HISTORICAL EVENTS
15 November 1901
Editors Shelbina TORCHLIGHT
In compliance with a promise of last
week, we take up the name of Hon. Chas. M. King. Mr. King was born in Marion county Kentucky,
July 4th 1833. When about seven years
old, with his father they settled on the land near the Chapel known as the
Stephen R. Gunby farm as described and located in
last week’s issue Here young King grew
to manhood, assisting his father in improving the farm and building a
home. Being in a new country, there were
but little or no school advantages and his labor being needed at home he grew
up without an education. At about
twenty-two years of age Mr. King married and settled in Shelbyville.
Being of a mechanical turn of mind
he worked at and learned the carpenters trade. To be a carpenter in those days means more
than to be able to understand how to cut and fit and erect a building from
pattern neatly drawn, or well printed draft or design out of soft lumber, well
dressed and matched of the proper width and thickness, ready for the carpenters
use as now. In this country in those
days the principle lumber worked into buildings was what is termed hard lumber,
such as oak, walnut and ash. The
carpenter drew his plans on a board or piece of paper. He then made his calculations as to what he
needed, as to dimensions of lumber and how much oak, walnut and ash to erect
and finish the building. Being now ready
to begin work, he with his ax and saw went to the woods. Selecting such trees as suited his purpose he
felled them and measured the logs of the desired length and sawed or chopped
them off. Then if a horse or water mill
was in reach they were hauled to the mill and cut into lumber; but if no such
mills were at hand the logs were reared up on end and a platform erected and
two men, with a saw called “whipsaw” cut them into lumber such as was
desired. This lumber was then dressed at
the bench by hand. We now have some
idea of what young King had to endure to be a carpenter, by which he earned a
living for himself and family.
Mr. King seeing
and realizing the need of an education set about to improve his time in that
direction. In order to accomplish
much on that line he was compelled to study much while at work at his
trade. So while working at the bench,
pushing the plane, dressing and matching his lumber, he had his grammar,
arithmetic or whatever book he desired to study, laying open on the bench and
as he passed back and forth read a line or solved a problem. It is said he read the Bible through in this
way. By this kind of perseverance and
determination he at the age of 28, sought and obtained a certificate to teach
school, and it is said he made the best record in his examination of any man in
the county. He now enters the
educational field. Following teaching
for six or eight years, he became the leading educator and conducted the best
private school in Shelby county, located in Shelbina, until his fine library
together with a well equipped school room (which was above business rooms) were
destroyed by one of the most disastrous fires in the history of Shelbina. I had loaned Mr. King a fine sword (one my
father had captured in ’62 and presented me) to be used in his school
exhibition, which was lost in the above named fire. Mr. King’s chief branch of study was
grammar. This he mastered and became the
noted grammarian of the west. He wrote a
grammar and had it ready for publication, but it was lost in the fire.
After this loss to Mr. King, he
turned his attention to the study of law and soon after passed an examination
as creditable as the one he passed years before for the profession of
teaching. Mr. King studied the German
language and became a fluent conversationalist in German.
I will here relate a circumstance that occurred in
court. Mr. King had a case against a
German and during the trial the dutchman became angry
and he being the only dutchman in court began to
curse Mr. King, thinking no one would know what he was saying, but he was the
worst surprised and scared dutchman in the county
when Mr. King called him down and rebuked him sharply in German. Mr. King held some honorable and important
public positions. He was at one time
District Deputy of the Good Templar Order of Missouri. He held the office of County School Commissioner, was a notary public for many years and in 1874
was appointed
Mr. King became one of the best
lawyers of northeast
Mr. King was a Democrat, a
progressive, active man in every department of life, respected by all who knew
him. Thus ends the career of a boy of
old Bacon Chapel neighborhood, a high-toned Christian gentleman and one we all
loved to honor and respect, one who was a credit to the neighborhood, to the
county and to his adopted state, and fresh will ever be the memory of this
great and good man, in the minds and affections of his associates of old Bacon
Chapel neighborhood.
J. H.
Pollard