BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

James Moore King was born on November 18, 1792, in Clinton, North Carolina.  His parents were Henry King IV and Jeanett Moore King.  In 1807, James Moore King moved to Rutherford County, Tennessee, with his widowed mother and his younger brother: Henry.  Both boys enlisted to fight with Andrew Jackson in the Indian Wars and in General Coffee’s regiment of dragoons for the War of 1812.  James' brother Henry was killed at the Battle of New Orleans.  James continued his military service in the militia during the Seminole War.  However, the military was not the primary career that he wanted for himself: agriculture was his path.

In a letter to his uncle upon his return to his home outside Murfreesboro, TN, after the Battle of New Orleans in the War of 1812, King wrote, “With pleasure I inform you of my return home to the joyful scenes and pleasures of Tennessee, after a trying and fatigueing (sic) campaign of near seven months.”  At the time his home was the original log cabin that he, his brother, mother, and the few slaves they brought with them had lived in when they first moved to Middle Tennessee.  He still maintained strong ties with his family in North Carolina, as evidenced by the active correspondence between himself and those family members remaining in North Carolina, but he considered Murfreesboro his home.  In correspondence between himself and his family from 1815-1819, King spoke of finding a wife back in Sampson County, North Carolina, and his family encouraged him to return for that purpose.  Not only was his attempt at this unsuccessful, but his one offer of marriage to a woman there was rejected.  While still remaining in contact with his extended family, by 1820, he was no longer looking for a wife or place to live in North Carolina.  In a letter from his cousin, William G. Parrish, he received the first acknowledgement of their acceptance of this.  Parrish wrote, “I at one time enjoyed the pleasing hope, that we ere many years revolved, should become near-neighbors in this pleasant, and salubrious claim, but hearing that you have again entered in the delightful pursuits of Agriculture in your State, precludes all hope of enjoying that pleasure I fondly anticipated.” 

James took over the land that his mother had owned, purchased more slaves, assisted other family members in financial matters, and married a local girl, Martha Batey in 1821.  In 1831 he completed Rural Rest, a two story, ornate house that became the home for he, his wife, and their thirteen children until he died in 1877.  He never ran for a political office, but maintained close ties with those who did, including his cousin, Thomas O. Moore, the governor of Louisiana.  James Moore King strongly opposed secession, but when the state did secede, he and his sons enlisted with the Confederate Army.  During the Civil War, most of the King slaves deserted the plantation leaving the care of the house and the farm to Martha Batey King and her invalid son, William Henry King.  When the Union Army occupied Murfreesboro, the King family was assigned a Union soldier to guard their house, but a great deal of their livestock and produce were stolen or appropriated during the war.

Despite these hardships, at the close of the war, James returned home and returned to a life of farming.  James and Martha celebrated their golden wedding anniversary in 1871 with a large gathering of their family at Rural Rest.  Finally, after a long and eventful life, James died in March of 1877 and his wife followed shortly thereafter in August of 1877.