In the family archives is found this two-page typewritten document, by Lewis Stout (pictured above). The title is “A Sketch of the Kings.” Under the title is the byline: “By Lewis E. Stout, a scion of the third generation.”
I looked up “scion” and found this: “a descendant of a wealthy, aristocratic, or influential family”. Well – the Kings, despite their name, were not aristocratic, and they certainly were not wealthy. So Lewis must have felt that they were influential. They produced his mother, so they certainly influenced him!
The amazing part of the story is how Martha’s mother (Elizabeth King) took her mother and her five children on a flat boat down the Ohio River from what is now West Virginia to Indiana, to be received by and joined with the Quaker community there. What a step of faith and courage!
A Sketch of the Kings
By Lewis E. Stout, a scion of the third generation
John Sylvester King and Elizabeth Rinehart King were natives of the city of Baltimore and were married in 1817 and continued their residence there until the death of the husband and father. In religion they were members of the Church of the Brethren commonly called Dunkards. They were the parents of seven children whose births and deaths were on the following dates:
Mary, born April 28, 1818, died December 16, 1834
Martha, born August 15, 1819, died August 2, 1891
Elizabeth, born November 27, 1820, died May 13, 1903
Joseph, born August 24, 1824, died January 10, 1835
Benjamin, born January 29, 1827, died May 18, 1895
Rebecca, born April 23, 1829, died March 20, 1886
Sarah, born April 19, 1831, died February 13, 1910
Mary, the first born, died at the age of 16 and Joseph, the oldest boy died at the age of 10 and both were buried in Baltimore. Sarah was born after her father’s death, which occurred early in the year of 1831. My mother, Martha the second born, told her children how badly frightened “little Joseph”, 8 years old became at the wonderful star shower in November 1833, when the stars showered like snow flakes all night.
After the death of John S. King the family was limited in circumstances. Elizabeth had some Quaker friends at a settlement in Lick Creek near Paoli in Southern Indiana, who sent her an invitation to come to them. They said if the Dunkards in Baltimore would bring the family to Wheeling, Va. and send them on a boat to New Albany Indiana the Quakers would meet them there and bring them 40 miles north to the Lick Creek settlement, build them a cabin, send the children to the Friends School and take care of them.
Both groups fulfilled their promises in a very generous way. The family of seven – Elizabeth with her five children and her mother, Magdalen Rinehart, came on a flat boat to New Albany with no shelter but the blue sky. John Rinehart, Elizabeth’s father, had gone to Missouri to his son after forsaking his wife. He was never heard from afterwards. He was a man under the grip of strong drink.
The vocational life of John S. King is a very interesting story. He was educated and seemed to have specialized in chemistry. His children had copies of a commission given him by Pres. Madison to go to the West India Islands to do some experimenting in ammunition for the benefit of the U.S. Army. Later in life he followed oyster dredging for a living. His older children remembered going with their father to his oyster beds on Chesapeake Bay to gather the harvest. He died at the age of 40 and was buried by the side of his children Mary and Joseph in Baltimore.
When the King family came among the Friends they were educated in the denominational schools and all in due time married Quaker companions.
Martha, who became my mother, married Silas Stout in the Friends church at Lick Creek and they became the parents of six children.
Elizabeth married John Newlin in the same church and they were the parents of five children.
Benjamin married Margaret White in the Friends Church at New London Indiana to them were born five children.
Rebecca married Joseph DeLeon in the church at Lick Creek and to them were born 11 children.
Sarah married Elihu Hobson in the Friends Church at New London and to them were born 8 children.
Between 1845 and 1849 the Kings with their companions moved from Lick Creek near Paoli to New London, one hundred fifty miles north.
Elizabeth King lies buried at New London close by the grave of her mother. All her children who came with her from Baltimore and her children in law are buried there except Benjamin and Margaret King. They moved west about 1885 and died at Council Grove Kansas are are buried there.
In writing this brief sketch about my maternal ancestry I desire to add this tribute – they were Christian people who endeavored to live holy lives. There is no proof of crime among them and unfaithfulness and divorce were never thought of. They belonged to the big middle class and earned their bread by the sweat of their faces and gave religion and education high rating in their plans. May God bless their posterity.
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