Henry King
Henry King, farmer and iron manufacturer, P. O. Kent, was born in Franklin Township, this county, in June, 1883, son of Robert and Rhoda (Bishop) King, who had a family of three children: Henry, Charles and Helen A., wife of Henry Heyd. His paternal grandfather, William King, a native of Hampden County, Mass., settled in Ravenna, Portage Co., Ohio, in 1811. He was the owner of a large tract of land in Charlestown Township, which he had purchased of the Western Reserve Land Company, and lived there a year or more, disposing of the same in parcels. He returned to Ravenna in 1814, and engaged in hotel business up to 1839, and was one of the best known landlords in this part of the State at that time. He died in 1843, aged about sixty-five years. He had four children: Robert, deceased; John B., deceased; Eli P., deceased, and Mary, wife of Dr. A. Woodworth, now of St. Louis. Robert, his eldest son, resided in Ravenna nearly all his life. He was a prominent farmer and business man, and was at one time engaged in banking, dealing also in live stock on an extensive scale. His wife was a daughter of Deacon Bishop, of Blandford, Mass. Our subject was reared in Ravenna from five years of age, and there received a liberal education for his day, being principally educated by Mr. Calhoun, a Yale graduate and relative of John C. Calhoun, of South Carolina. In 1850 he was engaged in the Civil Engineer Corps of the C. & P. R. R., with whom he remained one year, and then was employed in the locomotive works at Cleveland for four years. He was married February 11, 1856, to Rebecca, daughter of Thomas and Sarah (Antrim) Sharp, of Salem, Ohio. In 1855 Mr. King went to Salem, Ohio, and embarked in the foundry and machine business there for fifteen years, and during that time, in connection with Pittsburgh parties, was also engaged in the manufacture of pig iron in Columbiana County, Ohio, and in Armstrong County, Penn., in which he is still interested. He was a resident of Pittsburgh for ten years, and in the fall of 1883 located in Brimfield Township, this county, on the farm where he now resides. In politics Mr. King is a Republican.
From History of Portage County, Ohio, Warner, Beers & Co., Chicago, 1885