KING, JONAS: Congregational missionary; b, at Hawley, Mass., July 29, 1792; d. at Athens, Greece, May 22, 1869. He was graduated at Williams College, 1816, and at Andover Theological Seminary, 1819; entered the Congregational ministry; labored as missionary in Syria 1823-26, and in Greece from July, 1828, till his death. From 1821 till 1828 he held (nominally) the professorship of Oriental languages and literature at Amherst and spent a part of his time studying in Paris, with a view to entering upon the duties of his chair. He published several volumes of translations, and original works in modern Greek. His work in Athens
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BIBLIOGRAPHY: Mrs. F. E. H. Haines, Jonas King, Missionary to Syria and Greece, New York, 1879.
KING, THOMAS STARR: Unitarian; b. in New York Dec. 16, 1824; d. in San Francisco Mar. 4, 1864. His education was interrupted by the death of his father, a Universalist clergyman then residing at Charlestown, Mass., and he was compelled to go to work in a dry-goods store. Later, while engaged in teaching, he studied theology in his spare time, and began to preach in 1845. He was pastor of the Universalist Church at Charlestown 1846-48, of the Hollis Street Unitarian Church, Boston, 1848-60, and of the Unitarian Church in San Francisco 1860-64. He was a brilliant speaker and achieved a national reputation as a lecturer. At the outbreak of the Civil War, when it seemed probable that California would secede, King threw himself into the breach and by his eloquence saved the State to the Union. During the war he was active in the interest of the United States Sanitary Commission. While located at Boston he spent much time exploring the White Mountains and published The While Hills, their Legends, Landscape, and Poetry (Boston, 1859). Patriotism and other Papers (1864), Christianity and Humanity (1877), Substance and Show, and other Lectures (1877) were published posthumously.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: A Memoir, by E. P. Whipple, was prefixed to Christianity and Humanity, ut sup., pp. vii.-lxxx. Consult also: R. Frothingham, A Tribute to Thomas Starr King, Boston, 1864; O. T. Shuck, Thomas Starr King in Verse, privately printed, 1905.
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