David Ward King Inventions Information

David Ward King (October 27, 1857 – February 9, 1920) was an American farmer and inventor of the King road drag. His invention, which was the horse-drawn forerunner of the modern road grader, had a great influence on American life because his invention improved the widespread dirt roads of his day to the extent that they could accommodate the advent of the automobile, rural mail delivery and mail order catalogues.

King was often referred to then and now as "the Missouri farmer", which he was. However, he was born, reared and educated in Springfield, Ohio, and came from a very prominent and wealthy family of that city.

David Ward King was the grandson of his namesake, Springfield merchant and real estate developer David King. His paternal grandfather, David King, was probably born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1796. His paternal grandmother, Almena Caldwell King, was born in Hillsborough, New Hampshire on August 16, 1809. However, she moved with her parents when she was young to early Portsmouth, Ohio, which is in southernmost Ohio at the confluence of the Scioto River and the Ohio River, where her father established a successful carpentry business. Both of Ward's paternal grandparents had been orphans. Ward's grandfather, David King, was found as a toddler wandering the streets of Baltimore during a yellow fever epidemic in which both his parents presumably died. David knew only his own name and could tell nothing about his parents. He was found in a Baltimore hotel and taken in by a Robert Quigley who had a farm near Shippensburg, Pennsylvania and who had "wagoned" to Baltimore for supplies. While Robert Quigley did rear and educate David King on his Cumberland County, Pennsylvania farm, he did not adopt him, which is why David's last name stayed King. The Quigleys were devout members of the nearby Middle Spring Presbyterian Church. David King grew up, regularly attending that church, which began a strong tradition of religious correctness in the King family that beyond question made its way down to Ward.

Upon attaining adulthood, Ward's grandfather David King obtained an apprenticeship as a store clerk in Portsmouth, Ohio, where he met Ward's grandmother, then-teenage Almena Caldwell. However, her older brother and father fell from a small boat and drowned in the nearby Scioto River. Soon thereafter, Almena's mother died of grief. Her Uncle Hannibal Gilman Hamlin (first cousin to Lincoln's first Vice President, Hannibal Hamlin) became the guardian of her and her brother, Hamlin Caldwell, moved them to Cincinnati and saw to their education. David King married her there when she was seventeen.

After their marriage, David and Almena soon moved to Tarlton, Ohio, where David put his store clerking experience to good use by opening a general store. Tarlton was on Zane's Trace, which at the time started at the Ohio River across from Wheeling, West Virginia, and passed through Zanesville, Lancaster, the intermittent state capital of Chillicothe and ended at the Ohio River in their previous home town of Portsmouth. The store prospered and David starting investing in real estate, which built their wealth substantially over their years in Tarlton.

All did not go well for David and Almena, however. As David often did, he took his wagon "across the mountains" to Baltimore to get supplies for his store—a trip that would take him a month every time he did it. While he was away for his trip in the late summer of 1831, he left Almena in Tarlton with their infant children, as he always had until then. Tragically, their three young sons, Alexander Caldwell King, born September 5, 1827, James Hamlin King, born July 3, 1829 and John Quigley King, born July 24, 1831 all died of smallpox within weeks of each other on August 27, August 28 and September 20, 1831. Almena had to deal with this catastrophe alone.

Ward's father, Robert Quigley King, who was born on August 13, 1832 in Tarlton, was their first child to survive. Understandably, Almena insisted on going along with David on his supply trips after that, carrying with her the infant Robert Quigley King as a babe in arms. Their next child was Samuel Noble King, who was born in Tarlton on October 22, 1834. He went all his life by his middle name of "Noble". The Kings named him after their country neighbor, Samuel Noble, who had come from Emmitsburg, Maryland to become one of the first settlers of Tarlton and who had a large farm just south of Tarlton. Mary Elizabeth King, was born to David and Almena in Tarlton on April 1, 1837, and David King, Jr., later to become a Civil War colonel, was born in Tarlton on September 11, 1839.

As time passed, Tarlton began to lose some of its importance. The state capital was moved from nearby Chillicothe (its last location outside Columbus) to Columbus, Ohio in 1816, and the National Road (present U.S. Route 40 or more roughly Interstate 70) went through the center of Ohio. This road started at Baltimore and ending in Illinois. So, the focus of commerce in Ohio shifted from the communities along Zane's Trace to the center of the state. Among the cities the National Road crossed was Springfield, Ohio, where it arrived in 1836 and stopped for ten years while lawmakers argued about where it would go from there. Located at that terminus, Springfield especially boomed during those ten years.

Several of Robert Quigley's grandchildren, the Rodgers families, had moved to Springfield. David's childhood companions were Robert Quigley's Rodgers grandchildren instead of Robert's children. Robert Quigley probably took in David King out of "empty nest syndrome", since his own children were grown and likely out on their own at the time he found David. According to the Quigley Family History, Robert Quigley's second daughter Jennet "Jane" Quigley married James Rodgers, her Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, neighbor, and continued to live near the Robert Quigley farm. So, it was Robert Quigley's grandchildren, Richard Rodgers, Mary Rodgers, Rachel Rodgers, Dr. Robert Rogers and William Rodgers who lived close to the Quigley farm during David's childhood. They would have been the children with whom David King grew up and with whom he would have been particularly close. Their daughter Mary Rodgers married a Cumberland County neighbor, Isaac Ward. Their daughter Rachel Rodgers never married. Their son, Dr. Robert Rodgers, married Effie Harrison, daughter of a Pennsylvania Militia brigadier general. Their son William Rodgers married the sister of Effie Sarah Harrison. All of these Quigley grandchildren, their spouses and families, apparently except Eleanor, moved to Springfield, Ohio in 1831 (source in footnote says 1833). Modern day Littleton and Rue Funeral Home now occupies the Rodgers mansion at 830 North Limestone Street, Springfield, Ohio.

Likely on their urging, David and Almena King moved to Springfield as well in 1840. David, a very astute businessman, who was already very well off, proceeded to build a significant portion of early downtown Springfield, which was known for long thereafter as "King's Row". Their daughter, Sarah Jane King, was born to them in Springfield on December 20, 1841. Their daughter Almena Caldwell King was also born there on February 1, 1848. Unfortunately, David King died on August 8, 1849 in a cholera epidemic, which he contracted while caring for other victims of the outbreak.

After her husband's death, Almena frugally held on to the family wealth. She built a large home at 2 Ferncliff Place in Springfield in about 1852, which was long known as the King Homestead. The Springfield City Directory of that time located it simply as "North of Buck Creek." Buck Creek, which is probably wide enough to be called a river at that point, has long marked the north boundary of downtown Springfield. There are tall limestone cliffs on both sides of it. Isaac Ward cut building stone from these cliffs, at the location of present-day Cliff Park in Springfield, that later became part of many of the early buildings in Springfield. There was only the Limestone Street footbridge across Buck Creek at the time Almena King built the King Homestead, and that footbridge was more than a block upstream. She bought this land from Robert Quigley's grandson-in-law, Isaac Ward, who lived across the street on present-day Fountain (then Market). The Isaac Ward Mansion still stands today and is still occupied. The Kings and the Quigley descendants remained very close, which is why Ward's father gave him the middle name of "Ward", and Ward went by that middle name all his life. One family account credits Isaac Ward with having been particularly helpful to the King family after the death of David King. Isaac Ward also sold a large tract of his land to Wittenberg College, which now forms the eastern part of its campus and is the reason the main road through present day Wittenberg University is Ward Street. The King Homestead was out in the country when first built, which was to get her boys away from the reported 122 saloons near their home in Springfield proper. All three of her sons attended nearby Wittenberg College.

Almena Caldwell King died of diabetes on May 30, 1878, from which she had suffered greatly for a long time before it finally claimed her. Her son-in-law, famous Lutheran minister and later Wittenberg professor Luther Alexander Gotwald, happened to drop in while passing through Springfield on a train and was able to greatly comfort her during her last hours. The King Homestead stayed in the King family for a long time after Almena's death. However, eventually it was sold to Chi Omega sorority of Wittenberg University and is today its sorority house.

After Almena's death, Rev. Gotwald wrote a loving biography of David and Almena in which he penned this moving tribute to his late father in law.

Of all the descendants of the first David King, his creative and industrious grandson, David Ward King undoubtedly did the most to live up to the spirit and the letter of Rev. Gotwald's heartfelt counsel.

David Ward King was born on October 27, 1857 in Springfield, Ohio. His father was real estate developer, investor and Springfield Fire Chief, Robert Quigley King. His mother was Harriet Danforth King. As mentioned, Robert Quigley King, was born in Tarlton, Ohio, and was the first child of Almena and David King to survive.

Robert Quigley King came to a largely undeveloped Springfield at age nine in 1840, with his sister, Mary Elizabeth, age three and his brother, David Jr. age one. He attended the early Springfield schools. He later recalled hunting for squirrels in a woods that later became the train station (now demolished) and what would be close to the location of the present Clark County Library. His father died when he was eighteen. Nonetheless, his mother was able to send him and, as they arrived at college age, his brothers to Wittenberg College. At one time, she had them all in college at the same time—and Almena could afford that. When Robert Quigley King first started at Wittenberg, it held classes in the lecture room of the First Lutheran Church. However, while he was a student, Wittenberg moved to what is now the western part of its present-day campus. He was in the first class to graduate from Wittenberg. The history of early Springfield mentions how much he liked to hunt, especially in the woods that later became today's Snyder Park, which would have been just down Buck Creek from his childhood home at the King Homestead.

Robert Q. King married Miss Harriet A. Danforth at New Albany, Indiana on January 15, 1857. To them were born five children: David Ward King on October 27, 1857; Dr. Thomas Danforth King, who was born on July 20, 1859 and who died December 23, 1889; Robert Leffler King, who was born on August 24, 1863; Almena Adaline King (Warrick), who was born on September 17, 1869; and Margaret "Madge" Caldwell King, who was born on February 13, 1873 and who died when she was fourteen years old on December 30, 1886. Ward's ill-fated brother, Dr. Thomas Danforth King, was a graduate of Princeton and a practicing physician in Springfield. He took his name from his direct ancestor, Thomas Danforth, who was Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts, a founder of Harvard College, a judge at the Salem witch trials and on whose estate the city of Framingham, Massachusetts is situated today. Framingham has a museum named after him. There was a Thomas Danforth in every generation after that, until Dr. Thomas Danforth King, who died before he married his fiancée and had children. He died a slow and painful death from cancer of the eye, in his parents' home with his fiancée at his side. His death left David Ward King and Robert Leffler King as the surviving sons of Robert Quigley and Harriet King. Ward's sister, Almena Adaline King, married industrialist Harvey Warrick in Springfield, Ohio. She died December 18, 1941 in Cleveland, and he died on April 21, 1942.

As Almena's oldest child, Robert Quigley King soon became involved in helping his mother manage the family's real estate holdings in Springfield. He had several retail businesses in Springfield, but his primary activity seems to have been real estate development. The family built the King Building on what was then Market Street and later became Fountain Street, just north of High Street. The King Building became the headquarters for the temperance movement in Springfield and also the location for Bumgardner Studio, where many of the photos of the people who lived in Springfield in the late 19th century were taken. He subdivided land on present-day North Wittenberg Avenue, just south of Wittenberg University, into the "Robert Quigley King Second Addition to the City of Springfield, Ohio." He built his own home at 642 North Wittenberg Avenue. He later moved to live in an apartment in the King Building, allowing his son Robert Leffler King to occupy it. Upon his death, he left the house to his daughter Almena King Warrick and her husband Harvey Warrick.

Robert Quigley King served as Fire Chief for Springfield from 1879 until 1891. His obituary and the History of the Springfield Fire Department both credit him with being Springfield's second Fire Chief. However, the Fire Department History goes on to point out that several others before him performed that function, but did not carry the title. In those days, Fire Chief was an elected position. It is mentioned both in his obituary and in King family tradition that during a fire at the "whip factory", he was on a roof that collapsed, dumping him into the midst of the flames. However, the other firemen immediately poured their hoses on him, saving his life. He was pulled from the fire, badly injured, but alive.

David Ward King often went by his middle name of "Ward", and he wrote it as "D. Ward King". His education was obtained in the Springfield, Ohio public schools and in Wittenberg College (now Wittenberg University) in Springfield. On December 29, 1880 he married Mary Willie (often spelled "Wylie") Burbank of Danville, Kentucky in Springfield. Mary was born in Danville, Kentucky on September 23, 1859. Mary was the daughter of Austin Milton and Lettitia (Reed) Burbank. He moved from Springfield, Ohio to this Maitland, Missouri farm as a recently married young man and began farming there. While living on that farm, he invented the King Road Drag (very famous in its day), which made country roads passable in wet weather and is still credited with making possible reliable rural mail delivery and the practicality of the automobile.

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