John King

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John Alsop King (January 3, 1788 – July 7, 1867) was an American politician who was Governor of New York from 1857 to 1858. King died on July 7, 1867, in Queens County, New York.

Life

John Alsop King was born in the area now encompassed by New York City on January 3, 1788, to U.S. Senator Rufus King (1755–1827)[1] and Mary (née Alsop) King. His maternal grandparents were John Alsop (1724–1794), a prominent merchant and Mary Frogat (1744–1772).[2] John A. King was part of the King family of Massachusetts and New York through his mother.

He had four younger brothers, including Charles King (1789–1867), who was President of Columbia University, and Congressman James G. King (1791–1853), Edward King (1795–1836) and Frederic Gore King (1802–1829).[3][4][5]

When his father was appointed the U.S. ambassador to Great Britain, the family moved to Britain, and King was educated at Harrow School. Upon graduating from Harrow, King returned to New York City to study law. He was admitted to the bar and practiced in New York City.

Career

John King's law career was interrupted by a stint in the military; he served as a cavalry lieutenant in the War of 1812. After the war, however, he returned to his law practice and then ventured into politics. King was a member of the New York State Assembly (Queens Co.) in 1819, 1820 and 1820–21; of the New York State Senate (First D.) in 1823; and again of the State Assembly in 1832, 1838 and 1840.

He was president of the New York State Agricultural Society in 1849.

United States Congress

King was elected as a Whig to the 31st United States Congress, holding office from March 4, 1849, to March 3, 1851. His term as Governor of New York from 1857 to 1858 was noted for improvements to the State's education system and the enlargement of the Erie Canal.[6]

Governor of New York

Following a series of attacks (the so-called Quarantine War of 1858) on the quarantine facility on Staten Island, King dispatched several units of the New York State Militia to briefly occupy the island.

Presidential Elector

In the 1860 presidential election, when the Republicans won New York, King was elected a presidential elector and voted for Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin.

Personal life

He was married to Mary Ray (1790–1873), daughter of Cornelius and Elizabeth Elmendorf Ray. Together, John and Mary had:

  • Mary King (1810–1894), who married Phineas Miller Nightingale (1803–1873) She was a survivor of the wreck of the steamship Pulaski in 1838, see below.
  • Charles Ray King (1813–1901), who married Hannah Wharton Fisher (1816–1870) in 1839. After her death, he married her sister, Nancy Wharton Fisher (1826–1905) in 1872.[10]
  • Elizabeth Ray King (1815–1900), who married Henry Bell Van Rensselaer (1810–1864), a United States Congressman and member of the Van Rensselaer family.
  • John Alsop King Jr. (1817–1900), a State Senator who married Mary Colden Rhinelander (1818–1894), granddaughter of Josiah Ogden Hoffman (1766–1837)
  • Caroline King (1820–1900), who married her first cousin, James Gore King, Jr. (1819–1867), son of James G. King
  • Richard King (1822–1891), who married Elizabeth Lewis (1822–1891), daughter of Mordecai Lewis in 1839
  • Cornelia King (1824–1897)
  • Ellen King (1825–1827)

Notes

  • Passos, John Dos (2011). The Men Who Made the Nation: Architects of the Young Republic 1782–1802. New York: Knopf Doubleday Publishing. p. 480.
  • McKenney, Janice E. (2012). Women of the Constitution: Wives of the Signers. Lanham: Rrowman & Littlefield. p. 98.
  • York, Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New (1905). The Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York: History, Customs, Record of Events, Constitution, Certain Genealogies, and Other Matters of Interest. V. 1-. The Saint Nicholas Society.
  • McKenney, Janice E.; The District of Columbia Daughters of the American Revolution (2013). Women of the Constitution: Wives of the Signers. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 97–103. ISBN 9780810884984.
  • "The Founding Fathers: Massachusetts". The Charters of Freedom. Archives.gov. Retrieved February 2, 2015.
  • "KING, John Alsop – Biographical Information". bioguide.congress.gov. Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved December 6, 2016.
  • "NYS Agricultural Society". www.nysagsociety.org. See "NYSAS Past Presidents (2019)". Retrieved September 20, 2020.
  • Proceedings of the New York Electoral College, Held at the Capitol in the City of Albany, December 4, 1860. Albany: Weed, Parsons & Company. 1861. p. 11.
  • Reynolds, Cuyler (1914). Genealogical and Family History of Southern New York, Volume 3. New York: Lewis Publishing Company. pp. 1166, 1341.
  • Battle, J.H. (1887). History of Bucks County, Pennsylvania: Including an Account of Its Original Exploration, Its Relation to the Settlements of New Jersey and Delaware, Its Erection Into a Separate County, Also Its Subsequent Growth and Development, with Sketches of Its Historic and Interesting Localities, and Biographies of Many of Its Representative Citizens. A. Warner. p. 760.
  • "A Day in the Life of the Civil War: From An Old Albany Family". lifeofthecivilwar.blogspot.com. A Day in the Life of the Civil War. March 23, 2014. Retrieved May 8, 2017.

Sources

  • United States Congress. "John A. King (id: K000205)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
  • National Governors Association biography
  • Finding Aid to the John A. King Letters, 1825–1883, New York State Library
  • The John Alsop King Papers at the New-York Historical Society.

The Explosion of the Steamship Pulaski

The Steamship Pulaski disaster was the term given to the June 14, 1838, explosion on board the American steam packet Pulaski, which caused her to sink 30 miles off the coast of North Carolina with the loss of two-thirds of her passengers and crew. About 59 persons survived, and 128 were lost.<ref name="ncs">"Heart-rending Catastrophe", The North-Carolina Standard, 27 June 1838, from Office of the Wilmington Advertiser</ref> Her starboard boiler exploded about 11 p.m., causing massive damage as the ship was traveling from Savannah, Georgia, to Baltimore, Maryland; she sank in 45 minutes.

The disaster

The packet steamer Pulaski, bound for Baltimore, Maryland, departed Charleston, South Carolina on June 14, 1838, under Captain DuBois, with a crew of 37 and 150–160 passengers on board.

That night at about 11 p.m., when the ship was 30 miles off the coast of North Carolina, the starboard boiler exploded, destroying the middle of the ship. Some passengers were killed immediately. Knocked out by the explosion, the mate Mr. Hibberd assessed the small boats and put three in the water. Because two had been over exposed to sunlight, they were in poor condition, and one sank immediately. Ten persons got in one boat and eleven, including Hibberd in another. They started rowing away from the sinking ship, which went down in 45 minutes.

Survivors

Among the 128 persons lost in the sinking was former United States Congress Congressman William B. Rochester from New York, and Jane (Cresswell) Lamar, wife of banker and shipper Gazaway Bugg Lamar of Savannah, five of their six children, and a niece. Her husband and their eldest son Charles Augustus Lafayette Lamar were the only members of the immediate family to survive.<ref name="ncs" />

The Delaware Gazette newspaper later ran a story about the fortunes of two alleged survivors: Charles Ridge, left penniless after the shipwreck, became engaged to heiress Miss Onslow, whom he had saved from the shipwreck.<ref>Story "Courtship on a Fragment of the Pulaski" from "Daring Exploits and Perilous Adventures: Being a Record of Thrilling ..." .pp.267-269</ref> But neither of these persons was listed among the survivors in a June 27 North-Carolina Standard article published two weeks after the wreck.<ref name="ncs" />

Search for wreckage

In January 2018 divers reported that they believed they had found wreckage of Pulaski Template:Convert off the North Carolina coast.<ref>"Wreckage of Pulaski Found", Charlotte Observer 19 January 2018</ref> This was confirmed several months later, when salvage divers recovered items from the wreckage.<ref>"It was one of the nation’s deadliest maritime mysteries. NC explorers solved it this week.", Miami Herald 9 May 2018</ref>

Southworth Allen Howland, Steamboat Disasters and Railroad Accidents in the United States: to which are Appended Accounts of Recent Shipwrecks, Fires At Sea, thrilling Incidents. Etc. Worcester, 1840. p. 50-1

Describing the wreck of the "steam packet Pulaski which exploded and sunk on the coast of North Carolina...in which nearly 100 persons perished" on a voyage from Charleston to Baltimore in 1838.

"Mrs. Nightingale is the daughter of John A. King, Esq., of New York, and a grand-daughter of the late distinguished Rufus King. During the whole of the perils through which they passed, she and Mrs. Fraser displayed the highest qualities of fortitude and heroism. They own the preservation of their own and their childrens' lives, under Providence, tot he coolness, intrepidity, and firmness of Mr. Couper and his assistants, and to the steadiness with which they seconded the wise and humane efforts of that gentleman in their behalf."

PARTICULARS OF THE LOSS OF THE STEAMBOAT PULASKI. The Wilmington Advertiser, 18 June, 1838. Posted October 15th, 2009 by Stu Beitler

Atlantic Ocean, NC (off coast) Steamer PULASKI Explosion, June 1838

Loss of the steam packet PULASKI, with a crew of thirty seven, and one hundred and fifty or one hundred and sixty passengers. On Thursday, the 14th instant, the Steamboat PULASKI, Capt. DUBOIS, left Charleston for Baltimore with about 150 passengers, of whom about 50 were ladies. About 11 o'clock in the night, while off North Carolina coast, say 30 miles from land, weather moderate and night dark, the starboard boiler exploded, and the vessel was lost, with all the passengers and crew except those whose names are enumerated among those saved in the list to be found below.

We have gathered the following fact from the first mate, MR. HIBBERD, who had charge of the boat at the time. MR. HIBBERD states that about 10 o'clock at night he was called to the command of the boat, and that he was pacing the promenade deck in front of the steerage house; that he found him. If, shortly after, upon the main deck, lying between the mast and side of the boat; that upon the return of consciousness, he had a confused idea of having heard an explosion, something like that of gunpowder immediately before he discovered himself in his then situation. He was induced, therefore to raise and walk aft, where he discovered that the boat midships was blown entirely to pieces that the head of the starboard boiler was blown out, and the top torn open; that the timbers and plank on the starboard were forced asunder and that the boat took in water whenever she rolled in that direction.

He became immediately aware of the horrors of their situation, and the danger of letting the passengers know that the boat was sinking, before lowering the small boats. He proceeded, therefore, to do this. Upon dropping the boat, he was asked his object, and he replied that it was to pass round the steamer to ascertain her condition. Before doing this, however, he took in a couple of men. He ordered the other boats to be lowered, and two were shortly put into the water, but they leaked so much in consequence of their long exposure to the sun, that one of them sunk, after a fruitless attempt to bail her. He had in the interim taken several from the water, until the number of ten. In the other boat afloat there were eleven. While they were making a fruitless attempt to bail the small boat, the PULASKI went down with a crash, in about 45 minutes after the explosion.

Both boats now insisted upon MR. HIBBARD'S directing their course to the shore, but he resisted their remonstrances, replying that he would not abandon the spot till day light. At about three o'clock in the morning they started amidst of the wailings of the hopeless beings who were floating around in every direction, upon pieces of the wreck, to seek land, which was about thirty miles distant. After pulling about thirteen hours, the persons in both boats became tired, and insisted that MR. HIBBERD should land. This he opposed, thinking it safest to proceed along the coast, and to enter some of its numerous inlets; but he was at length forced to yield to the general desire, and to attempt a landing upon the beach a little east of Stump Inlet.

He advised, MR. COOPER, of Ga., who had command of the other boat, and a couple of ladies with two children under his charge, to wait until his boat had first landed, as he apprehended much danger in the attempt, and should they succeed they might assist him and the ladies and children. There were eleven persons in the mate's boat, (having taken two black women from MR. COOPER'S.) Of these, two passengers, one of the crew, and the two negro women were drowned, and six gained the shore. After waiting for a signal, which he received from the mate, MR. COOPER and his companions landed in about three hours after the first boat, in safety. They then proceeded a short distance across Stump Fround, to Mr. Redd's of Onslow county, where they remained from Friday evening until Sunday morning, and then started for Wilmington. The mate and two passengers reached here this morning about 9 o'clock.

Passengers rescued in the two yawls:

  • MRS. P.M. NIGHTINGALE, servant and child.
  • MRS. W. FREHER and child, St. Simons, Geo.
  • J.H. COOPER, Glynn, Georgia.
  • F.W. POOLER, Savannah, Georgia.
  • Capt. POOLER, son.
  • WILLIAM ROBERTSON, Savannah, Georgia.
  • ELIAS L. BARNEY, N.C.
  • SOLOMON ________
  • S. HIBBERD, 1st mate Pulaski.
  • W.C.N. SWIFT, New Bedford.
  • F.A. ZENOHTENBERG, Munich.
  • CHARLES B. TAPPAN, New York.
  • GIDEON WEST, New Bedford, boatswain.
  • B. BRAGG, Norfolk, steward.

Persons drowned in landing:

  • MR. BIRD, of Byranton, Georgia.
  • An old gentleman from Buffalo, N.Y., and recently from Pensacola.
  • A young man, name unknown.
  • JENNY, a colored woman.
  • PRISCILLA, a colored woman, stewardess.

Bangor Daily Whig And Courier Maine 1838-06-27 __________________

Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!

Depiction in media

Surviving Savannah is a historical fiction novel based on this tragedy written by Patti Callahan, published in 2021.

Sources

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