Pioneer Amish Communities / 77 Profile of a Leader

It would seem that the biography of John P. King epitomizes the Amish ideals in a most authentic fashion and does so in the context of a frontier and religious setting. John P. King was born in 1827 in Mifflin County, Pennsylvania-one of seven children. After his father's death in 1847 he was hired out to do farm work in the neighborhood but he soon "conceived the idea that the chances, for a young man of industrious habits and no means, were much better in the populous West, than they were in his native place."

Young King "with a determination to succeed, turned his back on all that was dear to him in youth and set out for this state, arriving in Logan County, March 2, 1849, a poor, but sober and industrious young man."

King married Rebecca Troyer of Holmes County in October of 1850. To their union were born six children. The family was reared on a well-improved farm which by about 1875 was worth $110.64 an acre. Evidently as a man in the community, John P. King was respected for his integrity and sound business methods for over thirty years.

It was, however, also as a churchman that King became known and as such he makes interesting study of how spiritual and economic leadership were combined in one man. He was ordained as a deacon in 1859 and in 1872 was ordained bishop. As a bishop he traveled extensively in a circuit through Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, and Kansas. He assisted in founding congregations; he preached and served communion to scattered members; and because of his dedication and abilities he exerted a commanding influence. Doubtless to the people of his own faith he symbolized much of what the Amish transplanted to the frontier by way of economic, spiritual, and cultural values. To the compilers of a county history, who studied their Amish neighbors, he merited considerable space as one who fitted into their ideal of a "success story."

From a Local History

The West Liberty community received further space in Robert P. Kennedy's Historical Review of Logan County, Ohio, which was published in 1903. Here it is noted that worship was in private homes till 1857 or 1858 and that the German language persisted,