Guide to the Cyrus King Papers, 1794-1819, undated
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Cyrus King Papers, George J. Mitchell Department of Special Collections & Archives, Bowdoin College Library, Brunswick, Maine.
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Cyrus King, son of Richard (d. 1775) and Mary Black King (d. 1816), was born in Scarborough, Massachusetts (now Maine), on September 16, 1772. After graduating from Columbia University (1794), he served as secretary to his half-brother, Rufus King, U.S. Minister to Great Britain (1796). Cyrus King became a lawyer in Saco, Maine (1797-1817), served in the U.S. Congress as a representative from Massachusetts (1813-1817), and helped found Thornton Academy in Saco.
In October 1797 King married Hannah Storer, daughter of Captain Seth Storer of Scarborough; they had five daughters. King died April 25, 1817.
Cyrus King was the half-brother of Rufus King (1755-1829), lawyer and Federalist statesman who served three terms in the U.S. Senate (1789-1795, 1813-1819, and 1820-1826), and William King (1768-1852), first governor of Maine (1820-1821). Cyrus King's daughter, Mary Caroline (1799-1867), married Benjamin Hale (1797-1863; Bowdoin class of 1818). More information on the King and Hale families is available in the Hale-King Family Papers.
This collection includes Cyrus King's 1794 valedictory oration and a ledger from King's law practice containing property deeds, accounts, letters, newspaper clippings, and ephemera. There are also fair copies of congressional speeches delivered by King, and correspondence to and from King, including an 1816 letter from King to James Monroe, Secretary of State.
For other King family letters see the Hale-King Family Papers .
1794 - valedictory oration, Columbia University (original and photocopy)
1798-1816, undated - correspondence
1803-1819, undated - ledger
1814-1816 - fair copies of congressional speeches1814-1816