The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-07-19
THE PASSING OF
 ''JAKEY" KING
For Many Years Was Among Most Familiar Characters Tn Heart
 of City

''Jakey'' King, for years a familiar character about the streets of Bridge port and who died at Lakeview home Thursday was buried in the lot back of the town farm this morning. No relative came to claim his body and. notwithstanding the report that years ago he had sold his body to the Yale Medical school to be dissected after deatlf. no representative from the col lege cfa1ned the corpse either.
 So far as can be learned Jakey King had not a relative in Bridgeport. Un- able to talk inteIngibly he could give no history of himself when he was admitted to La-keview home last May. Consequently no record of his age or his percentage could be- Q obtatned-
 It Is believed that he was born in ''OId Dutch Lane,' a little street that once extended from Main street through Housatonic avenue to the r1V- CT front near where the Lyric theatre Btands now There Is no record of his. percentage but old residents of Bridge port say his parents were Germans and that his mother died soon after his birth. It is believed that Jakey was more than so years old.
 Soon after the death of his mother, the Civil war broke out and 1t is said that his father went to the war, not as an enlisted soldier, but as a wagon driver in one of the great wagon trains used by the uuartermaster de- psrtment Of that period. 'Jakey's father is said to have been killed near Spottsy1vania Courthouse, Va-s when the Confederate cavalry raided Un- ion wagon train there.
 Jakey lived in Bridgeport all his life and grew to be a well known charac- ter about the streets of the city. Ma ture in one of it's strange freaks had dealt hardly with the little man. He was less than four feet tall and was If ?, about .his neck. like a monster goitre- His head and feet were large and mis- shapen and his features almost repul- sixe. To add to all this he could not speak plainly and it was with diff culty that he could make himself un- dsrstood There is no record that he ever attended school, yet he was able to read and write. but for some req Eon he preferred to conceal these ac- complishments and sWzith something 1fketfhe heccunn5ngaof -an HaaotsHe would deny that he possessed sthernzrr-
 Fer a number Of years he made his own living as a bootblack. He was the first bootb1ack in Bridgeport and for many years the only one He made his stand at Main and Bank streets in front of the old Bank build ing Beside a huge lump of coal which once stood there, he finally ob- tzined permission to place a chair and an umbrella and this was the first permanent boot black stand in Bridge port But -Jalkey was slow and not a very good -bootbIack and when boot black stands were established in stores In various parts of the city Jakey gave dnp his stand.
 For a number of years after he lived on charity He begged from every one he met and besides he had a num- be rof business men on Main street and other charttably inclined persons on whom he called and received a regular sum each week. Gradually these people died however and Jakey seemed to lack the ability to get oth- h ewas unable to obtain money for ewas unable to obtain money for food and lodging regularly and was often found by the police walking the streets in the dead of night It was npalIys decided best to send him to Lakevfew nome.
 When the late Dr. Hubbard was alive the report was common that he had bought Jakey's body for $25 and that after the death of the deformed man, the doctor intended to dissect the body to discover if possible the reason for his strange defor1nity This story was probably true but, Dr. Hub bard died first and with him out of mind people who repeated the tale credited the Yale Medical School as having bid for the body.
 This morning the city undertakers, walker and Banks who had charge of the body, buried it in the plot back of the Lakeview home beside the many <riend1ess ones who lie there, unwept and unhonored.