KING'S RIVER SETTLEMENT (AR)

"King's River.--In the summer and fall of 1827 Thomas Cunningham, John J. Coulter, and Henry King, of Lauderdale County, Ala., made a prospecting expedition into the valley of King's River. King died (this being the first death of a white man in the county), and was buried on the bank of the stream that bears his name. Cunningham and Coulter returned to Alabama.

In the fall of 1829 William King, Charles Burney, Turner Hamblet, Thomas Rogers, William Adair, Lemuel Rogers and Benjamin F. King, of Alabama, came in a colony to the valley. They found here one settler, Leonard Koker, who had come the preceding year and cleared off three acres. He was in charge of a large drove of cattle owned by planters in the Arkansas River valley. He sold his improvements to Turner Hamblet, the son-in-law of William King. The latter settled near the old camp ground; William Adair, where Mr. McCracken now lives. The first white child born in the valley was William Henderson Burney, son of Charles and Mary (King) Burney. In addition to those already named there were living in the valley in 1832 one Melton, on the confines of civilization down the river; Manual Clements, Samuel Durham, who came in 1830; Thomas Rodgers, by whom the site of Kingston was owned; Eli Sweden, who gave to Sweden Creek its name; Jeremiah Combs, from Warren County, Tenn; Garrett Lane, from Illinois, who came in 1832; James Frazier and Moses Guess, from Hickory Valley, six miles from McMinnville, Warren Co., Tenn.; George and Haywood Weathersby; John F. King, the well-known preacher, came in 1834. The first frame house in the valley was built in 1851 or 1852 by Jon Combs and George King. The first school-house, a log building twenty-four feet square, was built in 1833. The first teacher was from Tennessee. The first sermon was preached by Andrew Buchannan, a Presbyterian minister." (History of Madison County...)