For decades, members of my family that have been interested in our genealogy have tried to figure out the story of Thomas King, my 2nd great grandfather. Thomas first appears in the 1855 New York Census in Brooklyn as the husband of my 2nd great grandmother, Margaret Smith King, with a 4-month old infant, John. That census lists Thomas at 21 years of age as a “grocery store worker”, born in Ireland, and a 6-year resident of Brooklyn. This last clue means that Thomas would have been already living “in this City”, i.e. Brooklyn at the time of the 1850 U.S. Census, but we have never been able to identify him there.
We find Thomas again in the 1860 Census, though by that time Thomas and Margaret have four young children, John, Margaret, Thomas and Ellen. That census records that Thomas was 27 years of age, employed as a “coach painter” with $100 in personal estate value, and that he was born in Ireland. The family is still living in Brooklyn. We know that Margaret’s family operated a carriage and coach business called Smith & Sons in Brooklyn, so it is extremely likely that as a coach painter, Thomas was working in his in-law’s business. After 1860, Thomas King disappears from the records.
In the 1870 Census, Margaret Smith King, is found as the head of household with her four children. Her employment is listed as “ironing and washing”. Her oldest son, John, is 15 years old and working in a hat factory, and the three younger children are in school.
Several years ago, I visited the Tenement Museum in New York City. There you can see how small and depressing many early immigrant residences could be. On the Tenement Museum tour, we learned that there was seldom any plumbing before the 1900’s. Toilets were located only on the first level in many of the buildings along with areas for doing laundry. Water needs for cooking were met by hauling water up to each tenement. Imagine the difficulty of doing ironing and washing all day and living in a cramped tenement while raising four young children in Brooklyn.
Of course, the first thoughts that come to mind about our missing Thomas King was that he probably had died in the Civil War sometime in the 1860’s. Many years of research trying to identify Thomas had proved unsuccessful. There were actually several men named Thomas King that joined the Union volunteer troops from New York during that time, but there was no way to identify any as our Thomas. My cousin, Lynn, and I even found a couple of Thomas King's that were noted as deserters on the Muster Rolls. So, for many years, he was in our minds as “Thomas King - possibly a deserter, but we hope not!”
As more historical files began to appear online, we finally found our Thomas in the Civil War pension files. In 1867 his wife, Margaret, filed a claim to increase the pension claim for their four children: John, Margaret, Thomas and Ellen. The kicker, however, was that the pension file was for Patrick King – not Thomas King. That name difference had proved to be our stumbling block for so many years.
Margaret’s pension application was for her children named John, Margaret, Thomas and Ellen, all living in Brooklyn. And the paperwork was also witnessed by Margaret’s mother, Margaret Smith, and her uncle, William O’Neill. Thus, I have no doubt that Patrick King was indeed our missing Thomas King. In both his military and the pension files, I have found that our King is also referenced on different documents as Thos P King, Patrick King, Patrick T King, Patrick Thomas King, and even King, Patrick alias Thomas. No wonder it was so hard to find him!
Patrick Thomas King enlisted in New York City in 1862 to serve three years with the New York 170th Volunteer Infantry, Company I. He mustered in as a Private, was later promoted to a Corporal, and by 1863 he was a Sergeant. On June 5, 1864, Patrick Thomas King was engaged in the Battle of Cold Harbor in Virginia where he was wounded. On June 14th, he was admitted to the Armory Square Hospital in Washington D.C. with a gunshot wound in his left shoulder. He died two weeks later on June 30, 1864 – probably from infection.
Sergeant Patrick Thomas King was buried on July 2, 1864 at Arlington Cemetery in Virginia which was not far from where he died at the Armory Square Hospital in Washington D.C.
The first military burial in Arlington National Cemetery was on May 13, 1864. One month later on June 15, 1864, and just two weeks before Patrick Thomas King was buried, the Arlington 200 acre site was designated as a National Cemetery. Sergeant Patrick Thomas King was among the group of early military burials in the Arlington National Cemetery. These early gravesites are located in one of the oldest parts of the cemetery.
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Key individuals:
Patrick Thomas King (1834/35 – 1864)
Margaret Smith King (1834 – 1893)
John King (1855 – 1885)
Margaret King (1857 – 1880)
Thomas King (1858 – 1926)
Ellen King (1861 – 1919)
Notes
King’s military rank: One confusing item that is evident in the details of King’s military file is his rank progression during the Civil War. If you drill in on specific documentation dates in the military file, mostly looking at the Muster Rolls, you will see irregularities in his progression from Private to Sergeant. Several of the muster documents when he was wounded noted that he was a Private, and then others, later when he was in the hospital, record him as a Sergeant. Also, it appears that he was missing from the regiment during March in 1863.
17 Sep 1862 - mustered in as a
Private
7 Oct 1862 - appointed as Corporal
[maybe because he was a bit older (late 20’s) than many in the group and could
read and write?]
29 Mar 1863 - arrested in Suffolk,
NY near Brooklyn
April 1863 - Corporal promoted to
Sergeant
13 May 1863 - Sergeant reduced to
Private
5 Jun 1864 - wounded at the Battle
of Cold Harbor, noted as a Private
12 Jun 1864 – 170th NY
Regiment Volunteers log showing him as Sgt Thomas P King admitted to the Armory
Square Hospital
2 July 1864 - buried in Arlington Cemetery as Sergeant Patrick King
If you look at the time progression above, the first thing out of the norm is that Patrick Thomas King was arrested in Suffolk, NY on March 29, 1863. I assume he left his regiment and went home. Why? Maybe because King’s father-in-law, John Smith, died on February 24, 1863. I would guess that it probably took a little while for him to get the word, and then possibly King left to go and check on his family as his father-in-law’s coach business was the primary source of income for the family. If that was the case, then why was he promoted in April 1863 to Sergeant? Maybe the commanding officer didn’t know he had left, and when he found out in May, Patrick Thomas King was busted back down to Private? And while King was referenced as a Private when he was first wounded, maybe out of respect for a fallen comrade, they put him back to Sergeant while in the hospital and at his death? Or it could all have simply been a mix-up with King having gotten permission for an emergency family leave that was not properly communicated or documented within the regiment. We will never know, as the task of keeping track of troops and individual soldiers during the Civil War was unquestionably chaotic.
King’s birthplace: Another mystery that has us still guessing is about where Patrick Thomas King was born. There are a lot of possibilities because various documents tell us that he was born in Ireland, Australia, New York or even the West Indies.
Conflicting information on the birthplace of our Patrick Thomas King who married Margaret Smith shows:
Document referenced
Thomas King, Sr/birthplace
1855 U.S. Census for Thomas King,
Sr Ireland
1860 U.S. Census for Thomas King,
Sr Ireland
1861-64 Muster Roll Abstracts Sidney,
Australia
1861-64 Civil War service file
information: Sydney,
Australia & England
1880 U.S. Census for son, Thomas
King, Jr Ireland
1880 U.S. Census for daughter,
Helen King Ireland
1880 U.S. Census for daughter,
Margaret King Doherty New York
1880 Death Cert for daughter
Margaret King Doherty Australia
1900 U.S. Census for son, Thomas
King, Jr Ireland
1900 U.S. Census for daughter,
Helen King Gordon Australia
1910 U.S. Census for son, Thomas
King, Jr Ireland
1910 U.S. Census for daughter,
Helen King Gordon New
York
1919 Death Cert for daughter,
Helen King Gordon Australia
1926 Death Cert for son, Thomas King, Jr West Indies
I tend to think that the correct answer for King’s birthplace might be Sydney, Australia. We know that his wife, Margaret Smith King, was a first generation immigrant from Ireland and the early census takers could have simply assumed the same for her husband.
And one final possible
verbal history clue: There is another teaser that comes from my
cousin, Lynn’s, family branch. Lynn’s
mother had been told that Thomas King’s father was possibly a “British naval
officer”. Well, British could mean
English, Irish or even Australian, I suppose.
And possibly King got to New York by way of the West Indies? I suspect that we will never know…
– Jane Scribner McCrary
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