Mr. Roswell King lived in a town called Darien, & he
worked for the bank there.
This is a picture of Mr. King.
During the gold rush in north Georgia, Mr. King made several
trips, and noticed the good waterpower located here, as well as the healthier
climate.
Because of this, Mr. King decided to start a summer colony
to escape the malaria epidemic on the coast. He brought with him two of his sons, Barrington & Ralph,
and several other coastal families.
These families were:
Major & Mrs. James S. Bulloch
Mr. & Mrs. John Dunwody
Dr. & Mrs. Nathaniel Pratt
Mr. & Mrs. Archibald Smith
Mrs. Elizabeth Hand
Together with Mr. & Mrs. Barrington King, these 6
families are called the “Founding Families of Roswell.”
Mr. Roswell King gave land to these families to build their
homes, and invited them to invest in his business.
This map sure would have been helpful when I got lost!
The Roswell Manufacturing
Company was incorporated in 1839, and most of the cotton was provided by local
farms, including the Hembree family.
This wood-graving of the Roswell Manufacturing Company was done in 1854.
It seems the town of Roswell has never been without dogs; this is a photo of Ralph Browne King and his trusty sidekick!
Until Next Time!
Thanks so much for sharing this!
ReplyDeleteRoswell King, Sr. was my fourth great grandfather. His son, Roswell King, Jr. was my third great grandfather. Roswell King Jr.'s son was my second great grandfather, and I descend from his son, Frederick Wells King through the latter's daughter, Julia Fraysse King.
Ralph Browne King, pictured above with his dog, is my first cousin four times removed — the grandson of Roswell King, Sr. and Catherine Barrington, and the son of Barrington King (my fourth great uncle).
The King family trace their roots in America back to John King (1629–1703), founder of Northampton, Massachusetts:
http://www.newmusicclassics.com/GENEALOGY/KING/VITA_JOHN_KING.pdf
John King's father-in-law, Deacon William Holton, was a founder of Hartford, Connecticut, and the ninth great grandfather of the late Diana Spencer, Princess of Wales.
The Civil War must have been extremely traumatic for the Kings, since they maintained close ties to New England even though they were Confederates residing in Georgia. Roswell King, Sr. and his son of the same name died before the hostilities began, but Great-Great Grandfather Roswell, born in Connecticut, lost his brother Willie just days before the War ended and his wife, Catherine Ashmead of Philadelphia, died young at the age of thirty in 1872, leaving him with the impossible task of raising his young family while trying to remain a planter following in the footsteps of his father (both admired and maligned by Fanny Kemble in her famous Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation: 1838–1839).
I'm trying to find photos of other members of the King family, particularly Roswell King, Jr. and his wife, Julia Rebecca Maxwell, but so far have come up empty-handed. Most of the surviving photos seem to be of Uncle Barrington and his family, who sold his plantation in southeast Georgia before moving north and establishing the City of Roswell with his father (pictured above).