Thomas Starr King
Encyclopedia
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Unitarian
Unitarianism
Unitarianism is a Christian theological movement, named for its understanding of God as one person, in direct contrast to Trinitarianism which defines God as three persons coexisting consubstantially as one in being....
and Universalist minister, influential in California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
politics during the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
. Starr King spoke zealously in favor of the Union
Union (American Civil War)
During the American Civil War, the Union was a name used to refer to the federal government of the United States, which was supported by the twenty free states and five border slave states. It was opposed by 11 southern slave states that had declared a secession to join together to form the...
and was credited by Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
with preventing California from becoming a separate republic. He is sometimes referred to as "the orator who saved the nation."
Life
Thomas Starr King was born on December 17, 1824, in New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
to Rev. Thomas Farrington King, a Universalist minister, and Susan Starr King. The sole support of his family at age 15, he was forced to leave school. Inspired by men like Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet, who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century...
and Henry Ward Beecher
Henry Ward Beecher
Henry Ward Beecher was a prominent Congregationalist clergyman, social reformer, abolitionist, and speaker in the mid to late 19th century...
, King embarked on a program of self-study for the ministry. At the age of 20 he took over his father’s former pulpit at the Charlestown Universalist Church in Charlestown
Charlestown, Massachusetts
Charlestown is a neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, United States, and is located on a peninsula north of downtown Boston. Charlestown was originally a separate town and the first capital of the Massachusetts Bay Colony; it became a city in 1847 and was annexed by Boston on January 5, 1874...
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
.
In 1849 he was appointed pastor of the Hollis Street Church
Hollis Street Church
The Hollis Street Church in Boston, Massachusetts, was a Congregational and Unitarian church. It merged with the South Congregational Society of Boston in 1887.- 1732-1825 :...
in Boston, where he became one of the most famous preachers in New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
. He vacationed in the White Mountains
White Mountains (New Hampshire)
The White Mountains are a mountain range covering about a quarter of the state of New Hampshire and a small portion of western Maine in the United States. Part of the Appalachian Mountains, they are considered the most rugged mountains in New England...
of New Hampshire
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...
and in 1859 published a book about the area entitled The White Hills; their Legends, Landscapes, & Poetry. In 1860 he accepted a call from the First Unitarian Church of San Francisco
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
.
Starr King's younger brother, Edward Starr King, served as captain of the clipper ship Syren
Syren (clipper)
The Syren was the longest lived of all the clipper ships, with a sailing life of 68 years 7 months. She sailed in the San Francisco trade, in the Far East, and transported whaling products from Hawaii and the Arctic to New Bedford....
. Capt. Starr King arrived in San Francisco aboard Syren just two days after his elder brother's stirring 1861 speech about Washington and the Union, remarking, "Starr has the brains of the family, and I the brawn."
During the Civil War, Starr King spoke zealously in favor of the Union
Union (American Civil War)
During the American Civil War, the Union was a name used to refer to the federal government of the United States, which was supported by the twenty free states and five border slave states. It was opposed by 11 southern slave states that had declared a secession to join together to form the...
and was credited by Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
with preventing California from becoming a separate republic. In addition, he organized the Pacific Branch of the United States Sanitary Commission
United States Sanitary Commission
The United States Sanitary Commission was a private relief agency created by federal legislation on June 18, 1861, to support sick and wounded soldiers of the U.S. Army during the American Civil War. It operated across the North, raised its own funds, and enlisted thousands of volunteers...
, which cared for wounded soldiers and was the predecessor to the American Red Cross
American Red Cross
The American Red Cross , also known as the American National Red Cross, is a volunteer-led, humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief and education inside the United States. It is the designated U.S...
. A fiery orator, he raised more than $1.5 million for the Sanitary Commission headquarters in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, one-fifth of the total contributions from all the states in the Union. The relentless lecture circuit exhausted him, and he died in San Francisco on March 4, 1864, of diphtheria
Diphtheria
Diphtheria is an upper respiratory tract illness caused by Corynebacterium diphtheriae, a facultative anaerobic, Gram-positive bacterium. It is characterized by sore throat, low fever, and an adherent membrane on the tonsils, pharynx, and/or nasal cavity...
.
Honors
Mountain peaks in the White MountainsWhite Mountains (New Hampshire)
The White Mountains are a mountain range covering about a quarter of the state of New Hampshire and a small portion of western Maine in the United States. Part of the Appalachian Mountains, they are considered the most rugged mountains in New England...
(Mount Starr King
Mount Starr King (New Hampshire)
Mount Starr King is a mountain located in Coos County, New Hampshire. The mountain is named after Thomas Starr King , and is part of the Pliny Range of the White Mountains. Mt. Starr King is flanked to the east by Mount Waumbek, and to the northwest by Haystack Mountain...
, elevation 1,191 m (3,907 ft)) and in Yosemite National Park
Yosemite National Park
Yosemite National Park is a United States National Park spanning eastern portions of Tuolumne, Mariposa and Madera counties in east central California, United States. The park covers an area of and reaches across the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountain chain...
(Mount Starr King
Mount Starr King (California)
Mount Starr King is a symmetrical granite dome in Yosemite National Park, whose highest point is above sea level.Climbing Starr King's dome requires technical skills or equipment and is rated class 5 in the Yosemite Decimal System....
) are named in his honor. In 1941 the Starr King School for the Ministry
Starr King School for the Ministry
Starr King School for the Ministry is a Unitarian Universalist seminary in Berkeley, California and part of the Graduate Theological Union. Starr King School opened in 1904 as the Pacific Unitarian School for the Ministry...
(Unitarian Universalist), in Berkeley, California, was also renamed in his honor. King’s church and tomb in San Francisco are designated historical monuments. Two streets in the city (Starr King Way, on which the church is located, and King Street in the Mission Bay neighborhood) are named for him, as is the Starr King Openspace, a park in the Potrero Hill neighborhood. There is also a statue of him in Golden Gate Park
Golden Gate Park
Golden Gate Park, located in San Francisco, California, is a large urban park consisting of of public grounds. Configured as a rectangle, it is similar in shape but 20% larger than Central Park in New York, to which it is often compared. It is over three miles long east to west, and about half a...
, facing JFK Drive, quite close to the De Young Museum. There are schools throughout California named and dedicated to him: Starr King Elementary School in San Francisco, Thomas Starr King Middle School in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles and Starr King K-8 School in Carmichael, California. A Masonic lodge founded in 1864 in Salem, Massachusetts, bears his name.
Statue
National Statuary Hall Collection
The National Statuary Hall Collection in the United States Capitol comprises statues donated by individual states to honor persons notable in their history...
displayed in the United States Capitol
United States Capitol
The United States Capitol is the meeting place of the United States Congress, the legislature of the federal government of the United States. Located in Washington, D.C., it sits atop Capitol Hill at the eastern end of the National Mall...
. In 1913 King was voted one of California's two greatest heroes and funds were appropriated for a statue. In 1931, California officially donated a bronze statue of King to be mounted in Statuary Hall.
On August 31, 2006, however, the California Legislature approved a joint resolution to replace Thomas Starr King's statue in Statuary Hall with a statue of Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
. The resolution was authored by State Senator Dennis Hollingsworth
Dennis Hollingsworth
Dennis Clark Hollingsworth is an American politician who represented California's 36th State Senate district, which includes portions of San Diego and Riverside County, from 2002 to 2010. In 2000, Hollingsworth was elected to the Legislature as a member of the Assembly, and in 2002, Hollingsworth...
, who stated the reason for the resolution as, "To be honest with you, I wasn't sure who Thomas Starr King was, and I think there's probably a lot of Californians like me." He also went on to observe that King was not a native of the state. However, Junipero Serra
Junípero Serra
Blessed Junípero Serra, O.F.M., , known as Fra Juníper Serra in Catalan, his mother tongue was a Majorcan Franciscan friar who founded the mission chain in Alta California of the Las Californias Province in New Spain—present day California, United States. Fr...
, who is California’s other contribution to Statuary Hall, was in fact born in Majorca, and Ronald Reagan was born in Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
.
As a result of this resolution, King's statue was removed from Statuary Hall, and the statue of Ronald Reagan was placed in Statuary Hall on June 10, 2009. In November 2009, Starr King's statue was reinstalled within the Civil War Memorial Grove in Capitol Park, which surrounds the California State Capitol
California State Capitol
The California State Capitol is home to the government of California. The building houses the bicameral state legislature and the office of the governor....
in Sacramento
Sacramento
Sacramento is the capital of the state of California, in the United States of America.Sacramento may also refer to:- United States :*Sacramento County, California*Sacramento, Kentucky*Sacramento – San Joaquin River Delta...
. It was formally dedicated in a ceremony held on December 8.
Further reading
- Thomas Starr King, article from the Dictionary of Unitarian and Universalist Biography
- Thomas Starr King, patriot and preacher, by Charles William Wendte, Google books
- Sermon on Thomas Starr King, delivered 1-21-07 (.pdf format) by a Unitarian Universalist Reverend, Rod Richards
- A Vacation Among the Sierras: Yosemite in 1860 (1962) by Thomas Starr King
- The White Hills; their Legends, Landscapes, & Poetry (1864) by Thomas Starr King
External links
- Starr King School for the Ministry
- Thomas Starr King statue in the National Statuary Hall, U.S. Capitol, Washington, D.C.
- Thomas Starr King Middle School of Los Angeles, CaliforniaLos Angeles, CaliforniaLos Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
- United States Sanitary Commission (historical website)
- First Unitarian Universalist Society of San Francisco: Our History
- SF Landmark: Sarcophagus of Thomas Starr King at Franklin Street and Starr King Way