Knotts, Joseph (1832-1888)

KNOTTS

Posted By: Joyce Hickman (email)
Date: 1/6/2009 at 14:11:16

Joseph Knotts
Sep 24, 1832 - Jan 23, 1888

(From the 1883 History of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, by J. H. Keatley, p.35, Council Bluffs)
Rev. Joseph Knotts, Council Bluffs, was born on the 24th of September, 1832, at Knottsville, Monongalia Co., Va. He spent his earlier years on a farm at home, and acquired such an education as the best facilities in his native county afforded. In his early manhood, he also engaged in teaching, and being a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, he joined the West Virginia Conference of that religious body as an itinerant minister. In 1860, he came to Iowa, and was tranferred to the Iowa Conference, and was assigned to duty in the western part of the State. When the conference was divided, territorially, he became a member of the Des Moines Conference. He traveled several circuits in the central portion of Iowa, and in 1865 was appointed to Council Bluffs, serving for two years as pastor of the Broadway Church, and it was through his energy and during his ministration that that fine edifice was built. He was afterward appointed agent of the Church Extension Society of the Des Moines Conference, and served in that capacity for two years, when he was appointed Presiding Elder of the Council Bluffs District, and served with marked ability for four years. During the period of his incumbency as Presiding Elder, he was a delegate to the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. His health having failed him and being obliged to cease in the active ministry, he engaged in the book and job printing business in 1872, and published the "Inland Advocate," a religious newspaper, for several years, and the "Weekley Independent," a journal devoted to news and politics from an independent standpoint. His establishment was in the east end of the Ogden House Block, and when that was destroyed by fire in the fall of 1874, he became the principal sufferer. In his efforts to save his jeopardized property his disease was aggravated, and he was unable to resume the business. He went to Washington City and spent the winter, and hearing of the glowing prospects of mining operations in Northern Mexico, from gentlemen who had visited that section, he began to turn his attention in that direction. He was appointed a United States Consul to Chihuahua, adn went south to explore the country for silver mining prospects. He succeeded in securing the Parral mines by a contract, and resigning his consulate, he came back to the United States, and organized a mining company to develop the property. From that date to this he has given almost his entire attention to silver mining not only in Mexico, but in New Mexico and Arizona, and has amassed a handsome fortune through judicious investments. Mr. Knotts was married to Miss Rebecca Hall, a native of Barbour County, Va., on the 9th of October, 1855, in Hancock County, Ill. They have been blessed with a large family of children. The two older sons - Abraham and Thomas - being engaged with their father in his business, ming interests.

(From the 1891 Biographical History of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, p.493)
REV. JOSEPH KNOTTS, deceased, was born in Knottsville, Monongalia County, Virginia, September 24, 1832. The village took its name from his ancestry; it is now in West Virginia, near Grafton. He completed his school education at the Academy at Clarksburg, Virginia. At a very early age, he became pious and joined the Methodist Episcopal Church, entering at once with his characteristic zeal into an active Christian life. About this time, he obtained his majority and came West to locate lands for his father through Iowa. He spent some time teaching school in the states of Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, and in October 1855, he married Rebecca HALL at Carthage, Illinois. Returning to Virginia, he was licensed to preach. After serving on several charges in his native state, he was transferred to Iowa, being a man of strong Union principles, in opposition to the most of his parishioners in Virginia. He was transferred in 1860 to the western Iowa, now the Des Moines, Conference, and he filled successive appointments until in 1865 he was sent to Council Bluffs, and here the next year he built the Broadway Church edifice, in the face of difficulties that would have overcome any man but one of such invincible will and tireless energy as he always possessed.

Becoming Church Extension Agent of the Des Moines Conference, he traveled at large all over the field, laying the foundation of that infant society. In 1869, he was appointed Presiding Elder of the Council Bluffs district, and served it for three years. In 1871 he was elected a delegate to the General Conference which met in Brooklyn, New York, the May following, and at this session he was placed upon committees where he served during the four years following. Failing health caused him to resign his district after serving it three years, when he engaged in publishing the Inland Christian Advocate, in connection with which he established a book store for the sale of Methodist publications. The great fire in Council Bluffs, which destroyed the first Ogden House, carried off all his stock of books and publishing material in a few hours, leaving him nothing.

In 1874 or 1875, shortly after the fire, President Grant appointed Mr. KNOTTS Consul to Chihuahua, Mexico, to the climate of which country he looked as a refuge from his failing health; but he soon resigned the consulship to engage in mining, and through his energy and enterprise the people of that Republic had their attention turned to the United States as an inviting field of commercial affiliation.

On December 26, 1887, he left his home in Council Bluffs on a business trip to Durango, Mexico. Riding in a stage, he suffered from the chilly weather, pneumonia set in, and on January 15, 1888, he was taken suddenly worse at Parral, sixty miles from the railroad. He insisted on being conveyed to the railroad, and he was accordingly taken there, reaching El Paso, Texas, Sunday, January 22, and died the next day at 3:15 p.m. His body was brought to Council Bluffs and laid to rest in Walnut Hill Cemetery.

The following tribute was truthfully paid to his character by Rev. H. H. O'NEAL, in his funeral discourse: "I think he was a man who feared the Lord in early life, who devoted himself to the service of God, and never in after years did he swerve from that consecrated service. In that whirl of excitement in which so many are ruined, with him the fear of the Lord was ever a pervading element of his character. It modified his aims, fortified his principles, strengthened his affections, was with him a permanent principle which dominated his life, passed with him from place to place and from stage to stage in his career; and when driven by broken health from the active work of the Christian ministry, he did not forget the church or leave his religion behind him. He was a man iron-nerved, strong with tireless energy. The erection of the Methodist Episcopal Church, which would have dismayed many men, displayed the judgment, enterprise and persistent energy that possessed him. He could not endure inaction. He was never engaged with trifles, and had always some work to do that was worth doing, and he did it with his might, putting all his energy into it, and also the force of his character."

"In the ministry of the church and in his palmist days, he was a ceaseless worker. Whether in the pastorate, presiding-eldership or helping the public institutions of the church, he was full of zeal and industry, and such qualities, sanctified by grace divine, could not fail to make of him an instrument of great assistance, and he was eminently useful, especially in the ministry. Under his pastorate, souls were converted and the churches strengthened. In the wider fields of presiding-eldership the work grew and prospered under his hand, and he won the highest esteem of his fellow ministers by his fidelity and success. He was a man of such genial spirit and so faithful in the management of affairs that he commanded the highest respect of all, and won his way into the strongest and most enduring love of his personal friends."

Mr. KNOTTS was of English ancestry, coming from the north of England, and traceable back for several generations. His grandfather was a soldier in the American war for Independence. His immediate parents were Absalom and Matilda (SAYRE) KNOTTS. He was brought up on a farm. His wife, a native of West Virginia, and also of English origin, died at her home in Council Bluffs, January 26, 1890. They had ten children, two of whom died in infancy. The list is: Edith V., now the wife of Samuel ROBERTSON, of Boulder, Montana; Absalom B. of Plattsmouth, Nebraska; Thomas H. of Des Moines, Iowa; Matilda, deceased; Lemuel G., of Council Bluffs; E. Franklin, also of Council Bluffs; James E. a resident of Des Moines; Gordon B., of Council Bluffs; Alice, deceased; Joseph Jr., a resident of Council Bluffs.