Bio: King, John (1877 - 1911)

Contact: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

E-mail: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: King, Smith, Bauer, Lang, Burger, Welsh, McHugh, Powers

---Source: History of Marathon County Wisconsin and Representative Citizens, by Louis Marchetti, 1913.

King, John (24 June 1877 - 17 July 1911)

JOHN KING, clerk of Marathon County and a factor in Republican politics in Wisconsin, a member of the Republican State Central Committee of the state, is a native of Pennsylvania, born at Pittsburgh, June 24, 1877. His parents were Dominick and Elizabeth (Smith) King. Dominick King was born in Germany and after coming to the United States in 1848 spent ten years as a boatman on the Mississippi river and the Great Lakes. In the fall of 1877 he settled in the town of Cassel, Marathon County, where he opened up a tract of 200 acres, cleared this land mostly himself and continued to reside on it until the time of his death, July 17, 1911, when aged nearly eighty-one years. At Pittsburgh he married Elizabeth Smith, who was born in Alsace Loraine, and as she lost her mother early in life, relatives took care of her and they came to Pittsburgh in her childhood and there she was reared. Her death occurred in Marathon County, October 23, 1909, in her seventy-first year. They were parents of the following children: Joseph, who died September 12. 1911; Dominick; Anton; Elizabeth, who is the wife of Simon Bauer; Martha, who is the wife of Emil Lang; Minnie, who is the wife of George Burger: Charles; Conrad; Victoria, who is the wife of William Welsh, all of whom are engaged in farming in Marathon county; and John, who is the youngest born.  

John King completed his education in the State Normal School at Stevens Point, after which he taught school for eight years, retiring from educational work when elected to the office of county clerk, in 1904, which he has continued to fill ever since. He has always been interested in public affairs and has so enjoyed public confidence that from his twenty-first year, although not continuously, he has filled such offices as township clerk, school district clerk and justice of the peace in his home town. In 1903 he came to Wausau and here, as elsewhere, he has made his stable qualities of citizenship felt.  

On August 26, 1908, Mr. King was married to Miss Winnie McHugh of the town of Emmett, a daughter of Edward and Catherine (Powers) McHugh, the father a native of Scotland and the mother of Ireland. Mr. and Mrs. King have two sons: Arthur J. and Earl T. They are members of St. James Catholic Church. He is identified fraternally with the E. F. U., an organization which claims a wide membership in this section.