My Genealogy Hound

BYRON WESTLEY KING, professor of elocution, Pittsburgh, was born in Westmoreland county, Pa., a son of David Jacob and Mary Ann (Simpson) King. David King was son of John and Elizabeth (Hartzell) King, and John King was son of Moses and Sarah King. Mrs. Mary Ann King was daughter of William and Phoebe (Hutchison) Simpson.

The subject of this memoir attended the common schools until thirteen years of age, when he entered Mt. Pleasant College, graduating from there in 1877, and receiving the honors of the class. During the years prior to graduating he taught school for a number of terms. After graduating he was professor of mathematics at Jefferson College, Washington county, part of a year, and then taught elocution in Washington College, and was professor of Greek and Latin one year at Mt. Pleasant Classical Institute. He then traveled for four years, teaching in sixty different schools in the central states. He perfected his education in elocution under private teachers at Boston, New York and Philadelphia. In the spring of 1883 he started his present school of elocution in connection with Curry University. During his early school days he stuttered so badly that he was obliged to write all his lessons, and a special course of study for his defective speech has developed into his wonderful success as an elocutionist and teacher. His school, therefore, is a “special course” for the cure of stammering and all defects of speech, as well as that of high dramatic culture, fencing and the higher grades of elocutionary work. From a small beginning his school has grown until he has more applications for admittance than he can accommodate. Prof. King married, Nov. 29, 1883, Miss Inez E., daughter of Chester A. and Olive Todd, of Chautauqua county, N. Y., and they have one child, Olive May. Mrs. King is also highly educated in elocution and dramatic work; she is a member of the M. E. Church.

Mr. King’s brother, David Bennett King, now a prominent attorney of New York city, was sent to Ireland by the Philadelphia Press to write up the Irish question. He also wrote a book upon Ireland which was published by Scribner & Co.; also a series of articles published by the same house, and he was for seventeen years a professor of Lafayette College. Prof. B. W. King’s book on elocution, “Practice of Speech,” published in 1888, has received many favorable comments from the press, and has met with a rapid sale.