BIOGRAPHY: William Henry King; Fillmore; Millard co., Utah

Transcribed by W. David Samuelsen for The USGenWeb Archives Project
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History of Utah
The Storied Domain
A Documentary History of Utah's Eventual Career
by J. Cecil Alter
Vol. 2, published 1932 (expired copyright)
The American Historical Society, Inc.

Hon. William Henry King, the junior United States senator from Utah, now
serving in his third term, was born at the old capital of Utah, Fillmore, June
3, 1864. Senator King's family were prominent in the pioneer settlement and
development of Utah, were leaders in the Church of Latter Day, and Senator
King himself has been a loyal member of that church all his life.

His grandfather, Thomas Rice King, was born at Marcellus, New York, March 9,
1813, and married Matilda Robinson. They came to Utah in 1851 and were among
the early settlers at Fillmore in Millard County. He was a member of the
Millard Stake Presidency and held the office of probate judge. Thomas Rice
King died February 3, 1879.

William King, father of Senator King, was born April 8, 1834, and was
seventeen years of age when the family arrived in Utah. For forty years he was
active in business as a merchant, manufacturer and stock raiser. He became a
member of the High Council of his church and as bishop was for eleven and a
half years engaged in mission work in the Sandwich Islands. At the time of his
death he was president of the Hawaiian settlement at Skull Valley, utah. He
died February 17, 1892, at SaltLake City. William King married Josephine
Henry, who was born at Nauvoo, Illinois, in July, 1845, and was a child when
her parents, Andrew and Margaret (Creighton) Henry, came to Utah in 1850. Her
father was called upon by Brigham Young to assist in the building of the first
state capitol of Utah at Fillmore.

William Henry King was educated in the Brigham Young Academy and the
University of Utah, and spent two and a half years in mission work for his
church in Europe. He was graduated with the LL.B. degree from the University
of Michigan in 1887, and for many years has been a leader of the bar and has
been associated with some of the outstanding lawyers of the state. He has
practiced at Fillmore, at Provo and Salt Lake City.

Senator King for three years was a member of the Territorial Legislature and
for one year of that time was president of the Senate. He was county attorney
of Utah County and in 1894 President Cleveland appointed him associate judge
of the Utah Territorial Supreme Court, and he was a member of that body until
statehood. In 1896 he was elected a member of the Fifty-fifth Congress,
serving from March 4, 1897, to March 4, 1899. He declined renomination, but
subsequently was elected to filla vacanty in the Fifty-sixth Congress, of
which he was a member form April 25, 1900, until March 4, 1901. He was again
nominated by the Democratic party for the Fifty-eighth and Fifty-ninth
Congresses and was the choice of the Democratic legislative caucus for the
United State Senate in 1905 and 1909. In 1916 he was elected United States
senator, was reelected in 1922 and again in 1928. He has frequently been a
delegate to national conventions of his party. Senator King is a member of the
Alta and Commercial Clubs of Salt Lake.

He married in 1890 Miss Annie Lyman, of Utah, who died in 1906. In 1914 he
married Vera Sjodahl.