Person:Joel King (5)

BIOGRAPHY: The Greene Family and its Branches From A. D. 861 to A. D. 1904 By Lora S. La Mance Mayflower Publishing Company Floral Park, New York 1904 Pages 197 - 198

Joel King was the tenth child and fourth son of Samuel and Deborah Greene-King. He was born Nov. 3, 1785, and died Dec. 12, 1867, aged 82. He outlived his wife by thirty years. He married at 24 to his second cousin, Esther Matteson, who was born June 18, 1783. Esther was a sister to Meribah, wife of Joel's brother George. The sisters' double Matteson descent, and also their lineage from John Greene of Quidnessett, is given in Chapter XXVI, pertaining to George King. Joel King was a favorite in his family. He was frank and generous in is disposition, and of a genial, sunny temperament. His wife is yet remembered as one of the salt of the earth, patient, forbearing, and given to kind words and deeds. He went to N.Y. in 1806, and lived for a few years with his sister, Mrs. Nancy Nichols. He went back to R.I. after his bride, but spent the rest of his life at Pompey, N.Y. Years after, when some of his own children were grown, he found that the then owner of his brother-in-law's old place was about to plow over the grave of this sister Nancy, with whom he had lived. He moved the remains to his own private burying ground. Then from Mill Creek he chose a smooth stone, dressed it into a slab, and chiseled her name and date of her birth and death thereon. It was a long hard task, but it was done so well that a regular stone cutter might have been proud of it. This incident illustrates his loyalty and devotion to his friends.