KING, Thomas Starr, American Unitarian clergyman and lecturer, generally known as Starr King: b. New York, 17 Dec. 1824; d. San Francisco, 4 March 1864. He was a clerk in a dry goods Store at Charlestown, Mass., in 1836-40, a teacher at Boston and Medford is 1840-42, studied theology with Hosea Ballou at Medford, preached for a time to a Universal ist congregation of Boston, and in 1846-48 was pastor of the Universalist Church at Charles town. In 1848-60 he was pastor of the Hollis Street Unitarian Church of Boston, and during this period gained great popularity as a lycetim lecturer in the Northern States. Best known was his 'Substance and Show,' • but other familiar subjects were 'Goethe,' 'Sight and Insight,' 'The Laws of Disorder,' 'Socrates.' He became pastor of the First Unitarian So ciety of San Francisco in 1860; was among the first, by newspaper article and lerturei to call attention to the Yosemite Valley, and when, in the Presidential campaign of 1860, the idea of the establishment of California as an independ ent Pacific republic was discussed, denounced the project from the lecture platform and pre served the State to the Union. During the
Civil War he was active in obtaining in Cali fornia large and necessary funds for the Sani tary Commission. His name was at one thne associated with the White Mountains, which he thoroughly explored, and which became known chiefly through his writings, particularly 'The White Hills: Their Legends, Landscape and Poetry' (1859; new ed., 1887). One of the peaks of the White Mountains has been called Starr King in his honor. A memorial to him was set up in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, Cal., in 1889. King was one of the leading figures of the American Lyceum in the most flourishing days of that institution. ism and other Papers' appeared posthumously (1865), as did the sermon 'Christianity and Humanity' (1877), with a memoir by E. P. Whipple, and the collection of lectures, 'Sub stance and Show' (Boston 1877). Consult also Frothingham, 'A Tribute to Thomas Starr King' (1865), and Whipple, E. P., Literature and Other Papers' (Boston 1887).