Jere King

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Jere Clemens King (born February 13, 1870 in Butler County) was an attorney and member of the Alabama House of Representatives. He is remembered as the sponsor of the "Greater Birmingham" legislation that merged several area cities into Birmingham in 1910.

Jere, the son of Thomas and Mary Grand King, was educated at the Fort Deposit Insitute and Highland Home College, then spent a year at the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Alabama in Auburn. He served as clerk of Butler County's Circuit Court before going on to the University of Virginia Law School. He was admitted to the Alabama State Bar in 1897, but began his practice in Texas, quickly returning to Alabama to join the Huntsville office of King and Bankhead.

In 1900 King married Martha Munford of Franklin, Kentucky. The couple moved to Birmingham in 1903 and he was elected to the House of Representatives in the 1906 general election. King introduced the landmark Greater Birmingham legislation during his first session in February 1907. He finished third of four candidates in the 1910 Birmingham mayoral election.

King had a son, Jere King, Jr, who became a historian.

References

  • Owen, Thomas McAdory and Marie Bankhead Owen (1921) History of Alabama and Dictionary of Alabama Biography. 4 volumes. Chicago, Illinois: S. J. Clarke Publishing Co.
  • King, Jere C., Jr (1935) The Formation of Greater Birmingham. Master's thesis. University of Alabama
  • Farley, Joseph M. (November 1963) "The Greater Birmingham Struggle of 1907-1910". Journal of the Birmingham Historical Society. Vol. 4, pp. 1-15