4930, (Rev.) Joseph Elijah, Ph.D., D.D.; b. Nov. 30, 1823; m. July 22, 1850, Melissa Bayley, of Newbury, Vt.
It being in contemplation to erect at Fort Edward, N.Y., an institution on a grander scale than any existing boarding seminary, the principal of Fort Plain seminary. Rev. Elijah King, was invited to visit the town with a view to give his advice in the proposed enterprise. In connection with Rev. Henry B. Taylor he matured the plans, assisted at the laying of the corner stone in May, 1854, and was induced to assume the principalship of Fort Edward Institute for a term of 10 years. Dec. 7, 1854, he opened the first term with 500 students in attendance, and during the 23 years of its subsequent history, he has been its sole principal, registering over 10,000 different names, hailing from over 33 of the States of the Union. Many of his students have taken conspicuous places among the successful men and women of this generation. Over 100 of his students joined in the war for maintaining the Union, of whom 18 gave their lives that the nation might not die. A few of his young men also fought on the Confederate side. He has sent out 165 clergymen of the various denominations, of whom already two have become Doctors of Divinity. The lawyers and physicians have been almost as numerous. The Institute has had one representative in Congress, one State Senator, and, at different times, nearly a score of Assemblymen. It has five or six judges and several school commissioners and a whole army of teachers. Besides the hundreds of its regular graduates, it has sent not less than 250 young men to college and professional schools.
In 1862 Union College conferred the degree of Doctor of Divinity upon Professor King, and in 1873 the Regents of the University of New York, in recognition of his efficiency as an educator, conferred upon him the degree of Ph.D.
In the discharge of his duties as principal of Fort Edward Institute, he has lectured before the faculty and students over 300 times, and has found leisure to deliver, outside the walls of the Institute, 210 lectures and addresses, besides having preached 1,032 sermons in 182 different pulpits. From the sessions of the conference of clergymen, of which he is a member, he has never been absent for a day. In 1864 he was elected by his brethren a delegate to the General Conference of the M. E. church, at Philadelphia; having also enjoyed the honor of serving as a delegate to the general Conference of 1856, representing the Vermont Conference, from which he was transferred to the Troy conference, on a vote of that conference requesting it. For two weeks he served as Acting Delegate in the General Conference at Chicago, in 1868. Once he has been called upon to address the alumni of his college, once to deliver the oration before the convention of Psi Upsilon — his college fraternity, and twice to deliver the annual poem at Psi Upsilon conventions.
