During our interim stay in Quincy, Massachusetts while we waited for our house to be built, we explored the city and surroundings. This is the first of many blogs about historic things we've seen. This time, we ventured into the large "Mount Wollaston Cemetery" and we came across a huge granite globe and investigated the person and history behind it. Today's blog is about Theophilus King, to whom that massive monument honored and we even found his house (still standing).
NOTE: This cemetery also happens to also be where one of my grandmothers, a great uncle and aunt are all buried. Since it's a big place, and it's a quiet spot in the city, we've driven there with the dogs to walk around and even take a sandwich, which we respectfully eat in our car.
WHO WAS THEOPHILUS KING? He lived from Oct 14, 1844 to Feb 1, 1935. His wife Elen-Louise (one "L" in Elen) lived from July 20, 1849 to April 28, 1942. He was a businessman who tried various businesses, until his last three brought him success.
According to an article in the Telegram, "Theophilus King, along with his partner, Charles Bryant, formed the leather firm of Bryant & King in 1868. Bryant was the local businessman, living at the corner of High and Prospect streets at the time; King lived in the Boston area. The firm had offices on Pearl Street, in Boston, and a successful tannery in Clinton. The firm was financially successful and the future looked very bright for the partners until the Great Boston fire of 1872.
After he rebuilt his business, just 4 years later, the Bryant & King Tannery was totally destroyed by the famous "Mossy Pond Freshet of 1876" when children caused a dam to break, swamping the business and many other properties.
A TURN OF FORTUNE - The next businesses King got into was cotton, granite (because Quincy is famous for its granite quarry) and banking. Those turned his life around. He set up a "King Family Fund" in 1919 and by the 1930s was giving churches and charities money from the interest earned on the fund. He was a millionaire by 1935.
He got involved in granite and a building (later South Shore Bank) that still stands in Quincy Center at 1400 Hancock Street was erected by his company. The banking part involved him becoming chairman of the Granite Trust Company, in downtown Quincy.
VISITING HIS HOUSE - We learned about his house, and we drove by. Of course, it's in a residential neighborhood, so when we stopped the truck to take photos, people came over asking what the heck we were doing there. (They thought we were casing the neighborhood, I guess).
ABOUT THE HOUSE - The Baxter-King house on 36 Heritage Road, in Quincy, is a beautiful home, first built in the 1860s and one of the city’s finest Italianate houses. It is now on the National Register of Historic Places.
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