Isaac King
Isaac Marion “Ike” King (1887-1957) was a school teacher, postmaster and justice of the peace in the Station Camp settlement on the Big South Fork River in the early 20th century.
See Also: Noteworthy Settlers of the Big South Fork Region
Biography
Born Jan. 6, 1887, Ike King was the son of Kirby Sherman King (1846-1935) and Nancy Ellen Hatfield (1849-1917).
The King family was one of the latter families to settle in the Big South Fork River bottoms, but nonetheless a prominent family there. Ike King was one of 11 children. His father, Kirby King, was the son of William “Billy” King and Millie Angel of the Angel Valley farming settlement east of Winfield. Millie Angel was the daughter of Archibald Angel and Nancy Ann Trammell, the first people to settle Angel Valley, which is located on Jellico Creek near Capachene.
Kirby King wound up at Station Camp after marrying into the Hatfield family that settled there. Nancy Ellen — who he married in 1866 — was the son of William Riley Hatfield and Elizabeth Burke. Both Nancy’s father and her maternal grandfather, Jonathan Burke, lived and are buried at the Charit Creek Hostel near the headwaters of Station Camp Creek in the Big South Fork National River & Recreation Area. Ike King was the grandson of William Riley Hatfield and the great-grandson of Jonathan Burke.
By the time Kirby and Nancy Ellen Hatfield King were married, Kirby King was in poor health due to a bout with camp fever that he suffered while training at Camp Nelson in Kentucky during the Civil War. It was at Camp Nelson that tens of thousands of Union soldiers trained. King was enlisted in the 3rd Kentucky Regiment, Co. D, Mounted Infantry during the war.
Ike King was the ninth of 11 children. His younger sister, May G. King, died as an infant in 1881 and is buried in the Blevins Cemetery on Station Camp Creek. An older brother, Gordon King, was stillborn in 1879 and is also buried there. They also had a 24-year-old sister, Julie Ann King, who was buried there in 1900. She suffered from epilepsy, and experienced a seizure as she crossed Station Camp Creek on a wooden footbridge, causing her to fall into the water and drown.
Family
Ike King married Hattie Bell Hatfield on April 19, 1908, when he was 21 and she was 19. Hattie Bell was the daughter of Richard Hatfield and Artema West. However, she was orphaned when her mother died in 1894, and she was raised by the King family.
Ike and Hattie Bell King had 10 children: Louvella, a twin to Louvella who died in infancy, Ethel Ellen, Kirby Sherman, Geneva Gladys, Isaac Edward, Cordelia Corene, Joyce Josephine, Martha Marie, and Mary Magdalene (Martha and Mary were also twins).
The last of the King children, Martha, died in 2015 in Clinton, Ind.
According to a piece written by Geneva in the Fall 1985 issue of the Scott County Historical Society newsletter, Ike and Hattie Bell King had two more children who died in infancy. However, their names are not known.
Life & Times
Ike King spent his entire life on Station Camp Creek. The King home was located between Station Camp Creek and Laurel Fork Creek, which merge a mile west of the Big South Fork River. At the homesite, the last remnants of a rock chimney remain, and the now-grownover field margins can still be found.
King taught at the Station Camp School, which was located on a hill near the mouth of Station Camp Creek at the Big South Fork River. He was a teacher there for 40 years. He also served as justice of the peace — a forerunner to what is today known as county commissioner — and represented the Station Camp area on the Scott County Court. He owned a general store near the mouth of Station Camp Creek, and was postmaster of the Elva, Tenn. post office, which was housed at his store.
King was the postmaster at Elva when the post office was closed in July 1935 and mail service was moved to the Oneida post office. The Elva post office had originally opened at No Business Creek in 1904 with Lewis Burke as postmaster, but later moved to King’s store on Station Camp Creek, about five miles up the river.
King purchased his store, where the post office was located, from Cal and Dora Smith.
King began teaching in 1904, after being state-certified as a teacher by attending summer school. The school was located in a building that also housed the New Zion Church. The remnants of the stone foundation can still be found on the hill overlooking the Big South Fork River.
King also worked as a land agent for the Stearns Coal & Lumber Co.
In his spare time, King wrote newspaper articles. He called himself “The Lone Owl,” and his signature line was, “The Lone Owl hoots again.”
Death
Ike and Hattie Bell King moved out of the Station Camp settlement late in life. Ike King died on July 9, 1957 in Oneida. He was buried at Coffey Cemetery, where his parents are also buried. Hattie Bell moved to Indiana and lived with her daughter, Martha. She died on Nov. 6, 1969 and is also buried at Coffey Cemetery.
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