EIGHTH GENERATION

30. Thomas Allibone King Dr. (Minister)^{(25) (26)(27) (28)} was born on 15 Nov 1856 in Cecil Co., Maryland.^{(29) (30)} He resided at 1453 Mars Avenue in 1920 in Lakewood OH.⁽³¹⁾ He died on 12 Jan 1927 in Jacksonville, FL.^{(32) (33)} Thomas A. King died at the home of his daughter Beulah (King) Mallette He had funeral service on 15 Jan 1927 in Baltimore, MD, Baltimore New Church.⁽³⁴⁾ He was buried on 15 Jan 1927 in Baltimore, MD. .
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The following was extracted from the July 18, 1900 NEW-CHURCH MESSANGER pages 34,35 & 36. (see source listings at end of this document).
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The Rev. Thomas A. King
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The Rev. Thomas A. King was born in Cecil Co., Maryland, November the sixteenth, 1857. [All other sources list Rev. King's birthday as 11/15/1856.] He is descended on both sides of his family from a line of Methodist ministers. His paternal grandfather was one of the earliest preachers of Methodism, and his maternal grandfather was also a Methodist minister of prominence in the early days. He was therefore brought up under the influence of Methodist teaching. He showed in childhood the bent of his mind. and began to hold religious services at the age of ten years. When he was seventeen he was licensed to preach and placed under the care of the Theological Faculty of the Maryland Conference of the Methodist Church. After one year he was received as a probationer into the Conference, and while engaged in preaching, continued his theological studies and was graduated by the Theological Faculty and ordained into the ministry in 1879. Mr. King has two brothers also in the Methodist ministry.
Two years prior to his ordination and while yet a student, his mind began to be exercised greatly on the doctrine of the trinity. Shortly after this, he was led to the study of the Writings of the New Church. He remained four years in the ministry of the Methodist Church after he began the study of the doctrines of the New Church, Making in all six years of service in the Methodist Church. He had been largely vastated of all the old doctrines, especially that of the tri- personality and the vicarious atonement, and also the resurrection of the material body. It is unusual for vastation to take place at so early an age. It was during one of his theological examinations that he first heard of Swedenborg. The examination was upon the Trinity, and after it was over, the examining Professor asked each member of the class to give his idea of the Trinity. A student sitting near Mr. King answered as follows, "There is one God, in whom is a divine Trinity which is Father, son, and Holy Spirit, which make one like the soul, body and operation in man". The Professor asked him where he obtained this idea, and he said it was from the writings of Swedenborg. The Professor, turning to Mr. King, asked how he would explain the Trinity. Mr. King said, "I would say exactly what my brother has said ". The astonished Professor exclaimed, "Have you also been reading Swedenborg?" Said Mr. King, "I never heard of him before, but I see, clearly that if man is made in the image of God, he must be finitely what God is infinitely".
After the class adjourned, Mr. King made further inquiries concerning Swedenborg and was told about the gift books and how he could procure them.
The system of education in the Methodist Church contemplates the employment of students during the course of their theological studies. So Mr. King was appointed junior preacher on the Kent County Circuit in Maryland. His first sermon was on the future life, in which he postulated the doctrine that the soul must have form, and that when the body dies the soul would form to itself a body in the other world. When the sermon was over, a gentleman approached saying, "I have been much interested in your performance to-night, and I am sure you will make a preacher if you ever find anything to preach". Mr. King answered, "Well, I only know one thing positively, and that is that Jesus Christ is God and that the Trinity is in Him". He was then asked where he learned this, and when he replied that he obtained it from a brother minister who was reading Swedenborg, the gentleman said, "Why, I am a receiver of the doctrines of the New Church, though I rarely have the privilege of hearing them preached". This gentleman whose name was John R. Gray, had a number of years before found the true doctrines through the Rev. W. H. Pinkly. It will be seen from this that the Divine Providence placed Mr. King just where he had opportunities of investigating the Writings. Mr. Gray ordered him at once the three gift books, and Mr. King began to read the "True Christian Religion". He turned first to the chapter concerning the divine Trinity, and often have I heard him say that he had not had not read more than four pages before he was fully convinced that Swedenborg was called of the Lord to unfold the new doctrines of Christianity.
He began to preach the doctrines immediately, and great interest was manifested by his people in the new interpretation which the old doctrines received. In 1878 the Faculty of Theological Instruction, hearing of Mr. King's interest in Swedenborg's teachings, called him before it and asked an explanation. Mr. King stated the faculty Swedenborg's teaching concerning the Lord, the redemption, the Scriptures and the Christian life. The Faculty were so much impressed by his exposition of these doctrines, that instead of remanding him to a lower class as had been contemplated, they passed him, but advised him not to be so free in his discussion of his belief.
In the spring of 1878, the Conference assigned him to the Lexington Street church in Baltimore, a large and flourishing Methodist society, telling him at the time that this was not done as an endorsement of his views, but that he might have the restraint upon him of the older ministers of his denomination in that city. He continued, however, to preach the doctrines of the New Church as he learned them from the Writings.
Having completed his course of study, he was ordained as an elder at the Conference of 1879 and appointed as assistant pastor with the Rev. J. T. Murray at the Congress Street church in Washington. By a coincidence this Dr. Murray was the same man who had a few years before examined the class on the Trinity. Mr. King remained in this charge for two years. During his first year he met the Rev. Jabez Fox. Up to that time he had not met any New-Church minister. Mr. Fox, hearing that a young Methodist minister was preaching the doctrines, made a visit to Mr. King's church, and after the service made himself known. This meeting between Mr. Fox and Mr. King can best be described in Mr. King's own language:
"It was a bright Sunday morning and a large con-
"gregation had assembled at the Congress Street
"church. My subject was, 'Joseph storing up the corn
"in Egypt'. A man I took to be a minister was con-
"ducted by an usher to a front seat in the church just
"as I announced my text. I proceeded to unfold the
"New-Church doctrine of how remains are implanted
"and stored in children by the Lord as the only pos-
"sible means of regeneration. As I developed this doc-
"trine I noticed the commingled feeling of pleasure
"and astonishment in the face of the stranger. When
"the congregation was dismissed he came forward and
"made himself known to me, saying, 'I am Jabex Fox,
"of the New-Church Temple of this city'. I instantly
"threw my arms around his neck, for until that time
"I had never seen a New-Churchman except Mr. Gray,
"who gave me my first New-Church books. From that
"day on to Mr. Fox's removal to the spiritual world I
"regarded him as a spiritual father in the Church, to
"whom I have always felt the deepest obligation and
"for whom I cherish the deepest love".
Mr. King's association with Mr. Fox and the Washington New-Church Society soon aroused opposition on the part of the members of his Church, so that his last year as assistant to Dr. Murray was one of much suffering. The Baltimore New-Church Society, being without a pastor and hearing of Mr. King through Mr. Fox, invited him to preach for them quarterly during the year 1880. At the expiration of his second year in Washington he withdrew from the Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Church, the presiding officer of the Conference giving him a certificate of his good standing as a methodist minister and commending him to the New Jerusalem Church as a faithful minister of the gospel of Christ.
Mr. King was ordained by the Rev. Chauncey Giles, on the twenty-seventh of March, 1881, in the Baltimore house of worship, and having received a call to become pastor of the Baltimore Society, he entered immediately upon his work. In the fall of 1882, Mr. King was called to the pastorate of the Portland Society, but being unable to stand the severe New England winters, he returned to Baltimore and took up his work there once more. His pastorate in Baltimore, with the exception of the two years spent in Portland, extended from 1881 to 1893, when he was called to Chicago and installed as resident pastor of the Englewood parish, which was the first parish formed from the original Chicago Society.
During Mr. King's pastorate in Baltimore, the Church gradually grew in numbers and in prominence in the city. The most pleasant relation existed between the pastor and his people. To quote Mr. King,
"I have
"always felt grateful that my introduction to the min-
"istry of the New Church was in the Baltimore Society.
"There were strong men in the Society, clear in their
"understanding of the doctrines, who were always help-
"ful to me in my ministry there. I feel that nowhere
"else could I have laid so good a doctrinal foundation
"nor found people more patient with my shortcomings
"and the impetuosity of youth".
The Englewood Society was composed of thirty-five members, who, owing to their distance from the Van Buren Street Temple, had organized a distinct society. In the fall of 1893 this Society disbanded as such its members being received back into the Chicago Society. They were then formed into the Englewood parish of the Chicago Society and Mr. King was assigned to them as resident pastor. The growth of the Englewood parish has been phenomenal, numbering at present one hundred and sixty adult Church members with a flourishing Sunday-school. A great part of this increased membership is from the old Church, for Mr. King has a wonderful faculty of interesting and instructing the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Mr. King's sermons cannot be called distinctly doctrinal although they never fail to present the distinctive New-Church doctrines. They are simple and easy unfoldings of the internal sense of the Word, with direct application to the daily lives of his people. This gives a uniqueness to his preaching and never fails to provide spiritual food for both young and old. Mr. King devotes much of his time to pastoral work and is therefore in close touch with all of his people.
In the fall of 1898 the frame chapel in which the parish had worshiped was removed, and the present beautiful brick and stone structure was erected on the same site. It was dedicated January 8, 1899, under the name of the Church of the Divine Humanity.
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The following biography was copied from pages 123-124 of the "NEW-CHURCH MESSENGER Feb. 23, 1927 issue (see source listings at end of this document).
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Thomas Allibone King, Minister of the New Church, 1881-1927

Biographical Outline
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The Rev. Thomas A. King left Methodism for the New Church because he wanted a reasonable definition of the Trinity. When he was a student in Maryland at the Westminster, Theological School, a Methodist minister, the Rev. John Trout, told him what Swedenborg taught regarding the Doctrine of the Lord, and at his final examination he gave as his answer the New-Church statement of the Trinity. Ever since, the Glorification of the Lord's Human has been his favorite theme.
Born in Cecil County, Maryland, in 1856, his boyhood was spent in this, Border State during the Civil War period. An early inclination led him into the Methodist Protestant ministry. After graduation he served in Baltimore and Georgetown, now a part of the City of Washington. Here he met the Rev. Jabez Fox, who baptized him into the New-Church faith and introduced him to the Baltimore Society, where he took up his first New-Church work. In 1879 he married Miss Irene Thomas, whose love and devotion sustained him in his work for almost fifty years.
Dr. King was always a missionary and a builder-this is evident in every field he entered. Having a clear doctrinal knowledge, a delightful pulpit appeal, and an amiable and entertaining personality, he made an easy approach to all classes.
He was with the Baltimore Society from 1881 to 1893, with the exception of eighteen months spent at Portland, Maine. Older citizens remember how his Sunday afternoon lectures crowded downtown churches and halls, and how his own church grew under his ministration. Going to Chicago after the World's Fair, in 1893, he gave his full energies to the work, at first at Kenwood. Then, taking up the group at Englewood, he organized this and built the beautiful chapel for worship. While here he was persuaded to attempt a larger appeal, for his anxiety was that not enough people would hear the good news; but, convinced later that the New-Church organization was necessary for purity of doctrine, he rejoined it and continued with it to the end. Dr. King joined the Masonic order at Georgetown in 1880. He was chaplain for a time of his lodge in Baltimore, was a charter member of Lodge 601 at Lakewood, and was its chaplain at the time of his death.
After strengthening the groups at Chicago, preaching at Kenwood, Englewood, and on the North Side to what is now the Sheridan Road Society, and organizing the New Church among the negroes, he went to Cleveland, Ohio. Here he ministered to both the Cleveland and the Lakewood groups, and accepted a call to the pastorate of Lakewood in September, 1903. He assisted in building both churches now used for worship. The Lakewood Society had seventeen members, including children, when he began, and was worshipping in a chapel built during 1827, located in a country village. The membership is now 171.
The church grew with the city, and it was here that Dr. King did his finest work for the New Church. The devotion and support given by his people in Lakewood was one of the richest treasures that came to the King family. Ever anxious to make his Lord known, he had given some twenty years to lecture work at Almont, Mich., beginning there with the Rev. John Whitehead; he preached for the Society at Toledo, Ohio for some twelve years; he worked with Mr. Pfister at the Cleveland Mission; he did missionary work at Union City, Tenn.; visited the Eastern Shore of Maryland while on vacation; and helped the group at Akron, Ohio to organize as a New-Church Society.
Engaged busily in many services, he was stricken with paralysis while at Toledo in 1925. Removing with Mrs. King to Jacksonville, Fla. where their daughter Mrs. Beulah Mallette resides, he appeared to improve; but, enduring two operations recently, he never fully recovered. Complications set in, and he passed from us on January 12th, while Mrs. King sat beside him. At the moment she was comforted by the unexpected coming of Mr. Geo. D. Cornell, a valued member of the Lakewood Society.
The burial service was held from the Baltimore New Church, where Dr. King had begun his work forty-six years before. The Rev. Messrs. Geo. H. Dole, Paul Sperry, and Fred Sidney Mayer officiated at the funeral service, Mr. Dole delivering the main address.
With all his multifarious activities, he found time for authorship, and some of his writings must be reckoned in the first rank of New-Church expository efforts. For years he contributed to "The Helper" its notes on the International Sunday School Lessons, and a compilation of some of these, published under the
title of "Pearls from the Wonder Book," has had wide and deserved popularity. He wrote also "Pearls of Great Price," "Allegories of Genesis," "The Story of the Bible" and (his latest work in book form) "The Fundamentalist-Modernist Controversy."
FRED SIDNEY MAYER.
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The following was copied from pages 21-23 of THE HELPER Vol. 78; No. 13 Nov. 1926 issue. THE HELPER was a weekly booklet of religious articles and Sunday school lessons for the NEW CHURCH, which was distributed by the New Church Book Center, 2129 Chestnut St., Philadelphia, PA.

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REV. THOMAS A. KING
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We have obtained from the family the following information which we know will be read with interest by many in that iarge company of friend~ of him whose birthday is in our thoughts at this time:
The Rev. Dr. Thomas A. King, Rector of the Church of the Redeemer, a native of Maryland, came to Lakewood in 1903. He has had three pastorates. He became rector of the Calvert Street Church of the New Jerusalem, Baltimore, Md., in 1881. The Calvert Street Church is the oldest New Church Parish in the United States, having been organized in 1792. Dr. King served this parish for 12 years. In 1893 he was called to Chicago as Rector of the Church of the Divine Humanity, where he had a most successful pastorate for ten years. Resigning on account of ill health, he came to Lakewood October 1st, 1903, to recuperate. Shortly after his arrival he began to hold services in the little chapel which then stood on the site of the present church, at the corner of Detroit and Andrews Aves. The community responded to his message, membership increased and soon a new church building became a necessity. This was promptly provided and in September, 1907, the present church edifice was completed and dedicated.
Dr. King's ministry in Lakewood has always been marked by its spirituality and high ideals of Christian life which he has kept before his parishioners. His sermons are clear expositions of the Holy Scriptures and are free from pulpit sensationalism. He preaches the gospel of Jesus Christ. He does not descend to the discussion of civic and kindred topics. Jesus Christ crucified, and through crucifixion glorified, as the God, Redeemer and Saviour of mankind is the great and inexhaustible theme of his discourses. As he interprets the Scriptures in their spiritual sense one feels the power of God within and around him and comes to reverence, love and understand God's Holy Word.
On December 22nd, 1925, Dr. King while in Toledo, where he has conducted services twice a month for the past twelve years, suffered a stroke. He was brought to his home in Lakewood January 9th, and later was taken to the home of his daughter, Mrs. H. B. Mallette in Jacksonville, Florida. He has rallied from his illness slowly but steadily and is now able to walk about the house with the aid of a cane.
The Church of the Redeemer, though feeling the loss of Dr. King's ministry, have filled his pulpit every Sunday and have called the Rev. Horace Briggs of Boston to fill the pulpit permanently, Dr. King being retained as Rector Emeritus. Dr. King has been rector of the Church of the Redeemer for the past twenty-three years.
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The following information, which includes a short biography of Rev. Thomas A. King, is from an introduction by Rev. Joseph Fort Newton to a sermon by Rev. Thomas A. King which Dr. Newton included in his book "Best Sermons of 1925". Dr. King's "A Sermon In Stones" was among twenty-one contributions in Dr. Newton's 1925 volume. The introduction is as follows:
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As Beecher was wont to say, no one can understand the theology of the last century who does not know Swedenborg, whose serene and emancipating vision influenced thought and faith more than we realize, especially in respect of the future life and its conditions. In other ways, too, a small communion has been influential out of all proportion to its size. For that reason, as well as others, I am happy to have a sermon by a distinguished New-Churchman, as a gracious note in our pulpit symphony.
A Marylander by nativity, trained in the schools of his church, Dr. King has held three notable pastorates, the first in the Calvert Street Church of the New Jerusalem in Baltimore-the oldest New Church parish in America, having been organized in 1792. After more than a decade in Baltimore, he went in 1893 to the Church of the Divine Humanity in Chicago, where, at the end of ten years, his health gave way, and he sought recuperation in Lakewood, Ohio. Shortly after his arrival he began to hold services in a little chapel, which now has grown to be a large parish with a new edifice and a place of power in the community.
There is a quality of quiet beauty and penetrating insight in the sermon and withal a serenity and assurance which must make appeal in these hectic days when so many strive after cleverness and miss rich stores of symbolism and color, such as are revealed in a style of simplicity and charm in what I have ventured to describe as " A Sermon In Stones."
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He was married to Mary Irene Thomas in 1879. ⁽³⁵⁾ Mary Irene Thomas ^{(36)(37) (38)} was born in 1859/60 in Baltimore, MD.^{(39) (40)} She resided at 1453 Mars Avenue in 1920 in Lakewood OH. ⁽⁴¹⁾ She died after Dec 1935. ⁽⁴²⁾ Mary Irene Thomas went by her middle name Irene or sometimes Renie. Thomas Allibone King Dr. (Minister) and Mary Irene Thomas had the following children:

+34 i. Mabelle King.
+35 ii. Beulah Estelle King.
36 iii. Margaret King died in @ 7 Mo..
+37 iv. Otis Hinkley King.
+38 v. Chauncey Giles King.