Son of Nahum Amos King and Serepta Norton. Husband of Malinda Fuller, the daughter of Arnold Wesley Fuller and his first wife, Sarah Greene. They were married 08 Mar 1846 in Portland and had the following children:
* Infant son King 1846–1847
* Melinda King 1847–1860
* Mary Ann King 1848-1852
* Nautilla A King, Mrs Edward James Jeffery 1850–1936
* Lucy Ann King, Mrs White, Mrs Alexander Lumsden 1852–1912
* Nahum Amos King 1855–1930
* Edward Albert King 1861-1936 (Married Mary Lumsden, sister to Alexander Lumsden)

After Malinda's death in 1887, Amos married a second time. He became the husband of Fannie Gertrude Roberts, married 16 Mar 1892 in Multnomah County.

The Fuller family and the King family pioneered across the states together, losing Malinda's mother along the way. The families intermarried in Oregon.

His burial permit gives his birth as "near Columbus Ohio" and signed by E A King.

DEATH OF A. N. KING

The Well-Known Portland Pioneer Passes Away

CAME TO OREGON IN 1845-46

Located in This City in 1849, and Lived Here Ever Since – Prominently Identified With History of Portland

After three days’ illness, Amos Nahum King, 79 years old, one of the best-known of Portland’s pioneers, died at 9 o’clock last night at the family homestead, 654 Washington street. Last Friday he was taken with a chill, which developed into bronchial pneumonia. Dr. A. E. Rockey was called, and everything that medical science could suggest was done to relieve the venerable patient, and at first hopes were entertained for Mr. King’s recovery, but a change came for the worst Sunday night, and it became apparent that he probably could not recover.

Early last evening it was seen that Mr. King did not have long to live, and urgent messages were sent to the various members of his immediate family, who mournfully gathered around his bedside. He was able to recognize them and bid them good-bye. He did not appear to suffer much. Then he passed into unconsciousness, and in a short time to death.

Mr. King was on the streets last Friday and he gave a hearty greeting to the old friends he met for the last time. Latterly he led an active outdoor life, and was a frequent visitor at the Portland Carnival. When he became sick it was with difficulty that his family could get him reconciled to remain in his home. The latter is a familiar landmark in Portland, located to the westward of the Exposition building. The house was built in 1856, and the first roof erected still braves the storms of Winter. It was Mr. King’s boast that he had lived in no other house in Portland since the erection of his home, and he recalled with pride when he attended the athletic events of the Multnomah Club that his tannery once stood where the grandstand of the Multnomah Club is located. In the old house E. A. King was born, also two of his children. It is about 10 years since the deceased retired from active business, and he resigned himself to the enjoyment of a well-earned rest.

THE LIFE OF AMOS N. KING

A Pioneer of 1845, With a Long Career of Usefulness

Amos Nahum King was born near Columbus, o., April 29, 1822. In 1840 he removed to Missouri, where he operated a ferry-boat across the Missouri River for several years. A great flood destroyed his property, and in 1845, in company with his father, mother, five sisters and three brothers, he was on the plains bound for Oregon. A hundred wagons composed the immigration, whose passing was made memorable by a desperate trip through Meek’s cut-off, from Snake River to The Dalles. On reaching the latter place the party constructed a number of pine log rafts, on which they descended the Columbia, making the portage at the cascades, after which they came to Linnton in small boats, the passage being a thrilling one, and full of hair-breadth escapes.

The King family spent the Winter of 1845-56 near Forest Grove. Early in the following Summer the elder King and one of his sons went to the beautiful valley in Benton County which now bears the family name. There they took up donation land claims. A. N. King however, selected his claim on the Willamette River, a few miles below the present site of Corvallis. Foreseeing the commercial greatness of Portland, he cam hither in 1849, and bought a squatter’s right to the magnificent hillside claim est of the city, known now as King’s Addition. Ebson (or Aperson) and Balance were the men from whom he made the purchase. They had obtained it from D. H. Lownsdale, who had erected a tannery there. This business Mr. King continued for 12 years, in the meantime clearing off the timber and laying out King’s Addition to Portland. An act indicating his public spirit was his sale of the 40 acres for the City Park at $800 per acre, which was only a fraction of the actual value of the property.

In 1846 Mr. King was married to Miss Matilda Fuller of Tualatin Plains. Mrs. King died on January 30, 1887. The fruits of this long and happy union were six children, four of whom are still living. They are: Edward A. King, and N. A. King of this city; Mrs. Jeffery and Mrs. Lucy A. Lumsden, of Sauvie’s Island. Mr. King’s first wife died in 1887, and in 1892 he married Mrs. Fanny G. Roberts, who survives him.

Mr. King was held as one of Portland’s most substantial citizens, and was regarded as a good man in every sense of the word. He was a progressive citizen in the community, a kind and generous neighbor and a trusted friend. His domestic relations were most happy, and he left not only grandchildren, but great-grandchildren to mourn his loss.

Of late years Mr. King had devoted much of his time to looking after his property interests, which were very extensive. He was often seen by the residents of King’s Addition, now one of the most beautiful residence districts of Portland, spade in hand, correcting faults in a street improvement left by careless city workmen, or, in time of heavy Winter downpours, taking good care that choked sewers did not cause damage by overflow of water.

He was always in favor of improving property wherever possible, and had not the plan been blocked by a minority of the property-owners along the way, he would before this have secured the laying of a fine asphalt or vitrified brick pavement on Washington street, from Sixteenth to the City Park.
Mr. King was a man whose judgment on matters of property values was seldom in error, and whose counsel was eagerly sought by his friends and associates. Benton Killin, a lifetime friend, once said of him: “When Amos King gives his advice about anything, you can be mighty sure that it is the advice to be followed. I know of no man in Portland who has sounder or clearer judgment.”

At the time of the publication of the semi-centennial number of The Oregonian, December 4, 1900, Mr. Kin g was the only person then living in Portland whose name had been mentioned in the first number of this paper. He contributed a column of interesting reminiscences to the semi-centennial number. Describing his settlement at Portland, he said: “We didn’t stop at Portland when we first came to Oregon. Up in King’s Valley, were we lived, I early began to hear stories about the profits and dangers of boating in the rivers from Oregon City to Vancouver. Every once in a while somebody was drowned in Clackamas Rapids, or a boat was capsized and her cargo lost, or a mishap of some kind occurred. I had had some experience in that sort of work on the Missouri River, and I concluded I would try it. So, I came down the river, got a boat and set out to have a look at Clackamas Rapids. I was two or three miles below Oregon City, and I met a boat with a man in it. “Say,” said I, “how far is it to Clackamas Rapids?” “Why, you’ve passed ‘em” said he. So I had, and I didn’t know it. I concluded to go into the transportation business. There were three boats then plying from Vancouver to Oregon City. Not steamboats, mind. The first trip I made nothing. The second trip I made $2. Then one boat dew off, and then another, until I had the business pretty much to myself. You see, I never tipped a boat over, or wet anybody’s goods. Then I got another boat above the falls, and so I had through service from Vancouver to Yamhill. This was before the days of the Oregon City locks, and we had to pack goods around the falls on our backs. It took about two weeks to make the through trip; though, If everything went well, we made it quicker. I was so prosperous that I had a crew of two on my bateau. When we reached the rapids we poled and pulled. In making the whole trip, sometimes, we rowed, other times took a line, went ashore and pulled; then again it was possible to row on one side and pole on the other. Usually we didn’t stop long at Portland. There wasn’t much to Portland in those days.

Well, I stuck to that business for two years, and hard work it was, too. Then I came to Portland. I wanted to buy some blankets at Crosby’s store, at Washington and First streets, and I had to hang around three days for a chance to get waited on. How is that for a rush of business? D. H. Lownsdale and Colonel King were about the only men living on the original Portland townsite those days. I bought out the tannery from the two partners, who wanted to go to California. That was in 1849, and the gold excitement was at its height. I bought the whole outfit just as it stood – hides, leather in hand, tools, everything. Off went Ebson and Balance. In a year or two Balance came back broke, and went to work for me until he got enough money to go to Jacksonville to work in the mines.

I had only the tannery in the Northwest and I prospered. I had lots of trouble keeping men at work, though. I paid as high as $10 per day, and still they wouldn’t stay. I sold hides and leather to everybody. An inch strip of cow’s hide, good for a bridle-rein, sold for a dollar. I had great difficulty getting skins. Cattle were scarce, and usually too valuable to kill. I tanned twice as many deer skins as any other. But people had to come to me, or go barefooted, or wear moccasins, which in the Winter time was about the same thing.

Conditions of life were pretty hard then. I remember the firs pair of shoes I ever had, after we got here. My father made them, and he tanned the hides by hand. I had gone barefooted from March till December of that year. Everybody then – in 1846 – wore buckskin coat, buckskin jacket, and buckskin breeches, all home-made. And a homemade straw hat too. I had just one hat that wasn’t straw before ’62. Down on the Columbia River, during a blow one day, my hat went off into the river. The boys laughed at me so much that I told them I would get a hat that would fill them with envy. I did. I went to the Hudson’s Bay store at Vancouver, and bought a high silk hat, the only one I could get. And I wore that on the river for some time.

We ran our tannery by horse power and used home made tools. The first real curry knife I had I paid $15 for. It was worth $2.50 in the states. I cut out the tan vats myself with a broadax. WE had no sawmill nearer than Oregon City. People came from all over the territory to buy leather, riding horseback from as far as Jacksonville. They had to have shoes if they had nothing else.

In politics Mr. King was a Democrat for a great many years, but on the advent of Bryanism and the silver agitation, he twice voted for the late President McKinley. The arrangements for the funeral have not yet been made.

[The Morning Oregonian, 12 Nov 1901, p1 w/portrait]

THE RESIDENCE IN WHICH AMOS N. KING LIVED SINCE 1856

The funeral of the late pioneer, Amos N. King, will be held from the family residence, near the corner of Twentieth and Washington streets, at 1:30 this afternoon. Rev. Dr. E. P. Hill will conduct the services. The interment, which will be private, will be at Riverview cemetery. Following is the list of pall-bearers, all of whom have been life-long friends of the deceased: Judge M. C. George, Tyler Woodward, D. W. Wakefield, A. B. Stuart, F. Opitz and George L. Story.

The news of Mr. King’s death came as a shock to his many friends among Portland’s business men and pioneer residents. He had been in vigorous health up to within a few days of his death, and the news of his illness had not been spread widely abroad. Many messages of sympathy were received by his family yesterday, coming from men and women who knew and appreciated the worth of the deceased pioneer, and who feels his loss as deeply as they would that of a near relative. Nearly all the members of his family are no in the city.

The above photograph shows the residence on Twentieth street, in which Mr. King lived continuously since 1856. A reproduction of the last photograph ever taken of Mr. King is also given. [See the Oregonian to view these photos]

[The Morning Oregonian, 13 Nov 1901, p8]

FUNERAL OF MR. KING – The funeral of the late Amos N. King was held from the family residence, Twentieth and Washington streets, yesterday afternoon. A large number of friends of the deceased attended the services, which were conducted by Rev. E. P. Hill. The ceremony was brief, consisting of a Scripture reading, a few remarks by the minister, and a prayer. The private services at the interment in Riverview cemetery were attended by the members of the family.

[The Morning Oregonian, 14 Nov 1901, p7]

THE KING ESTATE

Edward A. King was appointed administrator of the estate of his father, Amos N. King, by Judge Cake yesterday. The property is valued at $900,00, and the administrator was required to file a bond in the sum of $600,000, in conformity with the statute. The heirs are the wife, Fannie G. King; Nautilla A. Jeffery, a daughter, residing in Portland; Lucy A. Lumsden, a daughter, residing on Sauvie’s Island, and Nahum A. King and Edward A. King, sons, residing in this city.
[The Morning Oregonian, 16 Nov 1901, p8]
-Contributed by: Friends of River View