P5591

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Details

ID Number

P5591

Item Name

Image

Title

Residence of Reverend William King / Résidence Rev. William King

Title (Fre)

Résidence Rev. William King

Date

1923

Description

Black and white photograph of the residence of Reverend William King on the Buxton Settlement, Raleigh Township, Kent County; the home is a log cabin which appears to be abandoned; the front section is one-and-a-half storeys high and the photograph displays the front & side of the building; on the front there are two windows and a door on the main floor and a dormer window above; there are no windows on the right side of the side of the building, but the logs beneath the roof peak are missing; behind this first section of house there is a second building; it is made of planks rather than logs, some of which are missing; the shingles on the roof are coming apart; behind this building there is a tall fence, or a wall made of vertical slats of wood; a weedy field is visible in the foreground of the photograph.

History

William King was the seventh and youngest child of William King & Elizabeth Torrence. Born in Ireland, but of Scottish descent, King moved to Ohio with his family when he was a young man. He took up teaching and became principal of an Academy in the southern United States. In 1841 he married Mary Phares. The death of his young wife, and later that of her father, left King the legal owner of 14 slaves. A deeply religious man and a believer in human freedom, King determined not merely to set his slaves free, but to safeguard their feedom by taking them to Canada. The party landed in Canada and the Buxton Settlement was formed 1849. Through his efforts and the assistance of sympathizing friends, 9000 acres of land were secured in the Township of Raleigh, County of Kent, as homes for coloured refugees from the United States. The settlement was originally called the Elgin settlement in honour of the Earl of Elgin, then governor general, and later, with the establishment of the post office, for Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, one of the strongest champions of emancipation in the United Kingdom. For his own home, Mr. King secured a small house built several years before by a white settler. Later, buildings were temporarily used as mission house and school were incorporated in the dwelling. All of the buildings in the settlement were made of log and were intended to be only temporary. The settlement grew over the next few years and became self-sufficient with the erection of blacksmith, shoemaker & carpenter shops, a steam saw mill and girst mill, a two-storey brick hotel, a store, pearl ash factory, brick yard, post office and two schools. The outbreak of the US Civil War in 1861 led to the delay of the building of a permanent church and school. In 1865, when slavery ended in the United States, the object for which the Buxton Mission had been established ceased to exist. The mission was closed, however, Rev. King remained leader of the settlement until 1880. He moved to Chatham, though he continued to work as minister & missionary. In 1853 he had married Jemima Baxter. She died in 1887 and he died in Chatham in 1895. He is buried in Maple Leaf Cemetery.

Place made

Canada - Ontario - Buxton Settlement

Collection Name

Museum Windsor

Subjects

Abandoned buildings / Édifices abandonnés

Building deterioration / Détérioration du bâtiment

Buildings / Immeubles

Buxton Settlement (Ont.) / Établissement Buxton (Ont.)

Buxton, Sir Thomas Fowell

Dwellings / Habitations

Earl of Elgin

Elgin Settlement / Établissement Elgin

Houses / Maisons

Kent County (Ont.)

King, Reverend William

Log cabins / Bâtiments en rodins

Raleigh Township (Ont.)