The daily Evansville journal., 1863-03-18
Ote 1aiGu duurttar.
eFather King" of the S7th Iowa.

"FatneF kIHS, OI tnb ottH IOhd'
The venerable Curtis King, high pri-
vate" in company H of the celebrated
37th Iowa, the regiment of "Silver
Grays," has deservedly attracted much
attention, alike from his great age, ele-
waited character and exemplary patriot
ism. The following authentic particu-
lars, obtained by an interview with him,
cannot fail to be read with interest:
"Father King" as his friends love to
designate him, is six feet and an inch in
hight, of massive and well knit frame,
genial presence, careful and kindly
speech, good health and spirits, and will
be eighty-two years of age on the 10th of
May next. He is able to perform his
military duties with alacrity, and has
sustained the fatigues with much less
inconvenience than many younger sol
diers. While those who were his juniors
by scores of years, have been rendered
invalids through patrol duty at night,
this veteran of more than four-ffths of
century, has unintermittently returned
to his post with cheerfulness and COM
fort For this extraordinary power of
endurance at so advanced an age, he is
indebted to a constitution derived from
family remarkable for strength, vivacity,
stature, and longevity, and to his health
ful habits of toll and religious sobriety
Prior to the Revolution his grand
father King left Ireland, and with wife
and six sons emigrated to the Colony of
Virginia, where, in the Valley of the
Rappahannock and in Culpepper coun-
ty, he located on mile square of land,
leased from Col Carter. On this tract
the children were reared, married and
brought up their families. Thence King,
youngest of the six sons, and father of
Curtis, died at the age of fifty years from
the bite of eopperhead-a fact which
does not help to lessen the sons detesta-
tion of our more yenomous modern cop
perheads. Curtiss father fought under
Washington through the revolutionary
war, and was guarding prisoners at Win
chester when relieved by the return of
peace. Among the first emigrants to
the free soil of Ohio, was Curtis's only
brother and two of his five sisters, while
he and three sisters remained with their
widowed mother on the old farm. At
the age of nineteen, Curtis obtained the
consent of the rest of the family to trans
fer their residence to the Great West.
and after a journey of eight tedious
weeks over the rugged mountains, they
rejoined their friends at Hillsboro, in
Highland county, Ohio.
1t is worthy of remark, that in Vir-
ginia, neither the wealthy Grandsire, nor
any of his descendants ever used slaves
Curtis rented a cottage for his mother
and three sisters, but before long he found
the latter all married and himself and
mother alone. He thereupon, as he
states, considered what he should do to
make her happy, and concluded to marry
a scertain attractive young widow, of
thirty-six years, "of good report, pious,
and well disposed" He was then not
twenty years Locating his wife and
mother together, he devoted himself ar
aaHHGGusy aHG YvG!'u to ,slFylag to make living.
ed abundantly, so that before long he was
comfortably fixed in his sphere of life. u
Then new territories were discovered be-
yond the Mississippi and he was still led
after them and was successful in his To-
cations and continued on the gaining
hand abundantly. In the town of Dan
byvllle, Hendricks co Indiana, his moth
er died and was buried, at the age of one
hundred and three years. Her name
was Obedience, and she was the daughter
of Colonel Blackwell, of Virginia, a con-
nection of the family of John Randolph of
Roanoke. Subsequently Curtis and his
increasing family removed to Richland
township, Wapello county, Iowa, near
the Des Moines river, where they have
now resided nearly sixteen years. He
has now been twenty-five years married
10 his second wife, who is Just half his
age, or torty-one years, and was sixteen
when united in marriage with him, he
being then ifty-seven years old. By her
he has nine sons and three daughters,
and by his former wife had six sons and
three daughters-in all twenty-one chill
dren. The Irish ancestor, Curtis grand
father, lived to the age of one hundred
and fifteen years, and was six feet and
six inches in stature Several of Cur
It's S uncles were seven feet in height,
and lived to an extreme old age His
mothers father migrated from England
to Virginia, and here lived upon the
rental of his ancestral estates in the old
country. After his demise, the oldest
son, Curtis Blackwell, removed from
America to England, to manage the
estate of his father .-..---
The venerable Iowan has been in act
I've military service since the 18th of Oc-
tober last He may well be excused a
feeling of pride in his personal history
and antecedents, and desire that the
facts of his life and family, since they
have excited curiosity and comment,
should be correctly published May he
be spared to hail the return of peace and
the restoration of the Union- Missouri
Democrat