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Knight Family Inventory


Reference Code:

Repository: University of Akron Archival Services

Title: The Knight Family Papers

Dates:

Extent: approx. 21 cubic feet

Creator:

Language: English

Access: Collection is open for research.

Inventory prepared by: Cara Gilgenbach, June-August 1996

Finding Aid prepared by: Richard Wisneski, July 25, 2007

Related Material:

Biographical Note:

(Written by Sharon Ochsenhirt with additions by Cara Gilgenbach)

Joel Knight, Jr. was the son of Joel Knight and Esther Farr. He spent some winters teaching, but most of his life was spent farming. His brief diary entries make note of the weather and his daily work on the farm.

Fanny Maria Duncan Knight was the daughter of Abel and Lydia Duncan. Fanny's father was a doctor who died in 1813 of the Spotted Fever when Fanny was very young. Fanny's mother, Lydia, lived to be 90 and spent most of her life with Fanny's family. Fanny married Joel Knight, Jr. in 1829. She gave birth to eight children, two of whom died in childhood. Fanny lived most of her life in Vermont. During 1878, she lived with her son Charles in Akron. It appears that she was active in her church and was interested in women's rights. In many of the family's letters, Fanny is praised for her fine letter-writing abilities. Her diaries provide some insight into daily life at Orchard Dale (the Knight Family home in Dummerston, Vermont).

Sophie Knight McCollester was the oldest child in the Knight family. She married Sullivan McCollester who was a Universalist minister. In 1872, the McCollesters moved from New England to Akron, Ohio where Sullivan served as the first president of the newly founded Buchtel College (predecessor to the University of Akron). Sophie and Sullivan had a son named Lee, some of whose letters are included in the collection.

Eva Knight Greenwood and Colonel William Henry (Hal) Greenwood both taught school before their marriage. They married in 1857 and moved to Galva, Illinois where Hal farmed, invented gadgets, and did repairs for people. When the Civil War broke out, Hal joined the Union army, serving in The Army of the Cumberland as a topographical engineer. During the war, Hal directed the rebuilding of railroads that had been destroyed in battle. He attained the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. After the war, he worked with private companies surveying for and supervising the building of railroads throughout the Western United States. Eva often went West to Missouri, Kansas, and Colorado to live while Hal was employed on railroad projects. Many of Eva's letters describe her experiences traveling and living in the West. In 1874, the Greenwoods adopted a little girl named Gussie whose biological father was a widower left with a large family of small children. In the winter of 1878, Gussie died within just one week of Mary's husband, Asa Dutton. In 1880, Hal was employed by a private American company to work with the Mexican government on studying the feasibility of constructing a railroad from Mexico City to the Pacific Coast. In August of 1880, while in Mexico, he was murdered by bandits. Eva was staying in Mexico with her husband when he was killed. After Hal's death, Eva returned to the family home in Vermont where she lived with her mother until her death in 1912. Eva and Hal contributed great volumes of correspondence, diaries, and papers to this collection. (More detailed biographical information about Col. Greenwood can be found in his series under "Miscellanea.")

Charles Mellen Knight is a central figure in this collection because of his long career on the faculty of the University of Akron. Charles and his twin, Helen, were the youngest of the Knight children. Charles was graduated from Westbrook Seminary in Deering, Maine. He then attended Tufts College. He left college temporarily during 1869-1870 to assist his brother-in-law, Col. Hal Greenwood, in the construction of the Kansas-Pacific Railroad. He worked primarily as a bookkeeper in the Engineer's Office. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Tufts in 1873. In 1875 he came to Akron to serve as Professor of Natural Sciences at Buchtel College. Periodically, Charles attended post-graduate courses at Harvard, M.I.T., and Tufts. In 1878 he received his Master's degree from Tufts.

Charles Knight served Buchtel College from 1875-1884 as Professor of Natural Sciences. In 1884 he was appointed Professor of Chemistry and Physics. He was interim President of Buchtel College during the 1896-1897 school year. In 1897 he was given an honorary Doctor of Science degree and appointed the first Dean of the Faculty. In 1908 he organized the first class in rubber chemistry to be taught in this country. He continued to teach chemistry and serve as Dean until 1913 when, after thirty-eight years of teaching, he retired.

He married one of his students, May Acomb, in 1882. They had three children: Maurice, Hal, and Helen. After retirement, Charles and May spent their winters in Coral Gables, Florida, returning to Akron for the rest of the year. May died in 1930. Charles died in Florida in 1941 at the age of 93. Charles and May are buried at Mount Peace Cemetery in Akron.

Susan Helen Knight was Charles' twin sister. She was referred to as "Helen" in the letters and diaries in the collection. There are only a few letters written by Helen in the collection, some of which were written when she was a young girl. She attended boarding school with Charles and also taught school for a short period. It appears that Helen struggled with poor health throughout her life. She died in 1876.

Esther Knight Guild also taught school before she married another schoolteacher named Edwin Guild in 1858. The couple had two sons. Esther died 1864 while her sons were still quite young.

Mary Knight Dutton, like her sisters, was a school teacher as a young woman. She married Asa Dutton who was a farmer. Mary and Asa's first two children died in early childhood. In 1878, Asa died quite unexpectedly and prematurely. Mary's letters from this period recount her struggle to manage the farm and raise her two living children alone.

Scope and Content:

The Knight Family Papers contain personal family papers dating from 1849 through 1940. The bulk of material dates from 1860-1900. Personal letters are the most common type of document found. Also included are diaries, journals, business papers, photographs, and a few artifacts. Additionally, there is a small amount of miscellaneous publications, flyers, and other kinds of documents from sources outside of the family.

The Knight Family Collection is comprised of 62 document cases, each of which measures 12-1/2 X 11 X 5 inches. There are also a few flat oversize items. The approximate volume of the collection is 21 cubic feet.

Arrangement:

The collection has been divided into series by family members or family groupings:

Provenance:

The Knight Family Papers were donated to The University of Akron in 1986 by Lovina May Knight, who is Charles Mellen Knight's granddaughter. The materials were gathered from the family home in Dummerston, Vermont, and from Akron, Ohio. Lovina Knight identified and described almost all of the materials in the collection and also provided important biographical information about the family.

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