Lemuel King & His Family

Lemuel King (1825-1908) was a successful financial investor and business owner, diplomatic contributor to civil rights, long-time Mason, and faithful member of St. Luke AME Church. Known best as “a fine-mannered man,” his “most pronounced characteristic was his great [and perpetual] politeness”:

He knew few people by name but he had a bowing acquaintance with everybody. And he bowed low with a dignity that commanded respect. His bow made people feel that they had met a Chesterfield and he never failed to lift his hat and make it when passing anyone he knew. He had a good word for everyone . . . .”¹

Around 1824, his parents, Stephen King (1765-?) and Hannah (Bates) King (1786-1884), and their six children moved from Hardy County, Virginia (now West Virginia) to Urbana Township in Champaign County, Ohio (located northwest of Columbus), where Lemuel was born free in May 1825. ² Here, in 1850, Lemuel King and his older brother, Jacob King (1822-1898), worked for a white, Maryland-born farmer with four other Black laborers. In a deed dated May 3, 1851, Lemuel’s widowed aunt, Hester Bates, sold 50 acres of county land to him next to his father’s property. On July 3, 1855 in Champaign, Ohio, Mr. King married Caroline Hamlet, born presumably free in New York around 1824. In this same community, the 1860 census listed the couple with two, New York-born daughters, Mary F. King (1850-?) and Florence C. King (1852-?), along with Lemuel’s Virginia-born uncle Robert Bates (b. 1795), a blacksmith. At this time, Mr. King, a barber, owned property valued at $500 (or $18,000 in today’s dollars). ³ In other words, Lemuel and Caroline King and their two children were among 38 freed Blacks in Champaign County who may have obtained legal certificates of freedom early in Ohio’s history. ⁴

In 1868, the King family came to Lawrence, likely based on its wide-spread reputation as an abolitionist “free-state” community. Lemuel King may have also known or at least heard about Charles H. Langston (1817-1892), a civil rights activist who had fought the Fugitive Slave Law in Oberlin, Ohio, and settled outside Lawrence the following year. ⁵ By May, “L. King” had “an eating establishment at the foot of 7th street, for the accommodation of the public, and will deliver ice cream around the city every evening, and will sell it so cheap that no person can help but buy, and is prepared to furnish ice cream for all picnics and parties.” ⁶

Unlike most Black laborers who lived in east or north Lawrence near industrial jobs, Lemuel King invested in properties on Ohio street in west Lawrence where many wealthy white citizens lived. After purchasing part of a frame house for his family dwelling, he moved it to lot 62 Ohio street (north of 7th street), purchased for $250 ($5,500), where he “finished his new house” and improved “his yard and garden by putting out fruit and shade trees.” ⁷ While employed as a painter in 1870, King’s real estate and personal property were valued respectively at $3,000 and $500 (nearly $80,000). ⁸ In 1872, King purchased lot 64 Ohio street for $400 and then quickly flipped (sold) it for $2,500, making a $2,100 profit ($51,500), while Caroline King also invested in and purchased lot 58 Ohio street for $450 ($11,000). ⁹ Thus, on New Year’s Day 1874, the family was able to move into a new “large frame dwelling” on King’s two lots on the southeast or southwest corner of Ohio and 9th streets upon which his later improvements clearly demonstrated “his good taste and enterprise.” ¹⁰ One year later, Henry Copeland, a Black carpenter, and his wife Libby sold a warranty deed to Lemuel King for lot 1, block 8, Lane place (possibly 842 Ohio) for $250 (about $7,000). ¹¹ In 1884, after selling lots 113 and 115 on Ohio street for $2,000 ($61,000), Mr. King built “a nice residence” on lot 117 Ohio street, part of former mayor George W. Collamore’s estate that he purchased for $350 ($10,685). ¹² Two years later, he sold this property to a white minister for $1,800, making a profit of $1,450 ($46,149), and moved his family back to the northwest First ward above his business at 827 Vermont. ¹³

However, investing in properties was not without its hazards as several mysterious court cases suggested. Beginning in 1872, William W. Cockins, a white loan broker and attorney, sued Lemuel King, as did Ebenezer Root, a white stone mason, and a Jacob Pfiffer, all with unknown results that may have been settled out of court. ¹⁴ In the 1880s, King was also implicated in a lawsuit over 30 acres in Wakarusa township he had purchased from one man and sold to another, again involving Ebenezer Root. He plead not guilty to selling mortgaged property. ¹⁵ In a separate case, when Sheriff Henry B. Asher went to interview King with a writ in regard to some of his property, King confronted him with a pistol for unknown reasons. Judge Steele fined him $1.00 and court costs for “carrying a concealed weapon.” ¹⁶

Business Ventures

In addition to his numerous investments, Mr. King actively sought desirable occupations worthy of his extensive talents. Soon after the new market building opened in June 1869, he asked to manage this enterprise but his request was apparently denied. His wish to rent ground for the city pound for $600 over two months was also rejected for unreported reasons. ¹⁷

Undaunted, Lemuel King’s entrepreneurial visions remained focused on meeting the public needs of all Lawrence residents. In September 1870, he petitioned the city council “for the right of way for constructing and running a street railway through the city from north to south and east to west.” Apparently, he “had much experience in the work of building street railways,” observing that “Lawrence is one of the best cities for the construction of these he has ever seen. The grades are all light, and the improvements are so scattered as the justify the extension of the lines to the city limits.” The Journal hoped that “Mr. King, or someone else, may succeed in getting street cars in motion.” ¹⁸ Indeed, that “someone else” turned out to be several wealthy white men who formed the Lawrence Street Railway Company. As one of the state’s first street railways, Lawrence’s street cars opened to the public in November 1871 with a turntable on 8th street. ¹⁹ Therefore, like any shrewd real estate developer, Mr. King erected “a new brick business house“ nearby on 8th street east of Massachusetts street one block from the Eldridge House (at 7th) completed in December 1871. ²⁰ Two years later, he began running a hack (horse-drawn carriage) from the Eldridge House, transporting residents “to any part of the city for a reasonable fee,” and also obtained a hack license in Topeka. ²¹

By 1877, Lemuel King operated “one of the best livery and feed stables in town” at 827 Vermont, next door to the Lawrence House, and doubled its capacity at 829 Vermont four years later to accommodate customers’ demands—all without newspaper advertisements. In February 1879, his daughter Mary F. King purchased lot 57 (827 Vermont) from the Douglas County Savings and Loan Association for $250 ($7,480).²² Six months later tragedy struck.

Family Matters

Hugh Cameron, a white farmer later known as the “Kansas Hermit,” had weighed a load of hay on the scales at the courthouse and then stepped in to the weigher’s office to get his check, leaving his team of horses unhitched. While away, his horses suddenly became frightened and ran down into the alley between Vermont and Kentucky streets where Mrs. Caroline King, who was quite deaf, was walking. Upon discovering the team near her, she pressed herself against a tall fence but the broad hay rack, nearly as wide as the alley, struck her on the side of her head and rolled her body along the fence. Hearing the racket, Mr. King ran out, found his wife laying there, carried her into the house, and sent for Dr. Stuart. Her jaw and four ribs were broken and her head and side body were badly bruised.²³

Caroline H. King (1824-1879) died from her injuries thirteen days later. Funeral services were held at St. Luke AME Church. Known as “one of the most worthy women of her race in the city,” she was highly respected as “a quiet, unobtrusive woman; an excellent neighbor, kind-hearted and helpful to the poor, a good mother, and a model housekeeper and wife.”²⁴ Consequently, Lemuel King sued Hugh Cameron for $5,000 for gross negligence in the death of his wife by violating the ordinance regarding unhitched horses repeatedly; but it appears that the verdict granted him only $159 ($4,664) and court costs.²⁵

In the 1880 census, two boys, Frank and James Perry, born respectively in 1870 and 1874, were listed as the “grandsons” of Lemuel King. It appears that his daughter, Florence King, may have married Franklin Perry around 1870, although no such marriage was ever reported in local newspapers. In March 1873, Florence Perry filed for a divorce against Franklin Perry on “the grounds of abandonment for more than a year last past” and also sought “sole guardianship of her minor child, Samuel Franklin Perry, and for alimony.” Her divorce was granted in May 1873.²⁶ Around this same time, Lemuel’s wife, Caroline H. King, filed her petition against a Thomas Perry, residing in Colorado territory, in regard to caring for his young child, Drusilla Perry. Mrs. King’s costs for “meat, drink, washing, lodging and other necessaries” amounted to $122.25. In order to pay these costs with interest, Perry’s property on lot 87 on New Jersey street was attached to this petition.²⁷

Although little else is known about these two court cases, the 1885 census listed Lemuel King residing with Florence King, a widow, and Frank and James King. Despite the brothers’ youth (respectively ages 15 and 11), their names were inexplicably attached to delinquent tax lists for Mr. King’s property (lot 57 Vermont) in 1885 and 1888.²⁸ Although Florence King’s whereabouts after 1885 remain unknown, Frank and James King continued to live with their grandfather through at least the 1895 census, after which Frank King disappears from Lawrence records. Likewise, Mary King vanished after her final listing as a teacher in the 1880 census.²⁹

On February 21, 1880, Lemuel King remarried (with no published announcement), and Amanda (Anna) King (1840-1897) gave birth to their son Frederick “Sonny” King (1881-1909).³⁰ Mrs. King took her toddler to Topeka where they “enjoyed themselves hugely.” As a young boy, while unhitching a horse at his father’s stable, he “received quite a severe kick on the knee from a horse” that knocked him several feet away, “rendering him unsensible for a time.” He also attempted to climb a shade tree on 9th street, fell to the ground, and broke one of his limbs. As an adult, Frederick King worked at Donnelly’s stable for many years but died young from liver disease at the home of his much longer-lived “brother” James King (1874-1956) at 722 New Jersey street.³¹

Civil Rights and Party Politics

From the beginning, Lemuel King promoted civil rights with other Black men, especially in regard to racial inequities in Lawrence’s segregated elementary schools. After serving on a committee that wrestled with inequitable facilities in 1869, a new school on Vermont street opened for Black students—albeit with white teachers. Together with other Black patrons, Mr. King forced the resignation of Thomas S. Murray, a Democrat with strong racial prejudices, but spoke in favor of Clark B. Mustard even though Charles Langston and Rev. David G. Lett vehemently opposed Mustard’s racial discriminations.³² In 1881, he continued to “complain about the way the colored children are treated in public schools” and joined with others in resolving “That we as patrons of the public schools of this city will hereafter send our children to the schools most convenient.”³³ As his son Fred came of school age in 1887, he expressed his views to the Journal editor as follows:

You will please permit me to speak to my people through your paper. We have had heretofore from three to four colored teachers to teach the four rooms that have been set apart exclusively for colored children, but since the election of Elder [Wellborn] Wright [Black minister of the Second Congregational church] on the school board, he has succeeded in doing away with the negro school on the south side of the river. I hope that the patrons of schools will have their children properly clad, for they will have to attend the schools of the different wards in which they live. I hope that the colored people will be patient on the north side this year, for I think that Brother Wright will do away with all the negro schools in another year in this city.

L. King³⁴

King’s reference to Rev. Wright’s success in “doing away with” the southside negro school may have been misguided. Chapel primary school remained open for Black children until after Rev. Wright’s death in 1889 when the school board decided to demolish this building for a new high school. Quincy grammar school and Central high school had been integrated since 1879. The northside Sixth ward school became an all-Black school with Black teachers.³⁵ Even so, when Black students were moved to St. Luke church in 1891 to relieve overcrowding at New York School, King joined with Langston and other parents to enforce state school integration laws.³⁶

Like most Black men, King’s political affiliation began with the Republican party in 1870 as a delegate representing the westside First or Second wards based on his shifting residences.³⁷ When a call for a national convention of Black men was announced in 1872, Mr. King stated the object of a meeting to elect delegates for the state Republican convention of Black men and became a delegate to this convention with Charles Langston, Elias L. Bradley, and M. T. Weir held in Lawrence in March.³⁸

That year, the nomination of Horace Greeley for US president by the Liberal Republican party created a national firestorm. In August, Lemuel King called an impromptu Greeley meeting at Miller’s Hall because he had “evidently read or heard read, the report of the legislative investigating committee last winter, and getting it into his head that $10,000 was deposited in this city to aid in the election of Mr. Greeley, he resolved to ‘salivate’ some of that money . . . .” Shortly after an immense crowd of Black folks arrived, Mr. King, “the only Greeley man present,” “was deposed from his throne” by Henry Fuel, a Ulysses Grant man, and “fled the premises” back to his residence. Regardless of his treatment in Lawrence, he attended a state convention of Liberal Republicans in Leavenworth as an elected vice-president led by Capt. William D. Matthews.³⁹ While continuing to admire Greeley, Mr. King reportedly cast his vote for Grant.⁴⁰

In 1876, the Republican Journal reported: “Mr. King is noted as a very fine speaker [who can “whoop up” rallies]. He is said to be one of the best campaign singers in the Union. He comes from [Ohio] where politics are ‘red hot” and everybody is awake.” When called to address a Democratic convention, “he was glad to note that the campaign was hot, but he believed it could be made hotter.”⁴¹ In 1879, when the city council failed to appoint any Black men for offices, King readily agreed with others that Black voters should break from the Republican party by supporting John M. Mitchell, a Black barber, as an independent candidate for Douglas County register of deeds.⁴²

During the 1880s, as multiple political parties arose and competed for Black votes, Black men organized separate Republican clubs with ward delegates but fractures soon developed. During a “red hot meeting” in March 1880, men argued over choosing a chairman for the meeting and nine delegates for a Black state convention. Lemuel King, C. C. James, and James Gross “favored and worked hard to put on several pastors” from both AME and Baptist churches, “with a view to securing the utmost harmony.” Although King’s motion to vote for delegates by acclamation prevailed, his motion was rescinded after 26 men, including himself, were nominated.⁴³ In July, a Black Garfield Club sought to unite thirty members before Gov. John St. John spoke at an immense Republican meeting at Liberty Hall with vice-presidents King and other Black men seated on the platform in October.⁴⁴

Having grown frustrated with white Republicans, Charles Langston set his sights on winning a county office—with Democrats or Greenbacks. So King served on a Douglas County advisory board with Langston, Doc McWilliams, and several others hoping for better results.⁴⁵ He then attended and spoke at a Greenback Labor convention in Topeka at the senate chamber, joined the executive committee of the local Black Voters Political Union, and supported the nominations of Langston and Allen Williams for congressmen at large at state conventions.⁴⁶ When Mayor Justin D. Bowersock ran for reelection on the so-called People’s ticket in 1883, King spoke at a rally with Doc McWilliams and white men, congratulated the mayor for his success, and continued to represent Douglas County at a Black men’s state convention.⁴⁷ Speaking at several rallies for the People’s Party that fall, he “gave many good reasons why [Black] voters should support the People’s ticket” in “an interesting, pointed and amusing speech” that won audience applause.⁴⁸ King’s name also appeared with those of Langston and others on several resolutions that condemned the US Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the 1875 Civil Rights Act, thus reinstating racial segregation in public places.⁴⁹ As partisan divisions intensified during the mid-1880s, white county Democrats included Lemuel King, perhaps as a “token” Black delegate, at their tariff reform convention.⁵⁰ Finally, in 1885, King and others resolved that the interests of Black voters in Lawrence and Douglas County could be best served “by dividing up among the several political parties,” no longer needing to feel “duty bound to support the Republican party.”⁵¹

Therefore, in 1886, Lemuel King formally switched his allegiance to the Democratic party as a delegate at its Douglas County convention and Second Congressional District convention in Paola, where former governor Charles Robinson was nominated.⁵² In July, C. H. J. Taylor, another disgruntled Black Republican, distributed a circular, with the names of King, Langston, and McWilliams attached, in which he called for a Kansas City, Kansas conference in August that would allow “no man or party to control it against the interests of the race.” Although Taylor intended Democrats to voice their concerns, Republican politicians took control and no Douglas County delegates attended.⁵³ Instead, as a Democratic delegate in the First ward, King and other county men called on the state legislature to remove the word “white” from the Kansas constitution.⁵⁴ Together with 25 Black men across the state, he also urged dissatisfied Black voters to vote independently at a state convention held in Lawrence in May 1888. He also rallied voters in Eudora in 1889 and attended the People’s Party state convention in Wichita in June 1892.⁵⁵ His final reported action involved offering relief to John L. Waller, a staunch Republican Kansan, who was imprisoned in Marseilles after serving as consul in Madagascar.⁵⁶

Celebrations, Masons, St. Luke AME Church, and Clubs

In addition to his political activism, Mr. King and his family likely attended local and regional Emancipation Day celebrations since their arrival in Lawrence. Upon learning from William D. Matthews that Hon. Hiram Revels, Mississippi’s first Black senator, had arrived in Leavenworth in 1870, King may have taken an excursion train to hear him speak at this celebration.⁵⁷ He himself presided over the 1878 Emancipation Day celebrations at Lawrence’s fairgrounds and also served as a marshal for Topeka’s celebrations in 1893.⁵⁸

The King Solomon Grand Lodge of Kansas also figured highly in King’s life. It is unclear exactly when he became a Mason in this state lodge, organized by Capt. William D. Matthews on June 24, 1867, yet his name began to appear in associated news reports in 1874.⁵⁹ Beginning in 1881, he was elected District Deputy Grand Master, became a Grand Trustee, and served as an officer in various capacities.⁶⁰ His service on Masonic committees ensured the laying of cornerstones for a new Masonic hall in Newton and the Masonic temple in Kansas City, Kansas.⁶¹

As noted above, King attended many “indignation” meetings held at St. Luke AME Church, where he served as a trustee in 1884 and Sunday School librarian.⁶² That year, church members met to denounce their exclusion from Memorial Day proceedings and resolved to support Edwin P. McCabe during his campaign for state auditor.⁶³

As prominent citizens, Amanda King kept herself and her aging husband quite active in social circles by entertaining dignitaries at their substantial home. In September 1883, John M. Langston (1829-1897), Charles’ revered younger brother and former US minister to Haiti, visited Lawrence. Mr. and Mrs. King hosted him, Bishop Ward, and other invited guests at their Ohio street residence, where “the folding doors to the spacious dining room were opened” for “a most sumptuous repast” served with Miss Florence King. John L. Waller reported how Hon. John Langston, “the ablest and most remarkable man on the American Continent,” “made himself perfectly at home . . . as though he were in the midst of his family. He told, as no others can tell, about the great Negro Republic of Haiti, and its great men and beautiful women. He said that the President of the Haitian Republic was the finest specimen of the workmanship of God he ever saw.” Having spent a most pleasant evening, the guests bade him “a hearty good-by and promised their prayers for his success” before he left to spend the night at his brother’s home (732 Alabama).⁶⁴

Mr. and Mrs. King also entertained their AME minister, Rev. Benjamin F. Bates, and other guests with “a very pleasant dinner party.”⁶⁵ They also hosted the AME marriage of Thomas Adams and Miss Ada Jackson with 150 invited guests at their 827 Vermont residence, as well as a banquet following an emancipation celebration at the GAR hall.⁶⁶ Other celebratory events kept the couple socially active. Upon attending a surprise birthday party for C. C. James, a major leader of the Republican party, Mr. King presented him with 110 valuable presents from 96 northside neighbors and friends.⁶⁷ The couple also attended receptions for Rev. and Mrs. Boone, as well as for AME Rev. Albery A. Whitman and AME Bishop J. M. Handy during which Mr. King gave short talks.⁶⁸

In 1891, Amanda King invited Caddie Whitman, Lula Johnson, Salina Gross, Belle Henson, and Mattie (Shepherd) Hamilton to her home. When membership soon doubled to twelve by February 1892, they founded the Sierra Leone Club for married women only because “men bring in politics.” Guided by their motto, “Lift as we Climb,” women held meetings at their homes, reading literature and discussing papers.⁶⁹ Mrs. King also served as an elected vice-president of the Douglas County Equal Suffrage Club and involved herself in other community affairs.⁷⁰

The shorter-lived Eureka Club, possibly named for triumphant discoveries, also formed in 1891 with prominent couples, including the Kings. As “one of the strongest social organizations” in Lawrence, this prosperous club stood for “the highest attainments for the race” and “a source of congratulations to its members.” At least thirty “intelligent and refined” members discussed and debated the “History of the Negro” and also held a spelling match during Mrs. King’s presidency in 1895.⁷¹

Two years later, Amanda (Hannah) King (1840-1897) died unexpectedly at age 57 from a heart attack while attending a New Year’s Eve watch meeting of the Interstate Literary Association at Allen Chapel AME Church in Kansas City, Kansas:

After the hour of 12 had struck, there was praying and rejoicing and the new year was welcomed with loud acclaim. The mass of people swayed from side to side. Suddenly in the center of the church, there was a great commotion and shouts of terror and dismay, mingled with prayers, filled the air.

Hannah King, an old woman, who had been kneeling in the aisle, had fallen forward on her face with a glad cry, ‘Merciful God,’ and when they picked her up, she was dead. Her life had gone out with the old year.

[Mrs. King] had remarked before entering the church that she feared the excitement of the crowd [due to her known heart disease], but her friends had urged her to take part in the meeting.

There was pandemonium among the congregation when it became known that a death had occurred, and a rush was made for the door. The excitement threatened to result in a riot and the watch meeting was broken up. The body was removed to an undertaker’s establishment. . . .⁷²

Her body was brought to Lawrence, where “Several hundred friends and members of various orders, to which she had belonged, were present at the depot, and escorted the remains to the family home.”⁷³ After her funeral at St. Luke AME Church, she was buried at Oak Hill Cemetery (Sec. 9, row B, grave 10).

Later Life

Over the years, managing a livery and feed stables came with troubling incidents. Back in 1884, Charles Bellmer (or Bellamy), a 40-year-old Black employee, died suddenly from intense stomach pain after a fall and left $65 ($1,984) buried somewhere behind the stable.⁷⁴ Three years later, King was arrested for permitting a dead horse to lie on unknown premises, but the case was dismissed after the parties compromised. Although he sometimes donated his hacks to visitors, some persons, including a Black man from Kansas City, failed to pay him.⁷⁵ In 1890, he cared for 300 hogs, owned by a white man in Boston, but 200 died from hog cholera until King discovered a drug cure. Even so, he was unjustly accused of gross negligence in the death of two steers and four hogs that died from excessive heat in the Santa Fe stock yards, yet “he did all he could for the stock in his care.”⁷⁶ When a gorilla escaped from the circus, it mangled a horse east of town and also attacked King who managed to get away from it.⁷⁷ King’s payment of $85 (over $3,000) against a defendant in another lawsuit may also have been a blow to his finances.⁷⁸

In 1893 at age 68, Lemuel King began to suffer from rheumatism, so James P. Douglas (a white man) became the “proprietor” (or manager?) of King’s livery stables.⁷⁹ One year later, King began working for the US postal service hauling mail to and from Lawrence depots but lost his job in November 1900 when he “missed twenty-eight times in one month.”⁸⁰

Mr. King then set his sights on building a large hotel on his undeveloped lot at 831 Vermont that would benefit the Black community for years to come. First, in spring 1900, he obtained city permission to erect a small bakery near his stable, a building that was allowed to stand despite a new fire limit ordinance.⁸¹ Unable to secure a bank loan, King was forced to mortgage his property by signing an agreement with Anna G. Menger, a white realtor, in September 1901, on the condition that she finance the construction of his $800 building (over $28,000).⁸² Once completed, the King Hotel, with 11 to 20 rooms, featured a lavish restaurant and lounge on the first floor for organizational luncheons, banquets, dances, and meetings, as well as four small apartments, and additional apartments on the second floor for lodgers or boarders.⁸³

As an elderly man, Lemuel King sought companionship in addition to his surviving son and grandson. On December 3, 1901, he “quietly” married Mrs. Jennie Barker (1865-?), a Eureka Club member and former wife of barber W. Horace Barker (1856-1897). Unfortunately, the marriage was not a happy one; so when she moved to another (unknown) state, he filed for divorce in February 1904 on the grounds of abandonment.⁸⁴ He then married Armilda (Anna) C. Scott (1861-1937) on December 7, 1904.

In March 1906, King’s livery barn burned down in a raging fire but firemen managed to stop blowing embers from damaging King’s hotel. Tragically, George Reynolds, a Black plasterer who had roomed at the barn for years, was unable to escape and died from smoke inflation, along with 14 horses that were killed. Coincidently, Mort B. Jamison had recently purchased the feed barn from Lemuel King for $3,000 ($99,723) and insurance may have covered his and others’ losses.⁸⁵

On November 12, 1908, Lemuel King, owner and manager of the King Hotel, passed away at age 84 in his hotel room. As “one of the best known and highly respected” Black men in Lawrence, the Journal expressed what many citizens felt: “Lem King will be missed” as “our greatest, smartest, best, meanest, and politest man.”⁸⁶ For its part, the Black-owned Topeka Plaindealer deemed him a “useful citizen,” who “played no small part in the building up of the city,” and summarized his legacy as follows:

Few colored men have been more active and conspicuous in the business, social and church circles than Father King. At different times, he owned some very valuable property in Lawrence, and at the time of his death, was the owner and principal operator of the very popular King Hotel. For more than forty years, he was a member of the National Compact Masonic Order, at one time was District Deputy Grand Master. For many years he has been a faithful official member of St. Luke AME church at Lawrence, and at the time of his death, was leader of Class No. 7, Steward and the Treasurer of the Steward board. . . .

His funeral was very largely attended . . . . Beautiful tributes were presented by the members and friends of St. Luke Class 7; Sierra Leone [Club]; Griffin Ice Co., and a number of individual friends. He leaves a wife, Mrs. A. Scott King, two grandchildren [James and son Frederick] and one daughter [Mary or Florence?] to mourn his loss.⁸⁷

As noted by his Masonic brothers below, Mr. King may have become a Mason back in 1858 (or earlier) in Ohio:

To all Free and Accepted Ancient York Masons of King Solomon Grand of North America National Compact: Whereas, it has pleased Almighty God to take from our midst our beloved brother, Lemuel King, therefore we do join the family and friends expressing our heartfelt sorrow in the death of our brother; he has been a faithful member for more than fifty [sic] years.⁸⁸

From Topeka, attorney James A. Guy and Mrs. Lena Wadlington (C. C. and Matilda James’ daughter) were among those who attended King’s funeral, after which Mr. King was buried at Oak Hill Cemetery (Sec. 5, row A, grave 98).⁸⁹

After her husband’s death, Mrs. Anna Scott King continued to run King’s Hotel and requested the ongoing patronage of the public.⁹⁰ In addition to her, various couples or individuals, both Black and white, managed the hotel and/or the restaurant over the years.⁹¹ Soon after the Great Crash of 1929, the King Hotel and the old Cummings’ livery barn was demolished to make way for a new Skelly gas station that existed at this location until 1973.⁹²

The present Vermont Street Station, north of Carnegie Library, should always be remembered and privileged as the 52-year legacy of Lemuel King.

James and Ada King

Like his grandfather, James King (1874-1956) led a long and productive life. In 1896, he became a Masonic officer of Lodge No. 2 of the First Grand Independent Benevolent Society and then served as First Sergeant (and Lieutenant) of Company B in the all-Black Twenty-third Kansas Regiment in Cuba for six months during the Spanish-American War in 1898.⁹³ On April 13, 1900, he married Ada Belle Frye, born in Howard County, Missouri on January 1, 1874. They had no children.

While working as a county jail guard at the rock pile (1900-03), he prevented the third escape of a Black man by shooting him in the heel; “King’s clever shot was highly complimented by the officers.”⁹⁴ After his employment as a driver for the Griffin Ice Company (1904-08), Mr. King became a long-time janitor at KU’s Fraser Hall by 1909 and lived at 722 New York street with his wife.⁹⁵

As a tall, genial, and proud US citizen, he expressed his patriotism in several ways. For a Memorial Day program in 1909, “Lt. James King rendered Lincoln’s Gettysburg address in a stirring manner.”⁹⁶ When the US entered World War I, he believed, “We ought to have a colored regiment from Kansas and from every state in the Union. Our troops in Mexico showed we could fight. Yessir, you could order a regiment of colored soldiers to close the gates of Hades and they’d do it. That’s how brave they are.” As for his own military service, he recalled the following:

We landed in Cuba and went into camp at San Luis, near Santiago, about the time Teddy [Roosevelt] and his Rough Riders left that district. No, I wouldn’t say it got too hot for Teddy. We were mostly on guard duty. We had a few skirmishes, but no real big battle. I shot at [Spaniards] a few times, but I’m not saying I killed any. I’m a little over age now. I was twenty then, and young and spry. That was nineteen years ago. I hope the war will be over soon, but if the country needs me, after the young fellows have gone, I’m willing to go.⁹⁷

Two Black WWI units, the 805th and 806th Pioneer Infantry Regiments organized at Camp Funston (Fort Riley, Kansas), included young men from Lawrence and Douglas County. In 1919, these soldiers were welcomed home by various Black organizations through the Douglas County Patriotic Association in which King served on a finance committee. He also worked on finance and military decorations committees at St. Luke AME Church during the Depression.⁹⁸

  As chief custodian of KU flags at old Fraser Hall, King’s loyalty to US history also extended to raising a flag on October 17, when the Battle of Saratoga was fought during the Revolutionary War.⁹⁹ During the Great War, he flew a flag daily from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. that year rather than only for national holidays and special events. However, he needed to raise a second flag at half-mast because the first flag had been “literally whipped to pieces” by the “naughty wind.” “If that wind blows steady, every day for a month, the ol’ flag won’t last but a month; but if the wind don’t blow so steady, it may last for quite a spell.” At the present rate of destruction, he figured that six to eight flags would be required for one year because one flag got totally destroyed in two months. He thought flags should last longer because “those flags cost about eight or ten dollars” ($187-$234).¹⁰⁰ His concerns also extended to dating relationships between KU students. He filed a complaint with the Utilities Committee stating that he couldn’t work at 11 a.m. every day until he could find out what two students were going to do about a man dating another woman while his girlfriend was out of town.¹⁰¹

For her part, Mrs. Ada F. King (1874-1955) became a very active charter member of the Self Culture Club for Black women. From its founding in 1915 through the 1950s, she hosted many meetings at her home, assisted various club functions, and was honored during the club’s 35th anniversary in March 1950. Examples of her papers included a sketch of George A. Carter and the club’s past presidents (1939) and “Today’s Battle Cry” (1950) while serving as club treasurer (Sept 1950).¹⁰²

Ada and James King died within one year of each other. Their funerals were held at St. Luke AME Church. Survivors included three nieces and four nephews who lived outside Lawrence.¹⁰³ The couple lies buried around a prominent monument at Oak Hill Cemetery with other Frye family members.