Amador
County
Biographies
SAMUEL N. KNIGHT
Samuel N. Knight, a prominent
businessman of Sutter Creek and one of the leading owners of the Sutter Creek
Foundry & Machine Works, was born in Brunswick, Maine, on the 14th of
November, 1838, and is of English lineage.
His grandfather, John Knight, was a native of England and with his
family came to America when William Knight, the father of our subject, was only
two years of age, the date of their arrival in Watertown, Massachusetts, being
1809. They afterward moved to the Pine
Tree state, and the grandfather died in Bowdoinham, Maine, in the eighty-second
year of his age. William Knight, after
arriving at years of maturity, married Miriam Walker and resided upon a
farm. Both he and his wife were
consistent members of the Baptist Church, and in that faith he died, in his
seventy-fifth year, while his wife was called to her final home in her
forty-ninth year.
The subject of this review obtained
his education in his native state and when fourteen years of age began to learn
the ship-joiner’s trade. Subsequently he
removed to Florida and obtained employment in machine works, where he was
employed at the breaking out of the Civil War.
He was on the boat which captured Fort McCrea and Fort Barancas, but his
sympathies were not in harmony with that side and accordingly he secured
passage on a schooner bound for Boston, under the command of a captain who in
Maine had been a near neighbor to Mr. Knight.
The latter obtained work on a fleet which was being fitted out in New
York for the Banks expedition and also worked on other vessels being fitted out
for naval service in the war.
In 1862 he took passage on the
Garibaldi for California, and after a voyage of five months landed at San
Francisco, in 1863. He made his way at
once to Calaveras County and began building quartz mills, his first work being
the construction of a ten-stamp mill on Calaveras Creek. Subsequently he came to Sutter Creek, where
he was actively engaged in building mills, bridges and hoisting works. In 1874 he purchased an interest in a machine
shop in this place, with which he has since been connected, and under his
management it has grown to be one of the most important enterprises in the
town, employing from fifty to seventy-five men.
They manufacture centrifugal pumps, hydraulic engines and all kinds of
mining machinery and their output is very extensive, which indicates the
excellence of their products and their reliability in trade circles. Mr. Knight is also the inventor and patentee
of a very valuable water wheel, which has been received with much favor and is
now quite generally used in this section of the state. It is due to his ability, energy and
discretion that the foundry has grown to its present large dimensions and that
its history has been one of prosperity.
He is also a stockholder in the electric light plant, which has proved a
very desirable acquisition to the town.
Mr. Knight owns a nice residence in
Sutter Creek and is one of the progressive and public-spirited citizens of the
town, giving his support and co-operation to all measures which he believes
will prove a public good. For many years
he has been a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. His success is the deserved reward of his
labors. He started out without capital,
but by determined purpose has steadily worked his way upward, overcoming all
difficulties and obstacles and at length reaching a plane of affluence.
Transcribed by Gerald
Iaquinta.
Source:
“A Volume of Memoirs and Genealogy of Representative Citizens of Northern
California”, Pages 447-448. Chicago Standard Genealogical Publishing Co. 1901.
© 2010
Gerald Iaquinta.
Golden Nugget Library's Amador County Biographies