T. J. King was born in Madison County, Tenn., in 1832, and is the son of Thomas W. and Martha (Hector) King. The father, a native of North Carolina, was of English descent, and was a farmer by occupation. He was married in Madison County, and in 1842 moved to Shelby County. Here he lived until his death, about the year 1845. His wife was born about the year 1814, near New Madrid, Mo. Three of their four children are living: Mattie (wife of R. A. Spicer), Mary F. (wife of John W. Dickey), and T. J. Mrs. King's second husband was Eli Bell. Our subject was educated at Raleigh and Bolivar, and remained with his mother until the age of eighteen years. He went overland to California, where for five years he was engaged in transferring freight from point to point. In 1856 he returned to Tennessee, and in September, 1856, married Miss Laura McGhee, daughter of William and Virginia McGhee, of Shelby County. She was born in 1834, in Virginia, and has borne her husband four children: Eva M. (wife of Thomas Wallis), Rosa Belle (wife of Elton Harrell), Edward Moody and Theodore F. Mr. King clerked in Memphis for four years, then farmed in Shelby County for about two years, and then returned to Memphis and resumed clerking. Late during the war he conducted a business of his own. At Bartlett, Shelby County, he then for eighteen years conducted a grocery store. In 1882 he sold out, moved to Dyersburg and opened a general grocery store. He is a Democrat, an Odd Fellow, and he and wife are members of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. He is one of the most useful and respected citizens of the county, and has one of the best stores in the town.