ANTOINETTE PORTER KING AND FAMILY:

Antoinette Louise Porter was born in New York City on December 12, 1835, the third of Selah and Cornelia Porter's six children. In 1838 Antoinette's family moved to the Wisconsin Territory and settled on a farm in Walworth County. Antoinette married William Vipen King (1831-1914) on March 27, 1856. The couple lived with his parents until 1861 when they moved to a farm near Whitewater in Crawford County, Wisconsin. In 1864 William enlisted in the army and Antoinette and their children moved in with her parents until William's return in July 1865. In the fall of that year they moved to Austin, Minnesota. In October 1866, together with several other family members, they moved to a homestead in Jackson, Minnesota. Antoinette was involved in founding many of Jackson's civic and secular organizations and remained an active civic leader all her life.

Antoinette and William had four children: Willie Porter (1857-1944), Ellen Greenwood (1859-1913), Selah Samuel (1864-1920), and John Lebbeus (1870-1964). Antoinette, known to family and friends as "Nettie" or "Nett" died in Jackson, Minnesota on March 26, 1896. William Vipen King died in Jackson, Minnesota on June 13, 1914.

Biographical data was taken from the summaries in the collection, compiled by Ruth King Freymann.

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Biographical summaries (1995-1999); copies of photographs (1990-1997); genealogies (1992, 1999); transcriptions of letters and journals (1990-2002); original letters (1829-1918) and journals (1866-1894); and copies of legal documents (circa 1990-1999) by members of the extended Porter and King families.

The bulk of the collection is composed of correspondence, both originals and typed transcripts, between members of Antoinette Porter King's family starting prior to her birth and continuing through 1918. The letters are grouped by correspondent and each group is accompanied by an introduction written by Ruth King Freymann. The introductions contain biographical data, related background information, and a list of "dramatis personae." Freyman compiled, as an appendix in the bound volume of transcripts, a chronological index to the entire set of correspondence. She also annotated the correspondence with information on locale, events, and individuals mentioned.

Correspondents include Antoinette and William King; their son, Selah Samuel King; her parents, Selah and Cornelia Porter; her husband's parents, John and Hannah King; her brother, Lebbeus Effingham Porter; her sister-in-law, Elizabeth Barney; her aunt, Mary Dan; her uncle, Samuel Lyman Porter; and her cousin, Louise Wilson.

Topics include Selah and Cornelia Porter's courtship; the migration of the Porter and King families from New York to Wisconsin and on to Minnesota; news from relatives in England and New York; her children; accounts of the family's health, finances, and farming; William Vipen King's service (1864-1865) in the Wisconsin 43rd Infantry Regiment during the Civil War; Selah's experiences in Jasper, Minnesota, where he founded the local newspaper, The Jasper Journal; and the World War I experiences of William Vance and James Hilton King (1918).

Antoinette's diary (1866-1894), also transcribed and annotated by Freymann, complements the correspondence and frequent references are made between the two. Antoinette moved to Jackson, Minnesota with a group of family members including her husband and children; her brother Lebbeus, his wife Ellen, and their daughter Zella; William's sister Elizabeth, her husband Mitchell Barney, and their daughters Juna and Alice; Antoinette's brother Irving; and William's brothers Robert and George. Also included were family friends Charles and Elisa Heath. The entries describe the move to Jackson (October 4-12, 1866) and daily life over the following years. Topics include births, illnesses, deaths, social activities, the weather, planting, harvesting, William's legal work and his election as chairman of the board of supervisors (April 12, 1867), a total solar eclipse (August 8, 1866), a trip back to Whitewater, Wisconsin (October 3-18, 1870), organization of the Jackson Grange (November 21, 1872), and the Rocky Mountain locust infestation, which overran much of southwestern Minnesota (June 15-July 17, 1873).

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The bulk of the collection consists of transcriptions by Ruth King Freymann and John Gordon Freymann of the original letters. The primary access materials are four bound volumes of annoted transcriptions of the letters, journal, diaries, and genealogy of Antoinette Porter King and other family members. Within the bound volume of letters, the items are grouped by family relationship, though each letter was assigned a number in chronological order. Also available are loose copies of the transcript of each letter, accompanied by a photocopy of the original letter and envelope. These transcripts are in the same order as the first edition of the The King Porter Family Letters, 1829-1944 (1998).

The set of original correspondence, which is closed to general use, is nearly complete and is foldered in numerical order as assigned by Ruth King Freymann in her first edition of the transcripts. Volume 2 of Antoinette Porter King's journal and a single volume of Anna Viola "Vie" King Lyon's journal are also closed to general use.

The two editions of the transcribed letters (boxes 1 and 7) provide the most complete information on the origination and organization of the correspondence. The volumes include a chronological list of correspondence and an index by correspondent.

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Restrictions:

The original correspondence and journals are closed to general use.

Preferred Citation:

[Indicate the cited item and/or series here]. Antoinette Porter King and Family Papers. Minnesota Historical Society.

See the Chicago Manual of Style for additional examples.

Accession Information:

Accession numbers: 14,353; 15,128; 15,323; 15,455; 15,553; 15,621; 15,709; 15,972; 15,974; 16,274

Processing Information:

Processing and cataloging of this collection was supported with a Basic Project grant awarded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC).

Digitized by: Aubrey Mullenix, May 2025.

Digitization was made possible by the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund through the vote of Minnesotans on November 4, 2008.

Catalog ID number: 990017330400104294

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The Kings: The History of an American Family, published by Ruth King Freymann and John Gordon Freymann from their transcriptions of the family papers, is separately cataloged in the Minnesota Historical Society library.

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This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the Minnesota Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should search the catalog using these headings.

Topics:

Barney family.

Dan family.

King family.

Porter family.

Frontier and pioneer life -- Minnesota -- Jackson.

Grasshopper plagues, 1873-1877 -- Minnesota -- Jackson County.

Women pioneers -- Minnesota -- Jackson.

World War, 1914-1918.

Places:

Jackson (Minn.).

Jackson County (Minn.).

Jasper (Minn.).

United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865.

Walworth County (Wis.).

Whitewater (Wis.).

Persons:

Barney, Elizabeth Annis, 1840-1900, author.

Barney, Mitchell Servitus, 1832-1919, author.

Freymann, John Gordon, 1922-, author.

Freymann, Ruth King, 1924-, author.

King, Ellen Greenwood, 1859-1913, author.

King, Hannah Hilton, 1808-1886, author.

King, John, 1806-1899, author.

King, John Lebbeus, 1870-1964, author.

King, Selah Samuel, 1864-1920, author.

King, William Vipen, 1831-1914, author.

King, Willie Porter, 1857-1944, author.

Porter, Cornelia Ann, 1806-1849, author.

Porter, Lebbeus Effingham, 1837-1870, author.

Porter, Samuel Lyman, 1800-1889, author.

Porter, Selah Smith, 1805-1867, author.

Porter, William Henry, 1833-1857, author.

Wilson, Louise, author.

Organizations:

Patrons of Husbandry. Jackson Grange (Jackson County, Minnesota).

United States. Army. Wisconsin Infantry Regiment, 43rd (1864-1865).

Types of Documents:

Diaries.

Photographs.

Titles:

Descendants of Thomas King: A Genealogy, 1977-1999.

Journals of Antoinette Porter King, 1866-1894.

King Porter Family Letters, 1829-1944.

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