James W. Kisling Collection Finding Aid

James W. Kisling Collection Finding Aid

Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum staff

FA100006

1899-1917

Eight leather-bound journals chronicling daily life, correspondence, and finances. Also includes two photographs and one pair of eye glasses.

Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library and Museum

Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library and Museum

Cataloging of archival materials

English

One archival box containing eight journals.

James Wellington Kisling was born in Mt. Pleasant, Pennsylvania on 19 February 1862 to Jacob and Elizabeth Kisling. After his father’s death in 1867, Kisling’s mother married Rev. Franklin Koenig. Kisling attended various schools including Palatinate College (now Albright College), Keystone Normal School (now Kutztown University), and Princeton University where he graduated in 1894. While at Princeton he had Woodrow Wilson as one of his professors. He worked for Metropolitan Life Insurance for a brief time in 1899 before teaching school in Bern Township, Pennsylvania. Kisling travelled to California where he worked a variety of jobs before teaching at a Native American school in Happy Camp California in 1908. In 1912, he travelled to Germany, France, and Switzerland visiting different universities to hear lectures and interact with different professors. As a Princeton alumnus, he attended various events relating to and including the Inauguration of President Woodrow Wilson in March 1913. After retiring from teaching, Kisling lived with various family members and farmed his relatives’ land. He died on 8 July 1952 and is buried in the North Heidelburg Church Cemetery, Berks County, Pennsylvania. James W. Kisling’s family consisted of stepfather Franklin Koenig, mother Elizabeth Dundore Koenig, brothers Charles and Raymond, sister Sally, and stepsister Mabel.

Box

CONTAINER LIST
2008.12.1
2008.12.2
2008.12.3
2008.12.4
2008.12.5
2008.12.6
2008.12.7
2008.12.8

diaries of James W. Kisling, student at Princeton when Woodrow Wilson was a professor there; includes a detailed account of Wilson’s inauguration