San Joaquin County
Biographies
NATHANIEL A. KNIGHT
NATHANIEL A. KNIGHT was born
in Caledonia County, Vermont, March 4, 1827, son of Nathaniel and Sarah (Laughlin)
Knight. Grandfather Laughlin was a Scotchman by descent, but made his home in Ireland. He was a Lieutenant in the rebellion of the Irish
people against the British Government in 1794. There was a standing reward of £1,000 offered for his head by the British
Government. He was in hiding for nine months before he was able to escape to America. He settled in Caledonia County, Vermont, where he made his home for the remainder of his
life. Grandfather Knight was of English descent, but was born in America. When about twenty-two years old he left his native
State, New Hampshire, for Ohio, where he taught school for two or three years; later
he settled in Vermont, where he remained until his death.
Nathaniel, the subject of this sketch,
remained in Caledonia
County, Vermont, till he was past twenty-four years old. His father
was a farmer, and raised all his children on a farm, except one, Andrew L.
Knight, who at the age of seventeen left the farm and became involved in
business in Boston, and for the past fifteen years has been engaged as
solicitor for the Boston & Maine Railroad, with which company he has been
since the close of the war. When Nathaniel was about seventeen years old he
began to work out by the month, which he continued for seven years, giving his
earnings till he was twenty-one years old to help support the family, which
consisted of thirteen children, eight sons and five daughters, of whom two sons
have since died. Having laid by a little over $300, earned since his majority,
October 15, 1851, he started for California via Nicaragua, by steamer, landing
in San Francisco on Sunday, November 20, at 9 A. M. After remaining in San Francisco two or three days, he went to Sacramento, where he and twenty-four others hired a team, paying
$50, to take them to Hangtown. The wagon carried the baggage, and the men
walked most of the way. They arrived in Hangtown after a journey of two days,
where they bought tools and went prospecting and mining. May 8 of the following
year he and his brother Henry, now of Los Angeles County, who came to this
State with him, went to Marysville, thence to Bidwell’s Bar, on Feather river,
and went up the river about thirty-five miles, prospecting. They worked their
way down to Big Oregon Bar, on the north fork of the American river, where they
worked till about the middle of October; then they worked at a place called
Paradise, on the divide between the north and middle forks of the American
river, till about January 15. They then returned to Placerville (formerly called Hangtown), where he remained about
two years. He next went to Diamond Spring, fenced a plat of land, and went to
gardening and fruit-raising, expending about $600 for trees and vines. He was
married in the fall of 1858, to Miss Martha Jane Fuqua, resident of Diamond
Spring, a native of Missouri, who has resided in California since 1854.
In 1860 Mr. Knight came to this valley and
settled on the place where F. M. Fuqua now lives. At the end of a year he sold
his right there and purchased 160 acres, situated just west of his present
residence, and which forms a part of his land. His present estate consists of
314 acres, on the north bank of the Mokelumne river, in sections 35 and 36, Liberty Township. Most of it is under cultivation, there being about
ninety acres on the river that is timber and pasture land. In his farming
industry he has, by judicious cultivation, been successful. His crops have never
been a failure; the lowest he has raised is ten bushels to an acre, and the
highest fifty-six bushels to an acre, this latter for one year only.
Politically he is a Republican. The first
Presidential vote he cast was for Martin Van Buren, Free Soil ticket. Then he
was a Whig, and later was one of six to organize the Republican club in El Dorado County, California, of which party he has ever since been a consistent
member. He has been a member of the Baptist church since the fall of 1857, and
is now Deacon in the church at Lodi.
Mr. and Mrs. Knight have five children,
namely: Olive, wife of W. P. Stricker, resident of Berkeley; K. Loren, Viola, Ira D., and Lida.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
An Illustrated History of San Joaquin County,
California, Pages 391-392. Lewis Pub.
Co. Chicago, Illinois 1890.
© 2009 Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
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