page_title: David Ward King
section_title: Maitland, Missouri farmer
hierarchical_section_title: David Ward King / Maitland, Missouri farmer
caption_attribution_description: English: More than 100 year old photo
context_page_description: David Ward King was an American farmer and inventor of the King road drag. His invention, which was the horse-drawn forerunner of the modern road grader, had a great influence on American life because his invention improved the widespread dirt roads of his day to the extent that they could accommodate the advent of the automobile, rural mail delivery and mail order catalogues.
context_section_description: David Ward King often went by his middle name of "Ward", and he wrote it as "D. Ward King". His education was obtained in the Springfield, Ohio public schools and in Wittenberg College (now Wittenberg University) in Springfield. On December 29, 1880 he married Mary Willie (often spelled "Wylie") Burbank of Danville, Kentucky in Springfield. Mary was born in Danville, Kentucky on September 23, 1859. Mary was the daughter of Austin Milton and Lettitia (Reed) Burbank. He moved from Springfield, Ohio to this Maitland, Missouri farm as a recently married young man and began farming there. While living on that farm, he invented the King Road Drag (very famous in its day), which made country roads passable in wet weather and is still credited with making possible reliable rural mail delivery and the practicality of the automobile.
  Probably as early as 1877 or 1878, his father, Robert Quigley King, obtained some 1,597 acres (646 ha) near Maitland in Holt County, Missouri. Family stories hold that his father received this land as the only asset of value owned by a person who owed him a lot of money as the only available way to obtain payment of that debt. After obtaining this farm in that way, his father retained it, even though this acquired farm was in far-off Missouri. When his father had acquired this farm and decided to keep it, he had to do something with it. Ward was his answer. So, Robert Quigley sent his son Ward to this farm in the spring of 1879 to begin farming it. During that summer Ward helped to thresh grain. However, Ward and Mary apparently did not actually move there until January 1881.
  There is reason to believe that Ward's move to this farm was not completely voluntary, since, for generations back, there had been no farmers in his family. Years later, Robert Quigley King acquired another large tract of what was this time raw farm land in much closer Hancock County, Ohio, near the small village of Vanlue. In 1887, he sent his other surviving son, Robert Leffler King (who also went by his middle name, "Leffler"), off to develop that land and farm it. Leffler arrived at this land without buildings in the "thick of winter". There is no doubt that Leffler did not want to leave the ease of the family wealth in Springfield for a hard farm life. However, family members who knew him say he could not stand up to his father. So, he went, erected a house and farm buildings and otherwise developed the farm, overcoming many obstacles. He met and married his wife, Lola Montez Askam King, in the Vanlue community and brought up his family on this farm, which he called "Grassland Farm". He describes his many hardships in his farm journal, which hardships were probably very similar to the ones Ward must have experienced in turning himself into a farmer on his Maitland farm.
  Logic suggests that Ward's fate was destined to be much the same. However, in Ward's case, his invention enabled him to turn his fate to his immense advantage. Family members state that the fact that the travels associated with the promotion of his invention took him away from the farm a lot was not something city-bred Ward considered to be disagreeable. In fact, his son David Bryant King had pretty much taken over operation of the farm by the time he reached eighteen. Leffler, after many years on his Hancock County farm, was finally able to move back to Springfield to help his father manage the family's considerable real estate holdings during his father's declining years. Like his brother, his son Edwin Askam King pretty much took over the operation of Grassland Farm. Although separated by distance, the brothers always remained very close, and they constantly worked together on the family's real estate undertakings in Springfield. Ironically, in the remarkably parallel lives of these two Springfield-reared farmers, their children were more farm people than they were.
  In what was the King family tradition, David Ward was an implacable warrior against alcoholic beverages and the saloons that sold them. Leffler King's wife, Lola Montez King, proudly mentioned 
caption: David Ward King Farm C.1900
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