Sophia Perkins or Patterson Clark (King)

Sophia was born in Springfield, Mass. on January 8, 1827 (or 1826), but her parents' names are unknown. According to the 1900 Census (see below), her father was from Vermont and mother from Connecticut.  According to her obituary in the Deseret News, she heard Mormonism preached when she was 11 (about 1838) and converted, despite attempts by her Baptist congregation to prevent it:

At this time Mrs. King was the youngest member of the Baptist congregation to which she belonged and was looked upon with much favor by her minister and the older members. When it was learned that she had been converted to Mormonism, a most zealous effort was made to turn her away, but finding that she stood firm in her new faith, her relatives planned to keep her coffined in her home. She escaped, however, went to [Lowell] and worked in a factory until she had obtained means to emigrate. (Deseret Evening News, April 30, 1908)

17 year-old Sophia Clark testified in the excommunication trial of Elder John Hardy in October 1844 in Boston.  Elder George J. Adams had her testify that Hardy slanderously referred to Adams as a “whoremonger”.  However, when carefully pressed by Elder Hardy, she retracted her signed affidavit and admitted Hardy had only referred to Apostles William Smith and Adams as “bad men”, not whoremongers.  Despite the divisiveness of the Hardy trial and his (true) accusations of what amounted to unauthorized polygamy, adultery, and fornication, Sophia Clark remained loyal to Smith, Adams, and Brannan.

After saving enough to pay for her passage, she then took the ship Brooklyn, under the leadership of Samuel Brannan, to California to join the gathering Saints. Once in San Francisco she worked for Isaac Goodwin, whose wife had died on the journey. She then met Capt. Edward Augustus King (born Sept. 2, 1817 in Salem, Mass. and therefore likely a maritime captain, rather than a military captain), whom she married in San Francisco. With the onslaught of the Gold Rush, the San Francisco harbor quickly became a mess, so on April 3, 1849, the Legislative Assembly of the District of San Francisco passed a law establishing the office of Harbormaster, and appointed Captain Edward A. King to that position, making him the first Habormaster of San Francisco. His appointment was subsequently approved by the military governor of California, Brevet Brigadier General Bennett Riley, on June 19 1849, and he served in that position until the end of 1849. (James Delgado, To California By Sea, pp. 102-3; Daily Alta California, November 7, 1849.)

While there, they had a daughter (name unknown) who died December 1849 at age of 10 months.  Sophia then gave birth in February 1850 to Eliza A. King.   A son named Edward Watts King died at the age of three months in September 1851. Another daughter, Harriet P. King, was born in San Francisco in May 1852.

Capt. Edward A. King was listed in the 1850 San Francisco Directory, working as a "boarding officer" (apparently helping others find housing), and living on the corner of Market and Powell Streets. (A Michael King also lived on the same corner.) In the 1852/3 Directory he was still in "boarding" and living on Valencia between Stockton and Dupont. (Edward A. King also apparently married Martha Osborn polygamously at some point; she was born in 1825 in Salem, Massachusetts and died in 1885.)

Charles H. King was born to the couple in San Francisco in 1855.

Another son, Edward Augustus King Jr. (aka “Edward G. King”) was born in September 1857 and almost immediately threafter, Sophia and her children moved to Utah in November 1857, probably with the Robert Crow Company from San Bernardino. Her husband Edward King followed them to Utah a year later. The diary of his journey from San Bernardino to Salt Lake City (covering June 23 to August 22, 1858) has been published by the Tubac Historical Society & Western Trails Research Association:

The entire King family then appears in the 1860 Census:

1860 Census of Salt Lake 13th Ward (7 June 1860) - four houses from Apostle George A. and Bathsheba Smith
E A King 43 M Reporter $300 Mass.
Sophia P. King 32 F Mass.
Lizzie A. 10 F Cal.
Harriet P. 8 F Cal.
Charles H. 5 M Cal.
Augustus 3 M Cal.
Frank W. 8/12 Utah

Her husband Edward then died December 19, 1860 and she probably gave birth to their last child (Henry) after his death. Oddly, despite being a newspaper reporter in Salt Lake, I can find no obituary for Edward Augustus King.

1870 Census of Salt Lake 13th Ward
Sofia King 43 F Keeping House $900 Mass.
Eliza 20 F At Home Cal.
Harriet 18 F At Home Cal.
Edward 12 M At School Cal.
Henry 10 M At School Utah
PLUS a 16 year old domestic servant and five male and female boarders in early 20s

1880 Census of SL 13th Ward (200 South St.)
Sophia P. King 53 Keeping House, MA, MA, MA
Lizzie A. King 28 At Home
Hattie P. Lawrence 25
Bertie Lawrence Fem. 1
Edward G. King 22 Laborer
Henry F. King 20 (no occup.)

Between 1880 and 1890, Sophia P. Clark King left Utah and returned to Alameda, California, perhaps for a more temperate climate as she aged. For several years, since there was no Mormon Church established in California at the time, she did not practice Mormonism. However the Oakland Branch of the Mormon Church was organized on October 2, 1892 by Luther Dalton, and another branch in Sacramento was organized by him on November 27, 1892. Two missionaries, Alva Keller and James B. Cummings, were sent to Sacramento "to revitalize the faith of the Saints" in northern California, and they soon found Sophia King, who began attending LDS services again in 1893. (Richard O. Cowan and William E. Homer, California Saints: A 150-Year Legacy in the Golden State, 1996, pp. 235-6.)

1900 Census of Salt Lake (2nd Ward) - 200 South St. (p. 16)
Edward G. King, broker, Sept 1849, 50, Married 20 years - CA, MA, MA
Living with Jas. W. Heywood and Jas. Nesbitt.  (Where is wife of 20 years?)

1900 Census of Alameda, Alameda, California - Santa Clara Avenue (p. 27)
Sophia King (mother), born June 1827 in MA, VT, CT
Liz Guion (head of family), born February 1852 or 1853 in CA, MA, MA
Earl Guion (son), tent worker, born Oct. 1884 in IL, IN, CA
Hattie P. Mullery (sister) born May 1865 in CA, MA, MA
Nicholas M. Mullery (bro-in-law), post master, born Dec. 1853 in NY of Irish parents (no children).

(Sophia indicated for the 1900 census that she had born 8 children, with only three currently alive.)

Sophia then died in Alameda, in April 1908, at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Lizzie Guion. Several Mormon elders spoke at her funeral, including Joseph J. Cannon, Henry S. Tanner, Joseph E. Taylory, John Q. Cannon, and Patriarch Angus M. Cannon. "All spoke in the highest terms of her gentle nature and kindly disposition." (Obituary, Deseret Evening News, April 30, 1908.)

1910 Census of Alameda (Walnut St.)
Lizzie Guion Head 52 Widow (1 child, 1 living) Cal. Mass. Own Income
Earl K. Guion Son 25 Illinois Missouri Cal. Civil Engr. for Rail Road Co.

1910 Census of Alameda (Walnut St. and Clermont Ave)
Hattie P. Mullery Head 45 Wid. (1 child, none living) - Own income

1910 Census – Edward Augustus King Jr. not found

1920 Census of Alameda (Lincoln Ave)
Lizzie A. Guion 69 Widow

1920 Census of Willets, Mendocino, Cal
Earl K. Guion Head 36 Illinois - U.S. U.S. - Civ Engr State High Way Office
Anna C. Guion Wife 29 Arizona - Monenegro Arizona
King E. Guion Son 8 Cal.

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