CHARLES W. KING

Sacramento County

Biographies

CHARLES W. KING

CHARLES W. KING - An enterprising merchant, whose successful management of one of the busiest and most prosperous emporiums in Sacramento County well attests to his qualifications as a commercial leader, is Charles W. King, the proprietor of the popular Rio Linda Market, which he established on May 1, 1922, as a strictly up-to-date store, equipped with a modern refrigeration plant. A native son, he was born at 1115 L Street, Sacramento, on January 30, 1869, the only son of Jeremiah B. and Julia A. (Bullock) King, both of whom are deceased. Two daughters, one the wife of Rev. George R. Bird of Los Angeles, and the other, the wife of H. B. Bird, of Sacramento, survive the parents.

Charles W. King attended the elementary schools of Sacramento, and then worked as a delivery boy at the Empire Market, at Second and K Streets, since which time he has followed the butcher trade, and having inherited certain invaluable incentives from his father, more easily made his way to success. Jeremiah King, who died on January 30, 1884, after a very active career, was born in New York, grew up in the Empire State, studied law and was admitted to the New York bar; but lured by gold, concerning which there was then so much excitement, he came West, and never practiced in his native state. As a young man in California, he had become a millwright, and for a while followed his trade here; and in the meantime, he prospected in the mines of Folsom and vicinity. He returned East, and was married; and then he came a second time, only to stay for a short period, but he finally decided to bring his family west, and in 1856 the wife and daughter came by way of Panama. He remained in Sacramento, and took up building by contract; and it fell to his lot to assume the responsibility for many of the best residences in the city at that time. He also served, under Captain Cook, as first lieutenant of Field Artillery, in the State Guards.

Charles King left Sacramento for Butte City, Mont., where he spent three years, the summers on the range, the winters in the retail shops as foreman for the Butte City Butchering Company, and while in that city he was united in marriage to Miss Mary Leonard, a native of St. Louis, who had previously arrived at Butte City with her parents. On returning to Sacramento, in 1895, Mr. King was for three years in charge of Captain Cook’s City Market. At the outbreak of the Spanish-American War, Cook sold out, and Charley King entered the employ of Henry Shuelmyer, and he was in charge of their slaughter house for four and one-half years, conducting a wholesale butcher business in Sacramento. From 1904 to 1910, he was foreman at Swanson & Son’s Packing Plant, and for four years he also was on the road, as a shipper, and covered Southern Oregon, Nevada, and California.

In 1910, Mr. King bettered his position by going into the employ of Gerber Bros., and he remained with them until three years ago. He also purchased ten acres of choice land in Rio Linda, and took up general farming and the raising of poultry. A year ago, he desired to do his share in pioneering in this fast-growing section, and he opened up a first-class market, the first of its kind, and one by which he is able to serve the community and the countryside for a circle of ten miles around, a convenience and a benefit the value of which can only be estimated by those familiar with the lack of service before he opened the shop. Mrs. King has also served the community as a trustee of the Rio Linda school district. Mr. King is a Republican. Mr. and Mrs. King have six children. Laverta is Mrs. John W. Johnston, Jr., and Clara M., is in the employ of the Motor Vehicle Department at Sacramento. The others are Ruth and Julia; Finlay M., who assists his father in the shop, and Marie, who is a student. Their home is attractive, and among a number of priceless heirlooms of early days in the West owned by the Kings is a leather-covered and bound trunk, brought round the Horn by our subject’s parents.

Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.

Source: Reed, G. Walter, History of Sacramento County, California With Biographical Sketches, Page 920-921. Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, CA. 1923.