"Fending Chaos: The Early Years of Rufus King..." Topic

… FORGOTTEN FOUNDER

"There are many ways to reach Jamaica, Queens, via public transit. From Brooklyn or Manhattan one could catch a Queens-bound F Train and remain aboard until getting off at Parsons Boulevard near the end of the line. Hundreds of thousands of commuters pass through Jamaica every day, either on the F Train, via the many other subway or bus lines serving this busy, diverse community, or aboard the nearby Long Island Railroad. The vast majority of these hurrying New Yorkers have likely never visited—and are perhaps not even aware—that in their midst stands one of the oldest structures in all the five boroughs. A purposeful traveler, however, could exit that subway station onto Parsons Boulevard and walk south two blocks along 153rd Street to a quaint, leafy park. In that public green's southernmost portion, the exact address is 150-03 Jamaica Avenue, stands a historic house. Extensively remodeled over the centuries, what is today called King Manor was built in the 1750s when Jamaica itself was not yet part of New York City, but a rural village, one of the many growing European settlements on Long Island. There, for almost the entire nineteenth century, lived one of America's most important but now-forgotten families.

The house was purchased in 1805 by Rufus King, who turned fifty that year but had already lived a full, accomplished life. By this time he had among other things graduated first in the Harvard class of 1777, fought briefly in the Revolutionary War, studied and practiced law in the picturesque Massachusetts coastal town of Newburyport, served in local and state politics, represented Massachusetts in the Confederation Congress, helped draft and ratify the United States Constitution as a Massachusetts delegate, been a U.S. senator in the First Congress after moving to New York, served as Minister Plenipotentiary and Ambassador of the United States to the Court of St James's, and run unsuccessfully in 1804 on the national Federalist ticket as vice-presidential candidate alongside South Carolinian Charles Cotesworth Pinckney against incumbent Thomas Jefferson…"
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Amicalement
Armand

The article is from the site "Journal of the American Revolution". Its full of stories like this, and I highly recommend it.

His grandson by the same name Rufus King was a West Point graduate who served as a brigadier General during the US Civil War.

His great grandson was Rufus King Jr., who was an artillery officer and recipient of the Medal of Honor.

Thanks!.

Amicalement
Armand