Early Monrovia Structures Research

Martha

Birthdate:

Though Mrs. Martha King owned Lot 16 in Block B on the Town of Monrovia from 1888-1903, we aren't sure exactly who she was.  There was a widow named Martha King living in El Monte, which is only around 10 miles away from Monrovia, but she died in 1886, the year Monrovia was founded.  Though a widow at her death, she did have family who remained living in El Monte farming, and her son Andrew Jackson King became very successful.  He was elected to the state legislature, became a Los Angeles city attorney, a judge, and founded the first newspaper in Los Angeles County, the Los Angeles Daily News.

So even though Martha King died in 1886, the family had enough money to keep the property in the estate until they decided to sell.  Tax records indicate that the taxes were paid by J.A. Wood or Woods of Pasadena.  

Martha Mee married Samuel King 1828, and they had five children.  They moved from Tennessee to Arkansas to Santa Fe, New Mexico.  They were in El Monte by 1852.  Three years later, her husband was involved in a shootout in El Monte, and two of her sons were arrested for the murder of the man who shot their father.  Two others of her adult children were dead by 1865.  Even so, she and her remaining family and their spouses did well in El Monte, and she purchased Lot 16 in Block B which was valued at $400 in 1888.  The property valued plummeted