WI BIO - Dane Co - KING, John T.
Biographical Review of Dane County, WI. Chicago: Biographical Review Pub. Co. 
1893, Vol II, pp 589-590

John T. KING, a successful business man of Madison, Dane County, Wisconsin, 
was born in Jefferson County, New York, 14 December 1850, a son of Lorenzo D. 
and Julia A. (SCHYVER) KING. His mother's people were from Pennsylvania, his 
father's from Vermont, and the paternal grandmother was of French descent. 
Lorenzo KING, a clergyman in the Methodist Episcopal Church, came to 
Wisconsin in 1849, and the following year bought and improved a tract of land 
in Dodge County, Wisconsin.

John T. KING spent his boyhood days on the farm, working during the summer 
months and attending school in the winter. His father died when he was 
fourteen years old, and his mother when he was nineteen. In 1867 he was 
engaged with his brother in getting out wood for the Union Pacific railroad 
in [the state of] Wyoming; next was employed in the machine shop, and then 
worked at farm labor. At the age of twenty years, John T. KING was an 
engineer on the Union Pacific railroad. In 1872 he returned to Wisconsin. 
In August 1872, in company with an older brother, he engaged in the lead 
mines, operating a drill for the Diamond Drill Works of Philadelphia, but two 
years later, on account of his wife's health, he returned to Fox Lake [Dodge 
County], Wisconsin, where he opened a small machine shop. In November 1877 
John T. KING came to Madison, Dane County, WI, where he was employed as 
assistant engineer on the State capital, also on the Park Hotel. In 1880 he 
began work with W. G. Walker & Company, manufacturers of printing presses. 
Mr. KING has obtained six different patents on the Prouty printing press, all 
of which are now in use, and has also taken out a patent for a steam heater. 
In 1885 the firm of King & Walker was organized, general dealers in boilers 
and engines. The business has grown from infancy to the best in its line in 
Wisconsin.

John T. KING was married in Dodge County, Wisconsin, 17 August 1872, to Mary 
A. CRAIG, a native of that county, and a daughter of Samuel CRAIG, a farmer 
of Dodge County. To this union has been born one child, Gilbert W., who died 
in November 1891, aged sixteen years. John T. KING is a Republican in [p 
590] his political views, and socially is a Royal Arch Mason, a member of the 
Knights of Pythias, and a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.

Submitted by Cathy Kubly