REV. JOHN RUTLEDGE KING
Four brothers named King emigrated from Lancaster county, Pennsylvania,
to what is now Washington county, Virginia, and Sullivan
county, Tennessee, in the earliest days of its settlement, or, about the
year 1762. One of these was David King, grandfather of the subject of
this sketch. David married a daughter of John Sharp, who is supposed
to have been the first settler of what is now Sullivan county,
Tennessee, and his son, John Sharp King, was the father of Rev. John
Rutledge King. John Sharp King served in the war of 1812, at the age
of seventeen years. He was at Mobile at the time of the battle of
New Orleans, and, with a squad of soldiers, captured some British
troops.
Rev. John Rutledge King was born in Roanoke county, Virginia,
April 13, 1817. His ancestors on his mother's side were the Rutledges
and Vanlears, of Roanoke, Virginia. He was educated for the ministry
at Maryville Theological Seminary, Blount county, Tennessee. In 1843
he entered the ministry of the New School Presbyterian Church. The
schools united in 1865, forming the Presbyterian Church, South. He
has been engaged in the work of the ministry constantly since 1843, in
Virginia and Tennessee.
Mr. King's first wife was Elizabeth, daughter of John Thomas, an
early settler of Sullivan county, Tennessee. She was born in that
county, May 21, 1811; they were married there, January 2, 1844, by
the Rev. James King, living then where Bristol, Tennessee, now stands.
She died August 23, 1876, leaving three children. Sarah S., now Mrs.
Delaney, of Washington county, Virginia, John T. and Dr. James M.
King, of Bristol John entered the Confederate States Army when
only sixteen years of age, and is now a farmer in Sullivan county,
Tennessee.
The second marriage of Rev. J. R. King was solemnized at Kingsport,
Tennessee, by Rev. M. C. Willoughby, May 7, 1878, Maria C. Vance
becoming his wife. She is a daughter of Dr. James Vance, of Kingsport.
Her mother was a Sevier, a near relative to General Sevier of "King's
Mountain" battle fame.
