Summary Information
Rufus and Charles King Family Papers
1833-1903
- King, Rufus, 1814-1876
- King, Charles, 1844-1933
- King, Rufus, III
Micro 595
1 reel of microfilm (35mm)
Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)
Correspondence and military and financial records of soldier, editor, and diplomat Rufus King; correspondence, diaries, newspaper clippings, and other items of his son, Charles, a soldier and novelist; school examinations and telegrams of his grandson, Rufus King III; and miscellaneous items relating to an 1841 European voyage of Captain and Mrs. York, the parents of Charles King's wife.
English
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Biography/History
Soldier, editor, diplomat, Rufus King led an active and varied life. Born in New York City in 1814, King attended West Point and received his commission as Second Lieutenant in the Army Corps of Engineers in 1833. In 1836 King resigned his commission and returned to New York to become a journalist and civil engineer. Nine years later he moved to Milwaukee where he assumed the editorship of the Milwaukee Sentinel, a position he held until 1861. As editor he made the Sentinel a power in Wisconsin Whig, and later Republican, politics. Lincoln appointed King minister to the Papal States in 1861, but with the outbreak of the Civil War King temporarily left the diplomatic service to rejoin the army. As a brigadier general of U. S. Volunteers, he commanded the “Iron Brigade” until ill health forced him to resign in 1863. Resuming his diplomatic mission to the Papal States that same year King served in Rome until 1867 when he returned to New York where he remained until his death in 1876.
Rufus King's son, Charles King (1844-1933), also followed a military career. He graduated from West Point in 1866 and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the First Artillery. Four years later as a first lieutenant, King transferred to the Fifth Cavalry where he served as regimental adjutant from 1876 to 1878. In 1879 he received his captaincy. Wounded in battle in 1879, King retired from his command but later, 1882-1889, became inspector and instructor for the Wisconsin National Guard. In 1895 he was promoted to adjutant general. During the Spanish-American War King served in the Philippine Islands as a brigadier general of volunteers under General Henry W. Lawton from 1898 to 1899. Upon his return home King was appointed superintendent of the Michigan Military Academy.
Throughout his career, Charles King enjoyed popularity as a novelist, writing romantic adventure stories about the army and life in the West. In all he wrote seventy novels, including Famous and Descriptive Battles, Between the Lines, Marion's Faith (1885), Captain Blake (1892), and The Iron Brigade (1902).
Further information on Charles King can be found in American Authors, 1600-1900 by S. Kunitz and H. Haycraft. Articles on both Charles and his father are listed in Poole's Index to Periodical Literature.
Scope and Content Note
The King papers are arranged in two major and two minor biographical series. The two major portions pertain to Charles and to Rufus King, the smaller sections to Charles' son, Rufus King III, and to Captain and Mrs. York, the parents of Charles' wife, Adelaide.
The Rufus King manuscripts consist of correspondence for the years 1835-1874, and of military and financial records, which include letters about his commission, orders, resignation, and personal accounts. The correspondence file is incomplete. It consists of a small collection of letters for the years 1835-1849, 1861-1864, 1867, and 1874, primarily about Whig politics. The collection includes an exchange of letters concerning a political dispute between King and John Spencer (1844) and individual letters from Thurlow Weed (1838) and William H. Seward (1845). In addition, there are a series of letters from European traveler Charles L. Austin (1838-1840) pertaining to the high society of the times and a small group of King's Civil War letters (1861-1864) concerning additions to his command and other matters of a very general nature. There is virtually no information about the famous “Iron Brigade.”
The bulk of the collection consists of correspondence, diaries, newspaper clippings, and miscellaneous items relating to Charles King. Most of the correspondence is composed of letters from King to his wife, Adelaide, and daughter, Carolyn, in Europe between 1894 and 1901. Earlier correspondence includes a letter to William H. Seward asking for a cadetship at West Point and a series of letters written to his father during the younger King's tour of duty among hostile Indians on the Northern Plains, 1876-1878 (his father died in 1876), describing battles, the pursuit of the Nez Perces, and army life on the frontier. The file also contains some general correspondence between King, relatives and friends primarily dealing with his family's excursions in Europe.
King wrote two diaries while Adjutant General of the Wisconsin National Guard. Besides providing a daily log of his activities, they also contain a personal expense account.
The newspaper clippings pertain almost exclusively to his activities in the Philippines during the Spanish-American War and the Filipino Revolt, while the miscellaneous items include a map produced from his survey expeditions with the Fifth Cavalry in 1876, a few financial records, some general orders for 1897, and portions of pamphlets containing biographical information.
The remainder of the collection contains papers pertaining to Charles' son, Rufus King III, including some graded exams from St. John's Military Academy, Delafield, and telegrams about his acceptance at Annapolis, and a few items accompanying a journal relating to a European voyage taken by Captain and Mrs. York, Adelaide King's parents, in 1841.
Related Material
Related collections held by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin include a separate collection of the papers and correspondence of Charles King, 1840-1930, his diaries for the years 1872, 1879-1895, and 1903-1923; and a separate collection of correspondence, 1861-1867, and a folder of field notes about Rufus King.
Administrative/Restriction Information
These Rufus and Charles King Family Papers were donated to Carroll College by Leonard E. Serr in 1962. They were originally obtained by his father, who ran the old Carleton Hotel in Milwaukee when Charles King lived there. The papers lay forgotten for years in a closet until they were rediscovered and sent to Carroll College. Rufus King III granted literary rights to the collection in 1974. Archivist Phillip Runkel of Carroll College loaned the collection to the State Historical Society of Wisconsin for microfilming in 1976.
Papers loaned for copying by Carroll College via Phillip Runkel, Waukesha, Wisconsin, January 28, 1976. Accession Number: M76-17
Processed by Mark Shale (Intern) and Joanne Hohler, July 15, 1976.
Contents List
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Rufus King
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1
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Correspondence, 1835-1874
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2
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Military and Financial, 1876-1899
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Charles King
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Correspondence
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Outgoing
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3
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1861-1862, written while at West Point
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4
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1874-1878, Rufus King
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5
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1894-1900, Carolyn King
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6
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1897-1901, Adelaide King
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7
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Incoming and Outgoing, 1891-1903
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8
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Diaries, 1896-1897
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9
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Newspaper Clippings, 1895-1900
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10
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Miscellaneous, 1833-1861
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11
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Rufus King III Exams and Telegrams, 1902-1903
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12
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Captain and Mrs. York, 1841
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