Adam King

Who was Adam King?

Adam King was a Jacksonian member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania.

Adam King was born in York, Pennsylvania. He studied medicine in the University of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia and commenced practice in York. He edited and published the York Gazette from 1818 to 1835. He served as clerk of the courts of York County, Pennsylvania, from 1818 to 1826.

On January 29, 1825, Dr. Adam King, Col. M.H.Spangler, and Jacob Spangler escorted Gilbert du Motier, marquis de La Fayette and his son George Washington Lafayette, who were touring America, to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. They returned to York on February 2, where they were greeted by six military companies and large crowds of people hailing Lafayette.³

King was elected to the Twentieth Congress and reelected as a Jacksonian to the Twenty-first and Twenty-second Congresses. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1832 to the Twenty-third Congress. He resumed the practice of medicine and died in York in 1835. Interment in Prospect Hill Cemetery.

His obituary indicates that he died at home by suicide on May 6, 1835. However, his tombstone reads: "Dr. Adam King January 20, 1783 - May 7, 1835 For 6 years the deceased ably and honorably represented the county of York in the Congress of the U.S".³