My Genealogy Hound

FREDERICK F. KING, for thirteen years an able Supervisor of Sodus Township, Berrien County, Mich., is a prosperous general farmer and successful horticulturist, and resides upon a fine farm, pleasantly located on section 22. Mr. King is a native of Onondaga County, N. Y., and was born October 15, 1829. The paternal grandparents were early settlers of Rhode Island, and in that State the father of our subject, Job King, was born in 1802. The education of the father was limited to a few months of schooling, but he was a man of great natural ability and sagacity and readily won his upward way. The business of his life was farming, but he was also a devout minister of the Baptist persuasion, and for more than a half-century gave earnest and persistent work for the salvation of perishing humanity. Between his daily toil upon the farm and his labors in the pulpit, he led a life of busy usefulness, and was honored for his unselfishness and sterling integrity of character. He married Miss Phoebe M. Freeman, daughter of Frederick Freeman, a highly respected settler of Onondaga County, N. Y.

Unto the father and mother were born thirteen children, of whom our subject was the second, and named Frederick in remembrance of his maternal grandfather. The paternal grandfather, Job King, gallantly participated in the battle of Sackett’s Harbor and also took part in many other important engagements of the Revolutionary War. When young Frederick King was seven years of age he journeyed with his parents by wagon to a new home in Ohio, and, settling in Ashland County, there received a good common-school education. Aside from the lessons of the little district school, he received private instruction, and was soon enabled to begin the self-reliant work of life as a teacher. Our subject taught in the district schools of Medina and Ashland Counties, Ohio, and in 1863 emigrated to the State of Michigan, and, settling upon rented land, entered with energy into the pursuits of agriculture in Berrien County, from that time his permanent home. Aside from the tilling of the soil, he soon engaged in running a sawmill, which he profitably conducted for twenty-nine years. Accumulating property and financially successful, Mr. King after a time bought the attractive homestead where he now resides, and, aside from other duties, makes a specialty of cultivating choice fruit for the Chicago market.

March 16, 1845, Frederick F. King and Miss Susan F. Freeman were united in marriage. Mrs. King was a daughter of Frederick Freeman, a well-known and prosperous resident of Jackson County, Mich. Our subject and his estimable wife have been blessed by the birth of eleven children, nine of whom are yet living. Six are married, and three are still at home with their parents. Fraternally, Mr. King is a leading member of the Patrons of Husbandry. He also belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Mr. and Mrs. King are both valued members of the Church of Christ, with which denomination our subject has been connected ever since he was twenty years of age. Politically, Mr. King is a stalwart Republican and from its first organization has been an ardent advocate of the party. There has scarcely been an office within the gift of his fellow-townsmen he has not received, and, a man of executive ability, has well discharged the duties of Drainage Commissioner, Justice of the Peace, School Inspector, Township Treasurer, Township Clerk, and as Supervisor has been a prominent factor in the promotion and development of the progressive interests of his locality. Widely known, he possesses the confidence of the community among whom he has spent the last thirty years, and is numbered among the substantial citizens of Berrien County.