David Ward King - King Meetings

King Meetings

The "King drag movement with a rush." D. Ward King did patent his invention. However, its design was so simple that King did not enforce his patent rights. However, he did make a good living by touring the country conducting and charging sponsoring organizations for "King Meetings" in which he explained to packed houses how to build and use his road drag. Wittenberg-educated Ward was, by all accounts, an eloquent speaker. His promotional brochure claimed that "An address on this subject is not, as you might suppose, dry and uninteresting. You will find that the novelty of the idea and its practical value will attract a larger attendance than a feature of mere entertainment."

Over time, Ward conducted Good Roads campaigns in forty-six of the then-existing forty-eight states – all except Nevada and New Hampshire. He conducted them in Canada as well, including the province of Nova Scotia, where the King road drag was found better than any other method to work sandy roads, clay roads and rock roads. One Canadian journalist was so impressed that he wrote and published this poem as his tribute to Ward.

MY FAVORITE KING

By William Edward Park, Chatham (Canada) Daily News.

When knights were bold and ladies fair, and all that medieval junk.

And when for common folks like us the job of living was most punk.

When all the world was full of strife, and dangerous and that sort of thing. The cuss who most extinguished life was usually crowned king.

But we in better days were born, when men in peace together live.

And kings are made to adorn a job that common people give.

And earn their living like the rest at banquets and that sort of thing.

Oh, nowadays it hardly pays to hold their lofty job of king.

But, there's another sort of king who still the crown of battle wears.

D. Ward's his name and he has fought for better thoroughfares.

That can be built without expense. He makes the very rafters ring.

With pleadings and arguments – and that is why his praise I sing.

For heaven knows we need good roads – good roads to let the farmer pass.

To market with his wheat and corn and sugar beets and garden sass.

And bring us closer to the farm and bring them closer to the town.

And D. Ward King, for what he's done, has pretty well earned a crown. —

David Ward King further widely publicized the process in a U.S. Department of Agriculture Farmers' Bulletin #321 in 1908 under the title The use of the split-log drag on earth roads He also wrote articles explaining his drag, including one that appeared in the May 7, 1910 issue of The Saturday Evening Post titled "Good Roads Without Money." In 1904, the road drag and photos of its works were on display in the Agricultural Building at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, Missouri. Many of these photos were taken in Clay Township. In 1910, Iowa dragged from Council Bluffs to Davenport and back in three hours. This was highlighted by the "Glidden Trail" scouts and became the River-to-River Road. During this time, Ward worked with Harry Crider, the Maitland postmaster, to post all his ever-growing mail and purchase all his ever-increasing need for boxes of stamped envelopes from the Maitland post office. This increased business made the Maitland post office eligible for its first rural route.

Within ten years of his first speech, advocating the King system, the King method spread all over the country, Canada and worldwide. His writings were translated into Spanish, which allowed South American countries to benefit by it. The Philippines and Australia adopted it. Missouri spent two thousand of the dollars of the day to drag its main roads. Whole townships organized to drag every mile of road after every rain. One township in Iowa dragged its entire road system "completely" in three hours. In 1906, the state of Iowa amended its statutes to use the King system on the country roads. In 1909, Iowa made the law mandatory and even broadened it to include the unpaved streets of the cities and towns of that state. His promotional brochure stated that "the road laws of six states have been changed to conform to Mr. King's ideas of proper road construction and road repair and maintenance."

Some Iowa farmers even had a song they sung in his praise, as they did their road dragging, which went:

Dragging the roads, dragging the roads

Dragging the roads with the King road drag;

Hard as a bone, smooth as a hone,

The roads that lead into Owasa. —