Eleventh Year       Jan /Feb  / Mar  2011      Volume 11 Issue 1

Bus: (404) 762-8235

"Proclaming the Word of God through Thoughts, Ideas, and Concepts"

Black
 Pioneer 

"Horace King, The master Bridge Builder"

In December of 2010 I was traveling to Warms Springs, GA and I met Sabra at the 'Welcome Center'. She was very warm and friendly. We talked about various places
to visit while I was
in Warms springs and other interesting topics. Then she asked me if I knew about the "Bridge Builder Horace King?" I told her that I had never heard of him. Sabra went on to tell me about this incredible Black Man that was born a slave but went on to become a Master Bridge Builder in Georgia and other States. He was greatly respected for his skill and knowledge in a time when that was rarely experienced by Blacks. So I wanted to share the story of Horace King with you as well if you are not familiar with him. Thanks Sabra for this story.
Horace King was the most respected bridge builder in west Georgia, Alabama, and northeast Mississippi from the 1830s until the 1880s. He constructed massive town lattice truss bridges over nearly every major river from the Oconee in Georgia to the Tombigbee in Mississippi and at nearly every crossing of the Chattahoochee River from Carroll County to Fort Gaines.

Born as a slave of African, European, and Native American (Catawba) ancestry in Chesterfield District, South Carolina, King moved with his master, John Godwin (1798-1859), a contractor, to Girard, Alabama, a suburb of Columbus, where Godwin had the contract to build the first public bridge connecting those two states.

King probably planned the construction and directed the slaves who erected that span. Godwin apparently realized King's intuitive genius as a builder and nurtured those skills. During the early 1840s King served as superintendent and architect of major bridges at Wetumpka, Alabama, and Columbus, Mississippi, without Godwin's supervision

John Godwin allowed King and his other slaves a great degree of freedom, and in 1846 he freed King, perhaps to protect this valuable asset from his creditors.
King might have simply bought his freedom, but the relationship between the former master and slave remained the same. After Godwin's death in 1859, King erected a monument over his grave that declared "the love and gratitude he felt for his lost friend and former master."

"Horace King was the most respected bridge builder in west Georgia, Alabama, and northeast Mississippi from the 1830s until the 1880s"

In 1872 King and his family moved to LaGrange, where he continued to design and construct bridges, stores, houses, and college buildings until his death, on May 28, 1885. Obituaries praising his building skills appeared in the Atlanta, LaGrange, and Columbus newspapers.

King's children-Washington W. (1843-1910), Marshall Ney (1844-79), John Thomas (1846-1926), Annie Elizabeth (1848-1919), and George (1850-99)-continued the work of the King Brothers Bridge Company.

"They built bridges and various structures in LaGrange, Atlanta, and east Alabama. John T. King served as a trustee for Clark College (later Clark Atlanta University) from the 1890s until the 1920s . . . . "
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