KING GENEALOGY 1988, author William ("Bill") Truxton King [b: 9/21/29 (?), d: ??]

DADE COUNTY, MISSOURI

CHAPTER I - THE EARLY YEARS

Dade County, Missouri where the KING family arrived about 1840 is on the western slope of the Ozark mountain range in the southwestern part of the state. The county was formed by the General Assembly of the State of Missouri in 1841 and consisted of parts of several adjoining counties. The county seat is Greenfield where the courthouse and the official records are maintained. We are more concerned with the Lockwood and Kings Point areas where our family of KINGs lived.

The countryside was very primitive at that time. In 1837 the first white families reached the area, the previous inhabitants being mostly Indians. One family that settled near Greenfield in 1837 said "the country abounded in wolves, bears, panthers, wildcats, deer, etc." .  In 1840 the county was so infested with wolves that there was a campaign on to exterminate them by feeding them poisoned deer meat. Much of the land was wooded but some made good grazing land. As the area was cleared crops were planted and most residents either raised stock, farmed, or operated some type of business in town. For the earliest settlers the closest market and post office was in Springfield about 30 miles away. The nearest mill was about 25 miles away on the Little Sac river. However, the county and its towns grew rapidly with most of the arrivals looking for land to homestead. Census figures for Dade County were as follows:

    1850 4,246

    1860 7,072

    1870 8,683

    1880 12,557

We do not have the 1840 census but we do have correspondence stating SAMUEL NEWTON KING was listed (on the 1840 census). WILLIAM H. KING and wife SARAH, parents of SAMUEL NEWTON may also be listed. This area may have been in some other county at the time the 1840 census was taken.

Kings Point was one of the earlier towns in the western part of Dade County. Books on Dade County history describe it as follows: "Kings Point, a post village six miles south and four miles west of Greenfield, was laid out in February 1842 by CHARLES E. HOEL, the owner of the site. It contains a general store, blacksmith shop and a few dwellings." The KING family lived on the site. The town was named for the family, or for WILLIAM H. or his son SAMUEL NEWTON KING. WILLIAM FRAZIER KING always said it was named for his father, SAMUEL NEWTON. The HOEL Brothers operated the general store in Kings Point. The Hoel family, from Pennsylvania, were also among the earliest settlers in western Dade County. When the railroad was built through Dade County in the early 1880's it by-passed Kings Point. As a result Lockwood was founded about 10 miles to the north so a nearby town could be located on the railroad. Kings Point was partially abandoned and the Hoels moved the general store to Lockwood.

We do not have any current information on Kings Point except that the cemetery there is said to be well maintained and that there are a number of KINGS and HOELS buried there. Some are also said to be buried at the Lockwood Cemetery. We have only part of the names. SAMUEL NEWTON KING donated land for the cemetery at Kings Point. No one ever got around to conveying a deed until 1903 when the delay was straightened out and the land (was) deeded by the court to the Cemetery Association.  A June 1888 Lockwood paper had the following sentence about a working day at the Kings Point cemetery. One man remarked while working around the grave of an old lady, Mrs. King, that "as there is no relative here I'll fix up her grave, for I remember she used to give me apples when I was a boy." This is believed to be MARGARET L., wife of SAMUEL NEWTON KING or SARAH, wife of WILLIAM H. KING A school was built on land deeded by MARGARET L. KING (shown as an unmarried woman after her husband's death) to the Board of Education on September 29,1873. Many years later the school was torn down and a house was built on the land for the pastor of the country church across the road.

As the population increased the number of churches grew. The Lockwood M.E. (Methodist Episcopal) Church was organized in 1881. The four HOELs listed as members were W. B. HOEL, MARY J. HOEL, CORA E. HOEL, and C. E. HOEL. The Society of the United Brethren had organized an earlier church in Kings Point where the Reverend A. L. Best and his wife were listed as members, but it does not say he was the minister. In addition to Kings Point and Lockwood the United Brethren established churches in two other towns, the four of which made a circuit. The various ministers rode the circuit on horseback and would hold services with each church and Community taking its turn.

Most early settlers in Dade county came from Kentucky, Tennessee, or Alabama. Some came from Pennsylvania and other eastern states, and veterans from Illinois following the Black Hawk War. The books on Dade County history carry the names of several King families. Those in Kings Point and Lockwood areas all seem to be ours (related). The census records show our family as being from Tennessee but do not show which counties (they were from). This is very important to anyone tracing the family back to prior generations. This information is sometimes found on land entries, deeds, or other legal documents but has not been there in our case. We have concluded from other sources mentioned later that the family lived in Lawrence County, Alabama after moving south from North Carolina. If they also lived in Tennessee we do not know where. So far as first names go the names of OLIVER, WILLIAM, and SAMUEL are very common among KING families throughout the South.