William S. King
American politician (1828–1900)
William Smith King (December 16, 1828 – February 24, 1900) was a Republican U.S. Representative for Minnesota from March 4, 1875, to March 3, 1877. He was a journalist and businessman. He is best known for allegations of political corruption during this congressional term. The House of Representatives did not specify his offense, but decided it was constitutionally unable to punish him for actions that took place before he entered Congress. He did not run for reelection.
Early life
William S. King was born to Reverend Lyndon King in Malone, New York, in Franklin County on December 16, 1828. At the age of 12, his mother died and he left home and became a farm hand.
Career
Early career
In 1846, he moved to Otsego County, New York, and worked as a solicitor for mutual insurance companies. He began a newspaper career in Cooperstown, New York, in 1852 by becoming an editor of the Free Democrat, a campaign paper in Cooperstown for George Washington Julian and John P. Hale, Free Soil Party candidates for U.S. President. He received the title of Colonel while serving under General Burnside in the New York Guard.
“William S. King” enters the record as american politician (1828–1900). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what William, King and American can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“William S. King” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, William, King and American provides the most credible route into that argument.
Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2580477. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1828, 1900, 1875 and 1877.
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This entry incorporates text from “William S. King” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.