The King Family

Note: Clicking on any image will enlarge it.

Before 1917

                                                                    
        J. C King                                                        Freda Harm and Ella Harm
    Undated Portrait                                                    Undated Portrait

Portrait of Jay Cecil King, also know as 'Curly'.  I have not been able to find a written record of his life before the year 1916 when he was 31 years old. I would welcome any hints or help from fellow researchers! J. C. King was born in Missouri on 12 August 1885; possibly in Clark County in the northeast corner of the state, as it shows on his marriage license. Or possibly near the town of Savannah in Andrew County in the northwest corner of the state, as it shows in his obituary. Perhaps he was born near the town of Lineville, which straddles the states of Iowa and Missouri in Mercer County, Missouri. Lineville is the place he always told his children he was from. These three places have been researched, but no records of his birth were found. In 1885, not every birth was officially recorded, or I could have missed something in researching the areas. Another possibility of his birth site is in Lewis County, just south of Clark County in the northeast corner of the state. This location was suggested by a cousin who heard it from his dad, a son of J. C. & Freda King. This site has not been researched yet.

Life and times of J. C. King and Freda Harm King
         (click on link above for story)

Memories of Jay Cecil King
        (click on link above for memories)

1916

     A postcard written to J.C. King, signed by Louise, mailed from Arkansas. The date is very hard to read, it appears the last number of the year is "6" (could be 1916), the month is August. I wonder why this postcard survived all these years? Why was it saved?

1917

Marriage Return for J. C,. King, age 33 and Freda C. J. Harm, age 29.
Parents of the groom: Jay King and Alice Allen
Groom's birthplace: Clark County, MO
Parents of the bride: Henry Harm and Augusta Wieck
Bride's birthplace: Germany
They were married on 22 August 1917 in Des Moines, Polk County, Iowa

When a couple is ready to marry, they apply for a marriage license. After the marriage, the license is signed by an official (minister, justice of the peace, etc.), then the document is returned to the place of application to be officially recorded. Hence, the document is called the marriage return.

Earliest known home of J. C. "Curly" and Freda King.
It is believed this home was near Moville, Woodbury County, Iowa.

1921

Freda Harm King with Earl and baby Elmer, circa 1921

1922

The home of J. C. & Freda King in Correctionville, Iowa. They moved here about 1922. The family lived here for many years. The home was at the corner of 3rd and Juniper Streets.

1924

                                                                     
The first grade class of 1924. First row, first on left is Earl King.  Second row, in shadows, behind girl in hat, is Elmer King. Earl and Elmer began first grade together, the reason was because when it came time for Earl to begin his schooling, Elmer didn't want to be left behind, so Elmer started first grade a year early. They continued though school together and graduated in the Class of 1937, Correctionville High School.

1925 (estimated)

A birthday card, signed "Mother, Dad, Hank & Dena", probably for Freda.

1930's

Following are pages from a dictionary, which survived the use of the King children during their school years. The book must have been owned previously, by the Ward family. It was signed by Betty Ward, but her name was later crossed out. Also Miss Lois Ward, Correctionville, IA practiced her signature several times in the book.

    Cover - Funk & Wagnalls Concise Standard Dictionary, published in 1922.

     Inside front page, signed by Emmett Arnold King and Everett King.           

   Next page, signed by Everett King, written name Earl and Elmer King, and a couple tries by Emmett King, practicing his signature.            

  Page 251, a young comic wrote down a joke, "tell a graph, tell a phone & tell a woman". (ha ha)

1936

                                                                               
                                                                           
                        'Brothers Carry Journal and Sister
                        Hopes to Follow in Their Footsteps'

Undated newspaper article, most likely spring or summer of 1936. Back row: Elmer, Earl, Emmett, Everett;
Front row: Ernest, Ellis, and Elaine. Does anybody have a better copy of this article?

     
This photo was taken near the King Family home in Correctionville, Iowa. The date was probably 1935 to 1937. From left, a neighbor girl, last name Morton, Donald Jerry Morton (baby), Everett King holding baby, Ellis King, Elaine King, Freda King, and Mrs. Frederick Boettger, a neighbor. Ellis was given the middle name of Frederick  after the husband of Mrs. Boettger. Mrs. Boettger helped out at the King home after Ellis was born.

1937

                             Baccalaureate Services             
                                    May 6, 1937                           
                          Correctionville High School            
                                   Class of 1937
Among the graduates were Earl H. King and Elmer C. King. This copy of the program belonged to Earl. The marks next to the names were made by Earl in the many years following graduation and represented those who were deceased.

In late September of 1937, Jay Cecil "Curly" King was injured while installing a water supply system. For about the last six months before the accident, he hadn't been able to work much, due to ulcers. Curly had surgery following his accident at St. Vincent Hospital in Sioux City, Iowa. Due to his weakened condition, he was unable to recover from surgery. He died on 12 October 1937 at the age of 52 years, and was buried at Correctionville Cemetery, Correctionville, Iowa. His obituary is above. As noted in this newspaper article, the same minister who conducted the Baccalaureate Services in May also conducted the funeral in October, Rev. L. J. U. Smay.

                                                    Death Certificate of J. C. King

This shows parents of J. C. King were born in Ireland, the marriage return shows England. Since J. C. King most likely provided the information on the marriage return personally, it is more likely his parents were from England.

1940

Elmer King is drafted, is what the above newspaper article implies. Not exactly "drafted" is Elmer's story, which follows:

"World War II had started in Europe before 1940 when Congress passed the Selective Service Act. At that time I was working for the C&NW Railway Company as a telegraph operator on the "extra board". That meant that I worked when someone took off. I was last on the extra board, so that meant I didn't work much. I learned to be a telegraph operator by practicing at the C&NW Railway station in Correctionville. The agent there had invited me to practice in the office with his young son (maybe 10 years old). I was maybe 14 to 16. I (and my brothers) were at the station a lot because our newspapers came out from Sioux City on the train. Term of service for selective service was one year. I figured that I would do a year in the army and be higher on the board when I came out. People working on the Railway were deferred from military service as "essential" to the transportation system. My sequence number for the draft was 1133. I volunteered to go ahead of time and to not take advantage of the deferment. It didn't work out that way. Before my year was up, my "year" was extended to "term of the emergency". I was home on furlough on Pearl Harbor Day. It was just a few days short of five years when I got out in 1945."

Elmer reenlisted, and retired after over twenty years of service in the Army, Army-Air Corp, and Air Force. His rank at retirement was Chief Master Sergeant, which is the highest enlisted rank in the Air Force.

1941-1945

  The names of all Correctionville young men who served in World War II were displayed on this large sign, which was placed between Munson's Corner Hardware and the Isbell Building.

You can see the name of Elmer King in fourth row from the left, fourth name down; and the name of Emmett King in fifth row from the left, first name. If anyone spots any other names from the family, let me know, I'll mention it here.

This photo came from the book, "The History of Woodbury County, Iowa", compiled by the Woodbury County Genealogical Society. It is available in your local Woodbury County Library, or through an inter-library loan in other parts of the United States. Ask for it at your own local library. The book has lots of history and pictures of early town scenes of Woodbury County.

A postcard sent from Elmer to his mother, Freda, dated 10-30-1943. Elmer mailed this from Mexico during World War II. You may note the lack of a personal message. During the war, the G.I.' s had to be very careful what they wrote in their letters home. All mail was censored, as you can see by the red "U.S. CENSORSHIP EXAMINED" stamp. If your mail didn't pass the censorship examiners, your mail didn't go through.

1948-1949

    Elaine Ruby King, maybe prom?

Elaine Ruby King married Jerry Countryman on 4 November 1949 in South Sioux City, Nebraska.

1955

                                                           
The King Family in a photo circa 1955. Back: Elaine, Elmer, Freda, Earl
                                                            Front: Everett, Ellis, Ernie, Emmett
The little girl in the chair may be Marilyn King, daughter of Emmett.

1956

1961

On January 20, 1961, this article appeared on the front page of the Morris (Minnesota) Tribune. Betty Edson King, wife of Ernest King, died in an automobile accident, along with their young daughter, Nancy.

    A few days later, this article was in the Morris Tribune, telling of the joint funeral for Betty and Nancy King.

1986

Emmett King retired in April 1986 after 38 years with the Iowa Department of Public Safety, Communications Division.

1991

Emmett Arnold King and Lila Mildred Culler King celebrated their 45th wedding anniversary in September 1991 with an open house in Storm Lake, Iowa.

       Emmett Arnold King died on 31 December 1991 at the age of 70 years.

1996

Earl Henry King died on 13 March 1996 one month shy of his 78th birthday.

                     His obituary.

            Front & Back of Earl's funeral program        Inside of Earl's funeral program

                                                           
Ina Amanda Wilhelmina Harm Weinreich celebrated her 90th birthday in 1996. This group photo show Ina with the King brothers: Ernie, Ellis, Elmer and Everett.

On the same date, a photo below of Ina with Elsie Schumacher King, widow of Earl Henry King.

2003

Pictures from the 2003 Harm-King family reunion are available at Reunion Central. Please go there for pictures.

This site last updated on Thursday, August 23, 2007 

Content ©2003-2007 Laura King Van Dusen

Design ©2003-2007 Matt Van Dusen       

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