Hartley King becomes a centenarian
The Bonners Ferry community was abuzz with excitement last Thursday about Hartley King’s 100 birthday celebration. Manager of the Kootenai River Inn, Tom Turpin, passed around a birthday card for people to sign, friends, family and neighbors contacted the press, and more than 85 people rushed uptown to Chick N Chop restaurant to attend his party. King and his wife Janice, were welcomed with an applause as they entered the banquet room, decorated with photos and memorabilia of his life. He was in good spirits, shaking hands with guests, posing for photos and reminiscing about the old days.
Scanning the room, King Chuckled, “I didn’t know I knew so many people - sure is a good thing they don’t know everything about me.”
When asked how he felt about turning 100, King quipped, “Well, they say the first 100 years is the hardest.”
King attributes his longevity to “being busy and eating meat, potatoes and gravy.”
King keeps himself busy by perfecting the art of intarsia, an elaborate form of marquetry, using inlays in wood. He taught himself the 15th-century, Italian artform at age 77. His work can be admired or purchased at Bonners Ferry Glass, located on the South Hill.
King was born Oct. 6, 1916, to Ernest and Mabel King of Porthill, Idaho. That same year, Mutual signed Charlie Chaplin to a film contract, President Woodrow Wilson threw out the ceremonial first pitch at the New York Yankees game against the Washington Senators, and the world was in the throws of WWI.
King would later serve as an Army demolition engineer during WWII.
“We were supposed to go into Japan, but the war ended,” He said, “and it’s a good thing, because that would’ve been bad for everyone.”
King said he participated in a group tour of the Porthill cemetery on Sept. 25, led by Boundary County Museum Curator, Sue Kemmis. Kemmis recently completed an in-depth, research project on the cemetery and five generations of King’s family are buried there. Kemmis, along with other friends and family, reported that King’s memory during the tour was as “sharp as a tack.”
“He [King] could tell you a little bit about everyone that he knew there,” Kemmis said.
King’s father, Ernest D. King, left Wisconsin and arrived in Boundary County around 1904, settling in Porthill. King’s mother, Mabel Smith, and her family moved from Cape Town, South Africa to Canada. Smith became acquainted with King Sr. and they were married 1915. King grew up in the Porthill valley, where the family raised cattle. While growing up, King worked for the wheat farmers that were settling in the area at that time.
He traveled to Oregon in 1937 and again in 1939, where he met his first wife, Myrtle L. Merrill Streeter. In 1940, Streeter and King were married in Bonners Ferry. The King’s had a daughter named Joanne and their son, Ernest, was born in 1941.
In the early 1940s, King worked for the Idaho Continental Mine, located on the crest of the Selkirk Range in northwestern Boundary County, about 20 miles from Porthill. When the mine was active, crews mined for lead and silver. Streeter and King moved to Oregon in 1942, where he began working in the woods, later becoming a superintendent for the Northside Lumber Co. in Philomath, Ore., for 17 and a half years.
He returned to Bonners Ferry in 1981.
Family members traveled from as far as Alaska, Canada, Lewiston and Seattle to celebrate King’s birthday.
Jeannie Robinson, who coordinated King’s party, said she was a little concerned that all of the excitement might be too overwhelming for him, but, not so.
“If anything, he seems to be rejuvenated,” Robinson said. “We’ve been going non-stop all weekend and he hasn’t slowed down one bit.”
Robinson said she teased King and told him that next year he is only going to get a regular birthday party.
“That’s fine,” King replied, “I’ll just be starting all over again, anyway.”