Pulaski County Virginia USGenWeb Archives Biographies.....King, Charles Henry 1842 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/va/vafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher http://www.rootsweb.com/~archreg/vols/00001.html#0000031 February 22, 2008, 7:07 am Author: Leonard Wilson (1916) CHARLES HENRY KING CHARLES HENRY KING, of Pulaski County, Virginia, a native of that county, and for many years one of its most prominent citizens, is a grandson of Charles King who came to Giles County, Virginia, in his early manhood from either North Carolina or Tennessee. It seems probable that he came from North Carolina, for Charles and Cornelius King, who, in 1782, were residents of Mechlenburg County, Virginia, apparently moved toward western North Carolina, and in 1790 Charles King was a resident of Orange County in that State. Charles and Cornelius King were Irish, and as the Charles King who came to Dublin and founded the family of which we are treating was Irish, it seems probable that he was a son of this Charles King. Charles King, the first of the name in this section, was born December 13, 1788, and died of pneumonia in 1S64. He was married January 8, 1807, to Jane Shannon, a daughter of Thomas Shannon, Sr., who was born May 15, 1780. Of this marriage there were twelve children: Sallie King, born February 28, 1808, married Robert Carr, August 24,1826; Thomas Shannon King, born May 29, 1809, married Matilda Patten Davidson on April 11, 1837; Nancy King, born January 27, 1811; John Crow King, born December 18, 1812, married Ann Carr, August 30, 1837; Ann King, born January 11, 1815, married Sam C. Charleton, February 25, 1861; William H. King, born April 10, 1817, married Martha McDonald, February 28, 1839; Jane and Hannah King (twins), born January 17, 1819; Jane married Joe Davidson on November 19, 1844, and Hannah married William B. Allen; Elizabeth King, born April 11, 1821, married Ira D. Hall, November 19, 1844; Mary King, born April 7, 1823; and Charles Banks King, born November 4, 1824, married Elizabeth Martin in 1853. A son unnamed was born November 27, 1827, and died in infancy. Charles King was of the Protestant faith, and came from that one of the half-dozen Irish King families settled in County Derry, of which William King, Episcopal Bishop of Derry in 1690, was a member. Charles King possessed a full measure of Irish geniality and wit. He served three terms in the Legislature, and made many friends, even of his political opponents, by his amiability and readiness of speech. In those days they cried the vote at the court house. On one occasion when the vote had gone in his favor, a man came to him and said, "Colonel, I voted against you to-day." Mr. King laughed and said, "Thank you, thank you for telling me about it. I know you will do better next time." The pleasant way in which he took the rather ungracious speech won over the man, and the next time he did vote for him. Charles King was a farmer by occupation, and he was a successful one. To some extent also he was engaged in mercantile pursuits. His devotion to his wife was a pronounced trait of his character. After her death, and in his later years he was a most earnest Bible reader. He often read' so late in the night that his daughters, fearing lack of sleep for his declining years, would cut off the candles which he was to use so that they would burn no longer than the proper time for him to retire. After clearing the supper tables, one of his daughters would place his Bible and the allowance of candle for him. He would put his face down very close to the big Bible and read as long as the candle burned. It is significant that our forefathers who had to read their Bibles by dim candle light were in many instances far more familiar with the Scriptures than their descendants of to-day with all the Bible helps they have. Of the sons of Charles King, Thomas Shannon King married Matilda Patten Davidson, who was a daughter of Henry Preston Davidson and his wife, Nancy Brown Davidson. Henry Preston Davidson's mother was Matilda Patten. His wife was a daughter of James Brown, who married a Miss Haven. Of Thomas Shannon King's marriage there were six children; five girls and one son as follows: Nancy Jane King, born March 12, 1838, who married Edwin Houston Harman, who was born February 13, 1835. They were married April 2, 1861. Mr. Harman was mortally wounded in the Battle of Cloyd's Mountain, May 9, 1864, and died May 11, at the old Darst place, leaving a widow and two boys, one a baby six months of age. The next child, Sarah Ellen King, was born January 21, 1811, and married John Harvey Caddell, who was born October 19, 1839. They were married September 6, 1865, and on April 1, 1890, John Harvey Caddell was murdered while riding home by a man who supposed he had a large sum of money on his person because he was County Treasurer. Charles Henry King, the immediate subject of this sketch, was born August 28, 1842, and has been twice married: first, to Sallie McGavock, a daughter of David and Mary Cynthia (Cloyd) McGavock, and secondly, to Willie Miller Guerrant, a daughter of Colonel William Gibson Guerrant and Elizabeth Porter Miller. The first marriage was contracted on November 20, 1878. His first wife, at the time of this marriage, was the widow of a Mr. Jones. She died on January 31, 1901, and Mr. King married his second wife on January 17, 1905. The next child of Thomas S. King was Julia Ann King, born September 18, 1845, who married Thomas E. Jackson. Mary Elizabeth King, the next, was born June 18, 1817. She married James Trollinger. The youngest child, Cynthia Bently, was born June 20, 1851. She married Lewis P. Stearns. Thomas Shannon King suffered a stroke of paralysis twelve years before his death, which occurred on February 19, 1883. He was a good farmer who lived in troublous times. His wife survived him until August 5, 1899. Charles Henry King was educated in the old-time private schools of his neighborhood. Some of the incidents of his youth relating to a period when conditions were widely different from those now prevailing are of interest as illustrating the times of our fathers. He relates how he earned his first money. His father had an old slave named Amos, who, after doing the ordinary farm work during the day, would make a little crop of his own at night. Old Amos hired the little boy to help him cut grass seed in his private crop and paid him for it the first money he ever had. It appears to have been a principle of Mr. King's father not to give the boy money. He recalls how once, at Christmas time, he gave to him and each of his five sisters a big copper cent. According to the customs of the country Mr. King's father would every fall make a marketing trip to Lynchburg by wagon, taking bacon, lard, wheat and other country products, and he recalls that on his return he always brought him a new cap, which he says was frequently too small, as he had then, and still has, an unusually large head. Evidently the father was governed in the purchase of the cap by the boy's age rather than by the size of his head. Mr. King's schoolboy days recall some very interesting phases of the old South. He first went to school on Back Creek in the settlement where he was born, to an old man named Yates, and then to Mrs. Chancelaune at Thursee Spring. He was then seven or eight years old, and every day he walked four miles to this school with his sisters Jennie and Ellen. Compare this with the tender youth of the present day who think it a hardship if they have to walk six blocks to school. His next teacher was a Mr. Henry, a member of the family which lived in the famous Henry house on the battlefield of Manassas, which was destroyed by the artillery during the battle, and his mother killed. This house was afterward painted by Mr. Mosler under the title, "The Lost Cause." His next teacher he recalls with a shudder. He speaks of him as old Greiner. This man was a teacher after the old order of Dominies, and of that type which no boy ever loved. His method was beating the boys and pulling their hair and Mr. King says that to this day he remembers him with aversion. The next school which he attended was Heuser and McNutt School at New Bern. This brought him up to the beginning of the Civil War. He became a member of Company "E," Twenty-Fourth Virginia Regiment under Captain W. W. Bently, the famous Lieutenant-General Jubal Early being at that time Colonel of this regiment. Later Mr. King's command was assigned to Kemper's Brigade, Pickett's Division, Longstreet's Corps. It will be recalled by our readers that this division (Pickett's) made the historic and immortal charge at Gettysburg. The war was one long period of horror to Mr. King. Even at that early period he gave evidence of the sound judgment which has characterized him through life. He saw but little hope of the South winning, and the squalid discomfort of army life kept in a constant state of wretchedness a young man to whom neatness and order was as the breath of life. He does not like to talk about the war, but little by little those near to him have drawn from him some of his experiences. Just before the battle of Manassas there was an attack of measles while his regiment was at Camp Prior. When the battle was impending, a young and foolish doctor came and announced the fact to the young men sick of the measles, and said that all of them who felt well enough might go forward and participate in the battle. Over one hundred of them, in fact practically all of these measles patients, at once volunteered. They dragged themselves on to the battlefield when they were met by their own surgeon who immediately sent them back. They were caught in a rain, and as a result of this more than fifty died. Later on he contracted typhoid fever while his command was near Richmond. His father came down and secured his transfer to the White Sulphur Springs Hospital in Montgomery County. On the way there they stopped over night in Lynchburg. Every sort of necessity was scarce, so the young soldier had kept a small piece of soap in his pocket. The next morning a man near him whose leg had been amputated sat up on his straw cot, looked carefully at the stump and said, "I will be d____d. The d_____d rats have eaten all that bandage off of my stump and have left all the stump bare." Mr. King's father did not stop at the Springs but took the sick lad on home where his mother and sisters nursed him. There was not much to eat, but they gave him the best there was, and restored him to health. His mother had grieved much, as his sisters told him, and would say, "Poor Charlie, if he could only come home, I would never mind him robbing my preserve jars again." It was during this sick furlough that he advised his father to pay off his debts in Confederate money. This was in 1862. He was barely twenty years old, and is a remarkable illustration of his good judgment and foresight. He felt then that the Confederacy could not win. At Gettysburg Mr. King was captured and sent first to Fort Delaware. From there, loaded with other prisoners like cattle on a boat, they were sent to Point Lookout, Maryland. A favorite theme of our northern friends is the hardship endured by their prisoners in the southern prisons. It recalls the Bible story of the man who could see the mote in his brother's eye and was unconscious of the beam in his own. This is not a pleasant subject, but in order that the truth may be known, it is given here just as Mr. King saw it and endured it for nineteen months; cold, sickness and starvation. These are his words: "I have seen weak, starving men go to the filthy sewers and watch for a bone or any scrap of bread that might have been thrown in the garbage. They would grab it out and gnaw off in bits all the meat and gristle like hungry dogs. They would trap for rats and eat all they could get. If a dog came about they would kill him and cook him. It was hard to get dogs because people found out that the prisoners would eat them. We were kept in a camp with a fence around us, but sometimes a dog would follow someone in. The rats were very good. Many of the mountain boys were clean grit. Yet those big fellows did not seem to be able to stand the loss of sleep and poor fare as well as the wiry smaller boys from the towns, who were used to prowling around at night and had irregular habits. The mountaineers of North Carolina were the most home-sick. They pined for their mountain homes. They were usually big, stout fellows with no education. The restrictions of the camp life seemed to fall more heavily on them than any other class of men. They would mope around, then seem to give up and die. The Virginians bore up better. "I remember one poor fellow from Mercer County, Virginia, named Vest. He had what seemed to me the most loyal patriotism I ever saw. He came from a little cabin home away over in the mountains. The wild freedom of the hills and the forest around had roused in his soul a love of liberty. On the altars of his heart burned the fires of truest patriotism. He was ignorant and unlettered, but he had ideals high and pure and the spirit of a hero. The food and filth of the prison brought on young Vest bowel and stomach troubles. His friends knew that he would get well if they could get him out of the prison where he could get proper diet and medicine. They said to him, 'Vest, you have no property to be fighting for; you have no slaves nor land; why don't you take the oath, get out of this place, and save your life! Go where you can get something to eat and live. You have nothing. Taking the oath of allegiance means nothing to you.' "The poor boy, huddled on his blanket on the ground thin and weak from starvation, roused up and said, 'I have honor and the honor of my State to fight for. I may die, but I will not swallow that oath.' He did die, and many others who never owned a slave, but had honor and patriotism." After nineteen months' confinement Mr. King was exchanged and sent to Richmond by boat and put off at Kings Landing. At Richmond he got his army pay and a furlough for home. An amusing incident occurred at Lynchburg on this homeward trip. Those who are old enough will remember the enormous prices to which commodities soared in the days of the Confederacy. At the hotel in Lynchburg Mr. King ate $10.00 worth of butter for his breakfast. The proprietor watched them eat and grew very restless, and though he did not say much he was very anxious to see them quit. The proprietor probably did not realize that these lads had been hungry a long time. Arriving at home he found short commons the prevailing order. His father had sent all the bacon and other food supplies to Lee's army which unfortunately had been captured by Sheridan below Lynchburg. They had no meat that summer until the chickens grew. This was a common experience in Virginia in that hard year of 1865. The young man turned to at the close of the war as a helper to his father on the farm. The father had failed to settle his debts with the Confederate money as advised by his son, and they had a long and hard time getting out of debt. He tells how very discouraging it was to see the calves and colts he had tended driven away to pay old debts. In 1871 the father was paralyzed and sold his farm. Mr. King then bought an interest in a hotel in Dublin which he conducted for a little more than two years. He then returned to farming, which has been his main pursuit from that time to the present, though he has been interested in numerous other directions. He has been an unusually successful farmer. He tells that after the ravages of the war and the new system of labor, he with many others in Ms section went to work to improve their farms. Pulaski is a good county with good soil, and an intelligent man can get results in such a country. He had learned in the hardest of schools the necessity of economy. In addition to the ordinary routine of farming he specialized on cattle, Percheron horses, pure bred sheep and hogs. In time he accumulated a surplus which he invested in other lines of business. At present he is a stockholder in three banks and a director in two of them. He was at one time President of the Culrose Coal Company and of the Gibboney Sand Bar Company; has had hotel investments and is a stockholder in the Excelsior Coal Mine at Vulcan, West Virginia. For many years Mr. King has been one of the most prominent and highly respected citizens of his county. His business judgment has always been good and his opinions are treated with respect. He is a man of strong convictions, a Democrat in his politics and a Presbyterian in his religious faith, being a member of the New Dublin Church. He has never through life been a member of any club or secret society. His habits are temperate, he uses no intoxicants, and tobacco only in the form of smoking. He is an early riser, and after the activities of the day enjoys his rest at home, in the evening reading and talking with his family. His preferred reading is an indication of his temperament: The Breeders' Gazette, which bears upon his principal business pursuit, the Confederate Veteran, in which he sees constant mention of the men who shared with him the stress of that great conflict of 1861 to 1865, the Christian Observer, the organ of his church, and the Lynchburg Daily News from which he gets news of the great world and political information. He is a man of extremely neat and orderly habits and exact in everything that he undertakes. There is so much sound sense in a few sentences which he used as an expression of his present-day views that they are here given verbatim: "If people would stick to the country and stop this leaving the farm and moving to town, they would be better off financially, morally and mentally. The people in town run about too much to read, think or meditate on the more serious problems of life. In dissipation and pleasure they lose their moral, physical and spiritual balance, also the straight and narrow way. At home with his family is the proper place for a man at night. A man who has the proper interests in life, and has been busy during the day is glad to stay there. If young people could leave off running after fashion and having a good time, they would be able to lead more useful and purer lives. My ways are old-fashioned, and farming has gone too far ahead of me to give any suggestions." His last sentence speaks well for his modesty, for though he may be old-fashioned, he could give many new-fashioned men points on farming. This branch of the King family belongs evidently to what we call Scotch-Irish. It will be remembered that a large population migrated from Scotland to the north of Ireland. These people were mainly Presbyterians in faith, though some were Episcopalians. The rest of Ireland was Catholic. No people in the world have ever been more tenacious of their religion or more courageous in defending their liberties than these Scotch-Irish, and they have given to our country one of its most valuable constituent elements. Charles Henry King has through his long life thoroughly lived up to the best traditions of a virile stock. Mrs. King is a member of the Guerrant family, of French Huguenot extraction, and, like the Scotch-Irish, is one of the most valuable of our American racial stocks. Additional Comments: Extracted from: MAKERS OF AMERICA BIOGRAPHIES OF LEADING MEN OF THOUGHT AND ACTION THE MEN WHO CONSTITUTE THE BONE AND SINEW OF AMERICAN PROSPERITY AND LIFE VOLUME II By LEONARD WILSON, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF ASSISTED BY PROMINENT HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL WRITERS Illustrated with many full page engravings B. F. JOHNSON, INC. CITY OF WASHINGTON, U. S. A. 1916 Copyright, 1916 by B. F. Johnson, Inc. 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