King, Thomas Starr

King, Thomas Starr

(1824–64) Unitarian minister, lecturer; born in New York City. He worked as a teacher, principal, and bookkeeper to support his mother and siblings. Largely self-taught, he became a Unitarian minister in Boston (1846). He went to San Francisco (1860) where his orations helped to keep California in the Union during the Civil War. He died of diphtheria. California named two mountain peaks for him and his statue was placed in the U.S. Capitol.