Sebastian County ArArchives Biographies.....King, Harry Clyde 
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Robert Sanchez http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00027.html#0006574 June 16, 2009, 3:01 pm

Author: S. J. Clarke (Publisher, 1922)

HARRY CLYDE KING, M. D.
    Dr. Harry Clyde King, a surgeon of notable capability, by reason of thorough
training and long experience and who at all times is most conscientious in the
performance of his professional duties, was born in Luray, Clark county,
Missouri, December 16, 1871, and is the youngest of a family of eleven children,
whose parents were Alfred A. and Ellen (Dennis) King. The father was a
mechanical engineer, who served in the Civil war, there being seven brothers in
the family who joined the army and all were killed save two.

    Dr. King of this review was but nine years of age at the time of his
father's death. He soon afterward left home to attend school in Cherokee,
Kansas, and there lived with a married sister, remaining at that place until he
bad completed a high school course. He afterward removed from the Sunflower
state to Wisconsin, where he continued his studies in a private school and still
later he became a student in the University of Chicago. After a preparatory
course there pursued he entered Rush Medical College, which is the medical
department of the University of Chicago and has an endowment from the
Rockefeller foundation. Lacking necessary funds to meet his tuition and the
regular expenses of a college course, yet determined to qualify for the practice
of medicine Dr. King slept in the basement of the college in order to save room
rent and paid for his tuition by acting as an orderly and waiting on table in
the student's boarding hall, thus providing for his board and maintenance.
Notwithstanding his financial handicap his fellow students recognized his
personal worth, ability and high character and elected him to the position of
secretary of his class, which was the first four-year class being graduated from
that institution. He completed his studies in 1899, gaining thereby his much
coveted degree of M. D. In later years Dr. King has taken postgraduate work in
New York. On leaving the east he went to Weir City, Kansas, where he established
himself in the practice of medicine in connection with his brother, Dr. Dennis
W. King, who was then the physician and surgeon for the Central Coal & Coke
Company of Weir City. During an epidemic at Bonanza, Arkansas, Dr. King was sent
to that place by the Central Coal & Coke Company and continued for a period of
six years. He was not only prominent as a physician there but was also a
recognized leader in connection with many interests of great public importance
and moment. He served as mayor of the city, was chief of police and occupied
other positions of public honor and trust, thus displaying his devotion to the
welfare and progress of the community.

    It was in 1906 that Dr. King came to Fort Smith, where he has followed his
profession for a period of fifteen years and he is today recognized as one of
the leading physicians of the city. He has developed great skill and ability as
the years have passed and his efficiency is manifest in many ways. He has always
specialized in surgery and he possesses intimate knowledge of anatomy and the
component parts of the human body and thoroughly understands the onslaught made
upon it by disease. From 1907 until 1916 he acted as chief surgeon for the
Midland Valley Railroad and he has been chief surgeon for the Fort Smith Light &
Traction Company since 1906. In 1915 he organized the Union Hospital Association
among the Union Mine Workers of District No. 21, comprising Arkansas, Oklahoma
and Texas. The present membership is ten thousand, representing fifty thousand
people. Almost every year Dr. King leaves home to attend an important clinic in
the larger medical centers of the country. While in Chicago he did service in
the Cook County Hospital. He is a local member of the Surgeons College at
Rochester, Minnesota, and he belongs to the Sebastian County, the Arkansas State
and the American Medical Associations. He was a member of the Medical Reserve
Corps during the World war, but could not get overseas, as it was thought best
that he should remain at home on account of his duties as chief surgeon of the
mine workers.

    Dr. King was united in marriage to Miss Agnes Cummings of Toronto, Canada,
and they have become parents of three children: Linton, who attends the
Southwestern University; Eleanor; and Juanita. Mrs. King is a most active club
woman and is interested in many of the projects and problems that have to do
directly with the welfare and benefit of the people at large. She is now
president of the Anti-Tuberculosis Association of Sebastian county and during
the World war she acted as chairman of Liberty Loan drives in Fort Smith. Dr.
King belongs to the Lions Club and the Country Club of Fort Smith, is also a
member of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks and has attained the
thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite in Masonry, while with the Nobles of
the Mystic Shrine he has crossed the sands of the desert. Both he and bis wife
are recognized leaders in the field in which they labor and to which they direct
their attention and they are actively interested in all those concerns which are
of vital worth to the community, their influence being ever on the side of
progress and improvement.


Additional Comments:
Citation:
Centennial History of Arkansas
Volume II
Chicago-Little Rock: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company
1922


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