter of David and Samantha (Warner) Smith, was born in 
Cleveland, Ohio, and spent the first eleven years of her life in that 
city, being left an orphan at that age, after which she became an inmate 
of her grandmother's home. She accompanied the latter to Illinois, where 
she lived three years, attending school the meanwhile and at the 
expiration of that time, went to Iowa, thence after one year to Albert 
Lea, Minnesota, where she made her home for several succeeding years and 
where she also met a gentleman by the name of William Robinson, who 
subsequently became her husband. 

	Mr. Robinson owned a ranch near the town of Albert Lea, and it was 
on this place that the subject spent the first seven years of her wedded 
life. In the spring of 1867 the couple disposed of their interests in 
Minnesota and with a party of friends and acquaintances came to Dakota 
territory and took up land near the little town of Bon Homme, twenty 
miles from Yankton, building their house on the bank of the Missouri 
river. Mr. Robinson developed a farm and in the matter of cultivating 
the soil was ably assisted by his wife, who assisted in the work of the 
fields when not attending to the domestic duties of the household. Mrs. 
Robinson lived about fifteen years on the Missouri, where she originally 
settled, during which time she was left a widow and later she entered 
the marriage relation with James F. King, a well-known farmer and stock 
raiser of eastern Dakota, the nuptials being celebrated in the month of 
October, 1880. 

	In the spring of 1882 Mr. and Mrs. King moved to the Black Hills 
and purchased a ranch on Squaw creek, one and a half miles from Hermosa, 
at once began the work of its improvement. Mr. King was an industrious, 
hard-working man, a good manager and he soon reduced the greater part of 
his land to cultivation and had it well stocked with cattle and other 
domestic animals. He conducted his affairs quite successfully, 
accumulated a comfortable competency and became widely and favorably 
known as an energetic business man and upright, law-abiding citizen. He 
was machinist and mining engineer by profession and served the 
government several years on Indian reservations. While in Bon Homme 
county he served as sheriff one term. He departed this life on October 
13, 1890, from which time until a recent date, his widow managed the 
ranch, conducted the business affairs of the same, reared her family and 
provided for their intellectual training as well as for their material 
support, giving them the best educational advantages obtainable. As her 
oldest son by her first marriage, Eli C. Robinson, grew to maturity he 
gradually assumed the burdens and responsibilities of the place, and 
being intelligent and naturally inclined to business, he soon grasped 
the details of cattle raising and at this time is one of the most 
enterprising and progressive live-stock men in his part of the county. 

	Mrs. King deserves great credit for the business-like manner in 
which she managed the ranch and looked after the varied interests of her 
children, all of whom acknowledge their great indebtedness to her for 
her untiring activity in their behalf. By her second marriage she had 
two children, a son, James B., and a daughter by the name of Pearl. Mrs. 
King's first marriage was blessed with four children, namely: Mrs. Emily 
Beadle, Mrs. Etna M. Beach, Eli C., a successful live-stock man residing 
on Spring creek, and Mrs. Lennie L. Beatty, all living in South Dakota 
and greatly esteemed in their respective communities.