Charles M King

KING, JACOBS, STAHL, TALLEY, CLOUGH, HORN

Posted By: Debbie Gerischer (email)
Date: 7/7/2007 at 11:15:48

A Narrative History
of
The People of Iowa
with
SPECIAL TREATMENT OF THEIR CHIEF ENTERPRISES IN
EDUCATION, RELIGION, VALOR, INDUSTRY,
BUSINESS, ETC.
by
EDGAR RUBEY HARLAN, LL. B., A. M.
Curator of the
Historical, Memorial and Art Department of Iowa
Volume IV
THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Inc.
Chicago and New York
1931

CHARLES M. KING is the efficient and popular agent for the American Railway
Express in the City of Mount Ayr, judicial center of Ringgold County, and is a
native son of Iowa, as well as a representative of one of the sterling
pioneer families of this state. He was born on a farm near Dixon, Scott County,
in the year 1866, and was reared to the sturdy discipline of the pioneer farm,
he having been a lad of ten years when his parents moved to Ringgold County,
in 1876, and here established the family home on a farm in Grant Township.

Mr. King, whose early education was obtained in the public schools of Scott
and Ringgold counties, is a son of the late Benjamin B. and Elizabeth
(Jacobs) King. Benjamin B. King was born in Pennsylvania and came to Iowa in the
early '50s, he having here become a pioneer in farm development and enterprise
and the closing period of his life having been passed in Ringgold County,
where he died in 1898, his wife who was a native of the State of New York and
who was a birthright member of the Society of Friends, having died in 1884.

The boyhood and early youth of Charles M. King were marked by his close
association with the work and management of the home farm, and he continued his
alliance with farm enterprise in Ringgold County until 1888, when he entered
Saint Paul Railroad. he became skilled as a telegraph operator, and served as
station agent and telegraph operator at various points in Iowa and South
Dakota. He was thus engaged fifteen years, and his incidental residence in
South Dakota represents his only period of absence from his native State of Iowa.

Mr. King has ever retained secure place in popular esteem in Ringgold
County, he having served several years as county sheriff and the year 1930 finding
him in service as clerk of the city council of Mount Ayr. His political
allegiance is given to the Republican party and he and his wife are zealous
members of the Methodist Episcopal Church in their home community.

In 1885 was solemnizef the marriage of Mr. King to Miss Mary J. Stahl, who
likewise was born and reared in this state, she being a daughter of Michael
and Mary (Talley) Stahl, who gained much of pioneer prestige in Iowa, Mr. Stahl
having been born and reared in Indiana and having thence come to Iowa, in
1854, the greater part of his active life having been given to farm industry,
of which he was a pioneer exponent in Ringgold County. Mrs. King still owns
a part of the farm estate of 600 acres that was purchased by her father from
the Government in 1854, at the rate of $1.25 an acre, and she retains also
the historic deed to this property, the same bearing the signature of President
Buchanan. Mr. and Mrs. King have four children. Nellie is the wife of Dr.
C. J. Swan, a leading physician and surgeon at Clearfield, Iowa, and they
have six children: Mary, Margaret, Lois, Charles, Susan and George. Helen M. is
the wife of R. S. Clough, of Lenox, this state, and they have four children:
Evelyn, Merrill, Mary Birdice and Maurice. Merrill S., only son of the
subject of this review, was in overseas service in the World war, with rank of
sergeant with the Three Hundred Thirteenth Engineers, Eighty-eighth Division
of the American Expeditionary Forces, and he is now in the employ of the
American Railway Express, with headquarters in Mount Ayr. Birdice B., youngest of
the children, is the wife of John E. Horn, of Mount Ayr.