Horatio Collins King (1837-1918) was born in Portland, ME and graduated from Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA in 1858. He practiced law for two years, and was admitted to the New York State Bar in 1861. He served as a Civil War officer in the Armies of the Potomac and Shenandoah from 1862 to 1865. He was honorably discharged in 1866 with the rank of brevet-colonel and returned to New York to practice law once more. He was active in politics, running for Secretary of State for New York as a Democrat in 1895, Congress as a member of the Sound Money Party in 1896, and Comptroller for the Progressive Party in 1912.
King became Secretary of the Society of the Army of the Potomac from 1877 to 1904 and President of the Society in 1904. He was also a prominent member of the New York Monuments' Commission. He was a member of Plymouth Church and a supporter and friend of the Reverend Henry Ward Beecher. He married Emma Carter Stebbins, the daughter of New York merchant Russell Stebbins, in 1862. Emma died in 1864, and in 1866 King married Esther Augusta Howard (1845-1925), the daughter of John Tasker Howard. Esther was a member of the Fort Greene Chapter of the National Society of Daughters of the American Revolution and was regent of the group for four years. The Kings had nine children and lived in the neighborhood of Brooklyn Heights. Horatio C. King was also a published writer of poetry and songs, as well as a lecturer.
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Source:
- Dickinson College. "Horatio Collins King (1837-1918)." In
Encyclopedia Dickinsonia. Accessed March 16, 2011. http://chronicles.dickinson.edu/encyclo/k/ed_KingHC.html
From the guide to the Horatio C. King collection, circa 1850 to 1925, (Brooklyn Historical Society)
