Born: Kinsman, Trumbull County, Ohio, July 9, 1831.Died: Alleghany, Pennsylvania, May 11, 1890.
Born: Kinsman, Trumbull County, Ohio, July 9, 1831.
Died: Alleghany, Pennsylvania, May 11, 1890.
JOSEPH KING was born in Kinsman, Trumbull County, Ohio, July 9, 1831. At seven years of age he was left an orphan, and was thrown on the world entirely upon his own resources. This fact subjected him to many privations and severe trials; but his energies were correspondingly quickened, and the self-reliance and patience which have since characterized the man were developed and strengthened thus early by the struggles of the boy. The money he expended in acquiring an education was earned by his own efforts: first, by manual labor on a farm, and, afterward, by teaching. No one helped him to a dollar.
He began the study of English grammar, and, indeed, all the common branches of an education, after he entered his eighteenth year, and graduated, with distinguished honor, at Bethany College, in 1855. His early religious training was thoroughly Presbyterian, and he had no accurate knowledge of the Disciples, or of their views, till he was twenty years of age. When in his twenty-first year, after going through a long and terrible ordeal in seeking the way of salvation, he was brought to see and understand the truth, and was immersed, in Mahoning County, Ohio, in 1852.
After graduating at college, his first year in the ministry was spent at Warren, Ohio; the next three years were spent in the State of New York, in connection with the Williamsville Classical Institute. He was afterward pastor of the Church in New Lisbon, Ohio, four years; he then removed to Alleghany City, Pennsylvania, and took charge of the Church in that place, where he has been for nearly five years, and which is his present field of labor.
Brother KING is of medium stature and very slight, but has shown himself capable of a large amount of hard work. He has brown hair, gray eyes, and weighs one hundred and twenty-five pounds. His physiognomy marks him as a man of equable temper, large benevolence, but very decided and firm in reference to all his plans of life. His preaching is chiefly practical, and his discourses are generally characterized by much that appeals directly to the conscience. He has very little imagination, and is not, in the popular sense, an orator, but his success in the ministry demonstrates that he wields an influence more potent than that which belongs to the most gifted speakers. Every-where he has labored, the Divine blessing has attended his preaching, and he is now doing a work in Alleghany City which is worthy to be recorded as among the most splendid successes that have crowned the pastoral labors of the ministry.