Affairs of David Ward King in Springfield, Ohio
Ward's mother, Harriet Adaline Danforth King, died on July 13, 1906 in Springfield, Ohio after a lingering illness. Ward's father, Robert Quigley King, died suddenly on November 26, 1917 in his apartments in the King Building in Springfield. The Springfield newspaper reported his death with a lengthy front page article that featured a large photo of him.
David Ward King and his brother, Robert Leffler King, inherited interests in their father's real estate holdings. Robert Quigley King had long owned the King Building, and there was a lot between it and High Street at the corner of Fountain and High in the very heart of downtown Springfield. At the time of his death, their father had begun building a new, very modern for its time, office building. Robert Quigley King's will left Ward and Leffler the King Building and this lot, subject to a one-third income interest in the profits from these properties to their sister Almena King Warrick for the rest of her life. He also left them some bonds in trust, which he instructed them to cash in and use to fund the building. The brothers worked together to complete that building after their father's death. At the suggestion of Leffler's wife, Lola Montez King, the brothers named this building the "Arcue" building which was the word form of "RQ" or "Robert Quigley". Leffler then managed this building for Ward until Ward's death and for Ward's heirs after his death.
Robert Quigley King gave his daughter Almena Warrick and her husband Harvey the right to live in his house at 642 North Wittenberg Avenue for life. This house is today owned by Wittenberg University. It is next door to the Wittenberg President's residence and is used as the university's guest house. Robert Quigley King also left his office building at 16 South Limestone Street in Springfield to his daughter Almena King Warrick and her husband Harvey for life. This building was in the heart of downtown Springfield as well and became the subject of a hard fought law suit between the King and Warrick heirs after Almena's death, when King faction of heirs wanted to mortgage the property to improve that building so as to lease it to Montgomery Ward and the Warrick faction did not. The faction that wanted to mortgage and improve the building eventually won the suit.
There is no provision in the will of Robert Quigley King that mentions his Missouri farm or Grassland Farm, which probably means that he had given them outright during his life to his sons Ward and Leffler respectively. However, at the time of his father's death, Leffler had moved back to Springfield, leaving his son, Edwin Askam King in charge of Grassland Farm.
Ward's brother, Robert Leffler King, died after a long bout with diabetes at the Columbus home of his daughter, Jessie King Cave, on October 19, 1935. After Leffler's death, his son, Hamlin Caldwell King, managed the Arcue Building until its eventual sale. Leffer's son, Edwin Askam King, owned and operated Grassland Farm for the rest of his life.
The King family sold the building in the late forties, forced in a legal action by Gladys Elizabeth McHenry King, widow of David Ward King son David Bryant King. Even so, the Arcue Building still stands and is actively occupied today. It is still called the "Arcue Building" – even if no one remembers why. Long after the King family sold it, the King Building burned on September 15, 1956 in a spectacular fire that the history of the Springfield Fire Department mentions as one of the largest fires in the history of the city. There is today a vacant lot behind the Arcue Building where the King Building used to stand.
Read more about this topic: David Ward King
Famous quotes containing the words affairs of, affairs, david, ward, king and/or ohio:
“Since the affairs of men rest still incertain,
Let’s reason with the worst that may befall.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Love has its name borrowed by a great number of dealings and affairs that are attributed to it—in which it has no greater part than the Doge in what is done at Venice.”
—François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680)
“I hardly know an intellectual man, even, who is so broad and truly liberal that you can think aloud in his society. Most with whom you endeavor to talk soon come to a stand against some institution in which they appear to hold stock,—that is, some particular, not universal, way of viewing things. They will continually thrust their own low roof, with its narrow skylight, between you and the sky, when it is the unobstructed heavens you would view.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“If we ever feel discouraged by the apparent constraints on humanity, about its lack of elbowroom and freedom of action, we should think of the Jews and the Greeks, insignificant, powerless, and tiny in the age of the dinosaur empires, yet providing the growing points for the next stage in human destiny.”
—Barbara Ward (1914–1981)
“The firelight of a long, blind, dreaming story
Lingers upon your lips; and I have seen
Firm, fixed forever in your closing eyes,
The Corn King beckoning to his Spring Queen.”
—Randall Jarrell (1914–1965)
“Heaven is not one of your fertile Ohio bottoms, you may depend on it.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)