Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1892, volume 3).djvu/600

This page needs to be proofread.
564
KNORTZ
KNOWLES

great influence among that denomination, both in this country and England. He published several books, among which were " Flaming Fire in Zion " (1646); "Rudiments of Hebrew Grammar" (1048); and his " Autobiography " (1(572), brought down to his death by William Kiffen (1692). In 1845 the Hansard Knollys society was organized in England for the republication of early Baptist works.


KNORTZ, Karl, author, b. in Garbenheim, Rhenish Prussia, 28 Aug., 1841. He was educated at the gymnasium of Wetzlau, and Heidelberg university, and came in 1863 to this country, where he engaged in teaching at Detroit in 1864-'8, at Oshkosh, Wis., in 1868-71, and in Cincinnati in 1871-'4. He then edited a German daily newspaper at Indianapolis, but since 1882 has resided in New York city, where he has devoted himself to literature. Mr. Knortz has done much to make American literature known and appreciated in his native country. He has published, besides translations of American poetry, “Märchen und Sagen der nordamerikanischen Indianer” (Jena, 1871); “Amerikanische Skizzen” (Halle, 1876); “American Shakespeare Bibliography” (Boston, 1876); “Humoristische Gedichte” (Baltimore, 1877); “Longfellow: Eine literarhistorische Studie” (Hamburg, 1879); “Aus dem Wigwam” (Leipsic, 1880); “Kapital und Arbeit in Amerika” (Zurich, 1881); “Aus der transatlantischen Gesellschaft” (Leipsic, 1882); “Staat und Kirche in Amerika” (Gotha, 1882); “Shakespeare in Amerika” (Berlin, 1882); “Amerikanische Lebensbilder” (Zurich, 1884); “Eines deutschen Matrosen Nordpolfahrten” (1885); “Representative German Poems,” with translations (New York, 1885); “Göthe und die Wertherzeit” (Zurich, 1885); “Brook Farm und Margareth Fuller” (New York, 1886); and “Gustav Seyffarth” (1886).


KNOTT, James Proctor, congressman, b. near Lebanon, Marion co., Ky., 29 Aug., 1830. He stud- ied in the neighboring schools and in Shelbyville, whither his father, Joseph Percy Knott, had moved. When he was sixteen years old he began to study law, and in May, 1850, went to Memphis, Scot- land co., Mo., and was employed in the county- clerk's office until he was twenty-one, when he was licensed to practise. In 1858 he was elected to the legislature, and at once made chairman of the judiciary committee. During this session articles of impeachment were preferred against Judge Al- bert Jackson, and Mr. Knott and Charles Hardin, afterward governor of Missouri, were chosen as managers. Pending the trial, which was held in June, 1859, a vacancy occurred in the office of attorney-general, and Mr. Knott was appointed to fill it at the unanimous request of the senate and the governor's cabinet. In 1860 he was elected to the same office by a flattering majority. At the beginning of the civil war Mr. Knott was arrested by Gen. Nathaniel Lyon, and, refusing to take an oath that he regarded as too stringent, was sent as a prisoner to the St. Louis arsenal, but after a time released, remaining under surveillance until March, 1862. In 1861, as he refused to take the test-oath that was prescribed for officials, his office was de- clared vacant, and he was disbarred from practice. In 1862 he removed to Lebanon, Ky., where he gractised law, and in 1866 was elected to congress, [e was not at first allowed to take his seat, but was finally admitted. His first speech was on the admission of John Young Brown to a seat, and was directed against the constitutionality of the test- oath, its applicability to members of congress, and its retrospective operation. He was re-elected in 1868, and served on the committee on the District of Columbia and the committee on private land claims. In his speech against the bill for the im- provement of Pennsylvania avenue he obtained a hearing by giving a humorous turn to the debate, and the bill was laughed out of congress. It was toward the end of the same congress that he made his " Duluth " speech, which gave him a reputation as a humorist. Mr. Knott was not in the 42<1 and 43d congresses, but after a vigorous canvass lie was elected, and served from 1875 till 1883. He was appointed by Speaker Kerr chairman of the judi- ciary committee, and in the second session lie also became chairman of the special committee on the powers and privileges of the house in reference to counting the votes for president. In the 45th con- gress he was reappointed by Speaker Randall as chairman of the committee on the judiciary, and again in the 46th and 47th congresses. In 18H2 Mr, Knott declined a renomination, and in 1883 was elected governor of Kentucky.


KNOWLES, James Davis, clergyman, b. in Providence, R. I., in July, 1798; d. in Newton Centre, Mass., 9 May, 1838. He was placed in a printing-office at the age of twelve, and while learning the trade studied French and Latin. At the age of twenty-one he became associate editor of William G. Goddard's " Rhode Island American." Entering the Baptist church in March, 1820, he was licensed to preach in the following autumn, and studied theology in Philadelphia and Wash- ington, D. C. There he also pursued a collegiate course in Columbian college, and after graduation in 1824 was appointed a tutor. On 28 Dec, 1825, he was ordained pastor of the 2d Baptist church in Boston, Mass. In 1832 he was compelled by failing health to resign his charge, and from that time till his death, which was due to small-pox, he filled the chair of pastoral duties and sacred rhetoric at New- ton theological seminary, at the same time con- ducting for over two years the " Christian Review," a quarterly magazine. Besides addresses he pub- lished " Memoir of Mrs. Ann H. Judson " (Boston, 1829), and " Memoir of Roger Williams, the Found- er of the State of Rhode Island " (1834).


KNOWLES, Lucius James, inventor, b. in Hardwick, Mass., 2 July, 1819 ; d. in Washington, D. C, 25 Feb., 1884. He spent his early life on his father's farm, until he attained the age of fourteen, when for a time he studied in a high-school. Three years later he became a clerk in a store in Shrewsbury. He had already begun to invent and construct machinery, and now part of the store was trans- formed into a machine-shop. Here he spent much of his time in the investigation of new discoveries, and in testing them by experiments. Many of the improvements in reed-instruments that have since come into general use were invented in this way. In 1840 he put into operation several working models of steam-engines, and during his experiments invented the Knowles safety steam-boiler feed-regulator. He also turned his attention to magnetism and electricity, studying these subjects with special reference to motive power, and for a time the discovery of photography occupied his attention. He then proceeded to the manufacture of a variety of machinery and materials used in that art, continuing so for two years. His next invention was a machine for spooling thread, which he began to manufacture in New Worcester. Later he turned his attention to the production of fine numbers of thread, composed of six cords, and, after two years of experimenting, he was successful in producing six-cord spool-cotton equal to the English. In 1847 he began the manufacture of cotton warps at Spencer under the firm-name of Knowles and Sibley, and two years later the business was trans-