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FRANK TWINING KING Page 533-534 - Frank Twining King was born in Genesee county, Michigan, in 1856. His parents were Francis Treat King and Laura (Brown) King. Frank attended the public schools of Lowell and the Lowell high school, and supplemented this education with two years work at Olivet College. He is a past president of the Lowell high school alumni. He was seven years old when his father moved to Lowell, and at fifteen years was a bookkeeper for James W. Norton in his lumbering operations in the pine woods near Cadillac. At sixteen years he was employed by the Lowell National Bank and in appreciation of his services, was given the complimentary office of teller by the board of directors. Later he associated himself with his father in the lumber and sawmill business in Lowell, with which business he continued until 1879, when he was made an equal partner with his father and Reuben Quick under the firm name of King, Quick & King, which lumber, sawmill and shingle mill operations continued until about 1888 when the timber supply reached the stage of exhaustion. In 1889, he purchased the Lowell flouring mills and water power. He associated with him his father, Francis Treat King and Charles McCarty and they organized the corporation under the name of the King Milling Company. At this time the mills were overhauled and rebuilt. This gave the new corporation a mill of about two hundred barrels capacity per day with the latest machinery and equipment, unexcelled by any in the state. About 1900 the King Milling Company took over the property of the Wisner Brothers, known as the Forest mills in Lowell, and since that time the corporation has operated the two mills in Lowell. Mr. King has been honored by the milling industry in Michigan, having served for two terms as president of the Michigan Millers Association, and for three years as representative of Michigan on the directorate of the Miller’s National Federation, which has its headquarters in Chicago. Also for a number of years he has been, and still is a director of the Michigan Millers’ Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Lansing. During the war, Mr. King was appointed, under the Honorable Herbert Hoover of the National Food Administration, as a member of the advisory board of the flour milling industry, representing the western half of Michigan, in which position he rendered valuable service during that crisis. He was a director of the Lowell State Bank for many years, serving with his father, who became president of the bank, and after his father’s death succeeded him as president, which office he held for some years, resigning on account of extensive outside business interests. A few years previous to this, Sidney C. Bradfield, Russel J. Enos, Francis T. King, Frank T. King, and Charles McCarty organized a lumber company under the firm name of Rusk County Lumber Company, and purchased a large tract of timbered land in Rusk county, Wisconsin. They established sawmills and were thus engaged for some years, until the timer was exhausted. While Mr. King has in no respect acted as a politician, he has long and faithfully served his town and community whenever his services in public affairs were in demand. He was a member of the board of education for some twelve years, in Lowell, and also served as a member of the village council for some years. He was a charter member of the Lowell Board of Trade, and served as their second president. He is a member of the Lowell Lodge No. 90, Free and Accepted Masons, for some thirty-five years a member of Hooker Chapter, Royal Arch Masons, and of Ionia Commandery, and a member of Saladin Temple of Grand Rapids. He also holds membership in the Highland and Masonic Country Clubs of Grand Rapids. His religious affiliation was with the Lowell Congregational church and he was treasurer and trustee of that institution for a great many years. He moved his residence to Grand Rapids in 1915, Mr. and Mrs. King and daughter Florence, all taking letters and affiliating with the Park Congregational church of that city. Mr. King has served as trustee, president of the board, and deacon of this church. In 1881 he married Flora Lee of Lowell; of two children, Edmond and Florence L, the last named survives. The family now resides at 344 Madison avenue, southeast, Grand Rapids. |