William Henry King (June 3, 1863November 27, 1949) was an American lawyer, politician, and jurist from

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the capital and most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in Utah. With a population of 200,133 in 2020, th ...

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

. As a Democrat, King represented Utah in the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

from 1917 until 1941.

Life

King was born in Fillmore,

Utah Territory The Territory of Utah was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from September 9, 1850, until January 4, 1896, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Utah, the 45th state ...

to Josephine (née Henry) and William King. He graduated from

Brigham Young Academy Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day ...

in Provo, Utah and attended the

University of Deseret The University of Utah (U of U, UofU, or simply The U) is a public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is the flagship institution of the Utah System of Higher Education. The university was established in 1850 as the University of D ...

(now University of Utah) in

. He served as a missionary of the

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a nontrinitarian Christian church that considers itself to be the restoration of the original church founded by Jesus Christ. The c ...

in Great Britain from 1880 to 1883. After holding local offices and serving two terms in the territorial legislature, he graduated from the law department of the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

at Ann Arbor. He later joined the Utah bar and practiced law. He held other territorial offices and was appointed as an associate justice of the

Utah Supreme Court The Utah Supreme Court is the supreme court of the state of Utah, United States. It has final authority of interpretation of the Utah Constitution. The Utah Supreme Court is composed of five members: a chief justice, an associate chief justice, ...

, serving between 1894 and 1896. After Utah became a state in 1896, King was elected to the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...

and served in the

55th Congress The 55th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, DC from March 4, 1897, to M ...

from March 4, 1897 to March 3, 1899. He was not nominated for a second term, but when his replacement, B. H. Roberts, was denied his seat because he was a

polygamist Crimes Polygamy (from Late Greek (') "state of marriage to many spouses") is the practice of marrying multiple spouses. When a man is married to more than one wife at the same time, sociologists call this polygyny. When a woman is married ...

, King was elected to complete Roberts's term. He served from April 2, 1900 to March 3, 1901. He ran for the same position in

1900 As of March 1 ( O.S. February 17), when the Julian calendar acknowledged a leap day and the Gregorian calendar did not, the Julian calendar fell one day further behind, bringing the difference to 13 days until February 28 ( O.S. February 15), 2 ...

and again in

1902 Events January * January 1 ** The Nurses Registration Act 1901 comes into effect in New Zealand, making it the first country in the world to require state registration of nurses. On January 10, Ellen Dougherty becomes the world' ...

, but lost both times. King was elected to the United States Senate four times, serving between March 4, 1917 and January 3, 1941. In 1918 and 1919, he served on the

Overman Committee The Overman Committee was a special subcommittee of the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary chaired by North Carolina Democrat Lee Slater Overman. Between September 1918 and June 1919, it investigated German and Bolshevik elements in ...

, which investigated seditious pro-German activity during World War I and

Bolshevik The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...

-inspired anti-Americanism in the months following the war's end. Though a Democrat, King was somewhat independent of the popular Democratic president Franklin Delano Roosevelt; he was re-elected in 1934 on the strength of support for Roosevelt's New Deal, but he opposed the proposal to expand the Supreme Court as well as FDR's candidacy for an unprecedented third presidential term. When he ran for re-election in 1940, he lost the Democratic nomination to Congressman Abe Murdock, a "100% New Dealer" who strongly supported Roosevelt. He served as the

President pro tempore of the Senate A president pro tempore or speaker pro tempore is a constitutionally recognized officer of a legislative body who presides over the chamber in the absence of the normal presiding officer. The phrase ''pro tempore'' is Latin "for the time being". ...

from 1940-41 during the 76th Congress. King remained in Washington, D.C., where he practiced law until April 1947. He returned to Utah and died there in 1949. He was buried at

Salt Lake City Cemetery The Salt Lake City Cemetery is a cemetery in northeastern Salt Lake City, Utah, United States, that is one of the largest city-operated cemeteries in the United States. Description The cemetery is located above 4th Avenue and east of N Street in ...

. King was married twice, first to Louisa Ann "Annie" Lyman, to whom he wed in 1889, and remained with her to her death on April 16, 1906. He was then married to Vera B. Sjodahl, a daughter of Janne M. Sjödahl, from 1912 to his own death in 1949. One of his sons by Vera, David S. King, served three terms in the U.S. House of Representatives and was a United States Ambassador to both the Malagasy Republic and

Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label= Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It ...

. One of his granddaughters, Jody Olsen, has served as Director of the

Peace Corps The Peace Corps is an independent agency and program of the United States government that trains and deploys volunteers to provide international development assistance. It was established in March 1961 by an executive order of President John F ...

since 2018. His paternal first cousin,

Culbert Olson Culbert Levy Olson (November 7, 1876 – April 13, 1962) was an American lawyer and politician. A Democratic Party member, Olson was involved in Utah and California politics and was elected as the 29th governor of California from 1939 to 1943 ...

, was a Governor of California. King was a direct descendant of Edmund Rice, his family's English immigrant ancestor to Massachusetts Bay Colony, as follows: * William H. King, son of :* William King (1834–1892), son of :* Thomas Rice King (1813–1879), son of ::* Thomas King (1770–1845), son of ::* William King (1724–1793), son of :::* Ezra Rice King (1697–1746), son of :::* Samuel Rice King (1667–1713), son of :::* Samuel Rice (1634–1684), son of ::::* Edmund Rice (1594–1663)

References

External links

* *
William Henry and David S. King papers, MSS 6143
at the L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library,

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-d ...

J. Kubeldzis scrapbooks on William Henry King
at the L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library,

, - , - , - , - , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:King, William H. 1863 births 1949 deaths People from Fillmore, Utah American people of English descent Latter Day Saints from Utah Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Utah Democratic Party United States senators from Utah Presidents pro tempore of the United States Senate Utah Territorial judges Justices of the Utah Supreme Court 19th-century American politicians 19th-century Mormon missionaries 20th-century American politicians American Mormon missionaries in England Politicians from Salt Lake City Brigham Young University alumni University of Utah alumni University of Michigan Law School alumni Burials at Salt Lake City Cemetery

Life

See also

References

External links