JOHN AND JANE MATCHETT KING

February 1, 2007

submitted by Walter King;  waltercking@sbcglobal.net

   John King  (1807 - 1852) was born in Tennessee and came to Pike County, MS when a young boy.  This was between 1815 and 1820.  He lived on a farm with his parents until he

married.  In about 1830, he married Jane Matchett (1814 - 1881)  She was born in South

Carolina and migrated to Perry County, MS in early 1817. Her family migrated to Holmes County, MS around 1830, as did John's family.

   From a family memoir written circa 1908 by Eliza Harriet Cunningham King (1848 - 1932),wife of her first cousin, Thomas Jasper King (1832 - 1914), son of John and Jane King:  "After John and Jane married, they lived with his parents in Holmes County, then near them for two more years.  Then they moved to Carroll County and settled the place John Mason now owns.  They had only one room, and no out houses.  He cut the cane on the creek, burnt it and dug holes.  He planted his corn with a hoe and without any help made forty bushels per acre.  In the summer he put up another room and cleared more land.  They both worked hard; she would spin and make cloth, knit their socks and stockings, do the milking, cooking, and washing and was general nurse.  In three years she had three babies, though no twins.  Their nearest neighbor was four miles away.  She said they were happy.  There were no saw mills there then and if they built a frame house they had to saw the lumber by hand.  In course of time, he built a large frame room porch in front, a shed room full length of the house with a partition through it, giving them three sleeping rooms.

   After the Mexican War, they decided they wanted to give the soldiers a reception.  They used a barrel of flour for the occasion.  I have forgotten the quantity of sugar and eggs.  By this time the country was very well settled up and their neighbors would save up eggs and butter; some would sell to them, others give.  The table for the occasion was in the yard.  Several hundred enjoyed the feast.

   Instead of spending money for slaves, they invested in land.  They owned what is now the Grider place, Newt Oldham's, Joe Whittle's, Tom Whittle's, Coles Ferguson's, Box's, Will Stafford's, John Mason's and John McIntosh's.

   Had John lived longer, he would have been a Primitive Baptist preacher.  he was studying for the finistry when he died and preached a few times.  HIs youngest child was ten months old when he died with typhoid fever.  (Ed. note:  Richard Henry King was born May 28, 1849, so he was about 3 years old when his father died in February, 1852.)  Several of the children were grown.  Sarah (Streeter) and Josephine (Ferguson) had married.  John gave Sarah a house, horse, saddle, and bridle, and a year's supply of provisions.  James Edward, age 20, the oldest son, took charge of the home and helped his mother.  He made the boys work and was hard on them, leaving them to work while he went deer hunting.  James soon married Martha Edwards and left them; the other boys all stayed home till they were grown.  Jane married Archie Stafford in 1856 who was working there with the boys.  He was hair lipped: she went with him to New Orleans, had his lip fixed, which added much to his looks.  (Ed.

note:  Archie Stafford is listed in the 1850 census as a 17 year old living with the John King family.  He was 22 years youner than Jane.  In 1856, Jane, joined by her husband, Archie Stafford, sold some land, presumably to finance the trip to New Orleans.)  After the war, she saw her farm going to destruction and got her son Jasper to move on it with her and gave him so much of the land - 100 acres to improve and the other to cultivate.  She was soon stricken with liver trouble and disappointment and died in September, 1881."

   One of John and Jane King's great granddaughters, Mattie Blair, was married to U. S. Senator Charles Whittington of Greenwood.

   Both John and Jane are buried in the King - Mason Cemetery southeast of Winona, where Mason Road branches off of Old Scotland Road, which curves back to join Oldham Road.

After John died, they stacked large bricks on top of his grave, from the headstone to the footstone.  Today, the largest cedar tree I have ever seen is growing on top of his grave.  The upper root system of that tree has just swallowed up most of those bricks.