Evening star., 1935-02-03

name became Dickson & King, with its Wash
ington office at Sixteenth and I streets, where
it remained for some years.
Later the firm bought the southeast and
southwest corners Of Sixteenth and K streets
northwest and stored coal at the former and
wood at the latter. AS this was then deemed
too far uptown for an office they rented a piece
of ground on the east side of Sixteenth street,
just south of I street, and had their Office
there for while, but subsequently moved to the
southeast corner of Sixteenth and streets.
They were not through moving, for soon they
leased lot on the south side of New York
avenue, between Thirteenth and Fourteenth
streets, where was later erected THE Rink"
There Peter Grogan subsequently kept furni-
ture store and afterward was built the Hall Of
the AncientS, where now stands the Capital
Garage. Before this, however, John Dickson
had retired from the firm and his sons, Henry
and James, had taken over his interest.
Soon Ferdinand King and James King, sons
of the second William, Joined the firm as clerks,
having previously been employed in a like
capacity at William McLean's lumber yard. On
the death Of John Dickson, his son James sold
his interest to his brother Henry, and because
Of falling health Henry Dickson also left the
business in 1880, when the third William King
became sole owner Of the firm, and upon his
death the business descended to his son, LIE Roy
o. King, the present owner.
THERE are several King families in George
town today and, according to the census Of
1900, there were then living in that town several
families by this name, who may not even have
been related to each other, and probably there
are not many living there now who can trace
their ancestry back to William King, the cabinet
maker, who settled there in 1885, and in addi-
ton to following his trade was the towns
principal undertaken from the time he came
there until the time Of his death, July Z, 1854,
when the business was continued by others.
He was also a member of Capt Benjamin
Burch's company of Artillery in the War
Of 1912.
This William King married twice. his first
wife being Mary Fowler, who lived on the banks
Of the Severn River near Annapolis, Md. The
wedding took place on Sunday, November 4,
1897 and the oficating clergyman was the
Rev. Benton Riggs of the Methodist Church.
After the death of this wife, November IA, 1872,
William King, on June %, 1918, married
Christina Fowler (nee Gozler), the widow Of
Daniel Fowler, who was his first wife's brother.
William King was nearly twenty years her
senior.
BY the first wife there were born Francis.
William, Daniel, Margaret, Isabella, Helen and
Mary, and by the second marriage William,
Mary, Mevina, Henry, James, Thomas Sim,
Catherine, John and Alexander McCaine.
The writer has already told upon former
occasion how California got many of its beauti-
full flowers and some of it's fruit trees, through
the John Saul nurseries of this city and, of
course, many of us are familiar with the story
of how it got its famous SeedleSS oranges from
the Government nurseries here in Washington.
But California also received great assistance
in its early days from the type Of pioneers
furnished by the District Of Columbia in its
struggling infancy, when character went a long
way toward maintaining order and discipline
and stamping out crime and murder.
One of the most notable cases in the history
of this Far Western State was the part taken
there for the good of society and order by James
King, one Of the sons of the first William by
the second marriage, just mentioned.
Not long after gold was discovered in Cali
fornia in 1848 James King, William King
and Thomas Sim King left their home in