San
Joaquin County
Biographies
WILLIAM H. KNOWLES
A man of exceptional ability and
experience in wool industry of California, William H. Knowles is the capable
general manager of the Tryon Wool Scouring Plant. This plant consists of a warehouse and
scouring department and covers two and a half city blocks. Here fully sixty per cent of the wool
clippings of California, and many more thousands of pounds from British
Columbia, Washington, Oregon, Nevada, the Hawaiian Islands and Old Mexico, are
gathered annually; these are scoured, cleaned, graded and prepared for the
markets of the world. William H. Knowles
was born in Winsted, England, December 17, 1877, a son of William and Charlotte
Ann (Craven) Knowles, both natives of England.
When our subject was one year old he was brought by his parents to the
United States, where they first settled in Connecticut; later they removed to
Massachusetts where the father has since been identified with the woolen
industry and is now one of the officers of the American Woolen Company at
Lawrence, Massachusetts. Nine children
were born to Mr. and Mrs. Knowles, of whom William H. is the eldest; Albert,
Charlotte, Lowrie, Edith, George, John, Clara and
Annie are the others. The mother died
about fourteen years ago at the family home at North Andover, Massachusetts.
The education of William H. Knowles
was obtained in the schools of Lowell and Lawrence, Massachusetts. While still a young lad he began to learn the
wool industry, running errands during vacation time for the Butler-Robinson
Woolen Mills, and at fifteen years of age he entered their employ as a regular
worker; during the years of his service with this company he went from one
department to another, becoming proficient in all branches of the
industry. Then he entered the Washington
Mills in Lawrence and was put in charge of the spinning and winding department;
later he was in the wool department of this concern. He then took charge of the wool sorting
department for M. T. Stevens & Sons of North Andover, Massachusetts, where
he remained for nine years. In 1907 he
came to California and soon found a position with the Century Mercantile
Company of Berkeley as outside man, buying the wool for this firm, covering his
territory with a horse and buggy. When
he removed to Stockton he became wool grader and buyer for Mr. Tryon. When the Stockton Woolen Mills failed, Mr.
Tryon in connection with Mr. Knowles and others took over the business and Mr.
Knowles became secretary and general manager; one year later Mr. Tryon purchased the interests of the other members of the company
and Mr. Knowles was retained as general manager.
On December 21, 1910, at Sacramento,
California, Mr. Knowles was united in marriage with Miss Veda Belle Hull, a
native of Kansas, a daughter of O. H. and Nancy M. Hull. O. H. Hull was the senior member of the firm
of Hull & Stewart, dealers in pianos and school supplies in Stockton;
previously he engaged in the nursery business in San Joaquin County; later he
removed to Oakland and engaged in the real estate business until his
death. Mrs. Knowles is the third oldest
in a family of five children, the others being Herschel, Merril,
Sophronia and Leland.
Mr. Knowles is a Republican in politics and fraternally he is a thirty-second
degree Mason, a member of Morning Star Lodge, F. & A. M., and the Sciots of Stockton, and Aahmes
Shrine in Oakland, and with his wife is a member of the Eastern Star Lodge of
Stockton; he is also a member of Loyalty Court of Amaranth, the Stockton Rotary
Club, the Elks, and the Stockton Chamber of Commerce.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Pages
952-957. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County Biographies
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County Genealogy
Databases