The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 29, July 1925 - April, 1926 Page: 147

Captain Amon B. King

CAPTAIN AMON B. KING
JAMES M. ROBERTSON
The subject of this sketch was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in
the year 1807. He had an elder brother who left Maryland for
the West about 1825, and was never thereafter heard from. He
had two sisters, Mrs. Harriet R. Hyatt, who died in Washington
City about 1915, leaving several children surviving her, one of
whom, Alpheus Hyatt, who is now or was a few years since, a pro-
fessor of history in Cambridge. The other sister, Mrs. Louisa
Stearns, died some thirty-five years ago, leaving two children,
William B. Stearns, who was a prominent railroad builder in
Massachusetts, and Frances L. G., who married Major Simms,
and she died some two years ago.
In 1827, Amon B. King bade his mother, then Mrs. Mary Ann
Camp, wife of Dr. Joseph Camp of Baltimore, to whom she had
been married after the death of the father of Amon B. King, and
his two sisters above named, farewell and started on his western
journey to gather furs.
His immediate family never heard of him any more until soon
after the battle of Goliad, when they learned in a roundabout
way, that he was murdered.
Amon B. King landed in Paducah, Kentucky, in 1832, and in
1833, 1834, and 1835 he was city marshal of the City of Paducah.
In the late fall of 1835 Captain Wyatt, with his Georgia
battalion, came down the Tennessee river on their way to Texas
and stopped off a day and two nights in Paducah, and while there
marched upon the streets of Paducah with their band of music,
making talks and appeals throughout the City as they went, telling
of their mission to Texas and urging young men to join them on
their mission.
Amon B. King became enthused with their appeal, resigned his
office of City Marshal, bade his sweetheart a final good bye, assuring
her that immediately at the close of the Texas Revolution he would
return for her and they would be married. Among the effects of
Amon B. King at that time was a large woolly dog to which he was
greatly attached, and he left this dog in the care of his expected
wife, joined the Wyatt Company and sailed down the Ohio to the

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