Member Biography

Biography

Ordnance Sergeant Charles Fox King (D30) Schuylkill (Part) County 1883-1886

Early Life: 

Ordnance Sergeant Charles Fox King, born, October 4, 1841, Wilmington, New Castle County, Delaware; private, Company C, 1st Regiment, Delaware Volunteer Infantry, Civil War, 1861-1862; ordnance sergeant, 137th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, Civil War, 1862-1863; errand boy; clerk, general store (6 years); assistant, colliery (3 years); station agent, Philadelphia and Reading Railroad; construction contractor, Philadelphia and Reading, East Mahanoy, Erie, and Baltimore and Ohio Railroads; elected, Democrat, Pennsylvania House of Representatives, 1872 and 1873 terms; not a candidate for reelection 1874 term; chief contractor, Brazil roadways and Mexico Central Railroad; elected, Democrat, Pennsylvania State Senate (1883-1886); elected, delegate, Democratic National Conventions, 1888, 1904; trustee, Miners’ Hospital, Ashland; organizer and director, Union National Bank, Mahanoy City; married, Sarah C. King, children, Maria Juanita King Kieffer, Edmund G. King, Charles Bayard King;  died, March 20, 1912, Pottsville, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania; interment, Saint Patrick’s Cemetery, Pottsville, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania.

Early Career:

Private, Company C, 1st Regiment, Delaware Volunteer Infantry October 17, 1861- saw action, 2d Manassas, discharged, camp fever 1862; reenlisted ordnance sergeant, 137th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry August 17,1862, battles, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Mud March, and Chancellorsville, mustering out June 1, 1863. 

Errand boy; clerk, general store (6 years); assistant, colliery (3 years); station agent, Philadelphia and Reading Railroad; construction contractor, Philadelphia and Reading, East Mahanoy, Erie, and Baltimore and Ohio Railroads; Construction contractor, Philadelphia and East Mahanoy Railroad; built, Luzerne County Jeddo Tunnel;  supervised similar mining and rail projects, Pennsylvania, Erie, and Baltimore and Ohio Railroads; served, chief contractor, Brazil’s Madeira and Mamore roads; chief contractor, Mexican Central Railroad.

Professional titles; business ownership; board memberships; local government; club memberships:

Board of Trustees, Pennsylvania State Hospital for injured persons of the Anthracite Coal Regions, Ashland; organizer and director, Union National Bank, Mahanoy City.

Pennsylvania Politics: 

Elected, Democrat, Pennsylvania House of Representatives, 1872-1873; not a candidate for reelection, 1874.

Elected, Democrat, Pennsylvania State Senate, 30th district, Schuylkill (Part) County 1883-1886, committee assignments, Appropriations, Corporations, Congressional Apportionment and Mines and Mining.   

Elected, delegate, Democratic National Convention, 1888, 1904.

Pennsylvania House of Representatives Biography:

Official Website - PA House Archives Official Website (state.pa.us)

Cited:

Cox, Harold. "Senate Members K". Wilkes University Election Statistics Project. Wilkes University.

Smull’s Legislative Handbook, (1885). Smull, W.P., (Editor) Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, pages 844, 849-851, Biographical Sketches of Senators, page 810.

Charles Fox King (1841-1912) - Find a Grave Memorial