Hon. Joseph C. Knapp

KNAPP, CURTIS, BENTON, STODDARD, HILL

Posted By: Volunteer - Rich Lowe
Date: 3/3/2005 at 06:31:59

Judge Knapp, a native of the Green Mountain State, and a son of Ebenezer and Irene (Curtis) Knapp, was born on the 27th of June, 1813, in Berlin, Washington County. The Knapps were early settlers in Massachusetts; the Curtises, in Hanover, New Hampshire. Joseph received a good academic education in Montpelier; left his native state in 1833; came as far west as Racine, Wisconsin, then a part of Michigan territory; read law at first with Hon. Marshall M. Strong, and afterward with Hon. E. G. Ryan, late chief justice of Wisconsin; practiced a few years in Racine, and in 1843 pushed westward across the Mississippi river, locating permanently at Keosauqua, Van Buren county, in the southeastern part of the state. He was for nearly a dozen years in the noted firm of Wright, Knapp and Coldwell, his partners being George G. Wright, late of the United States senate, and H. C. Coldwell, now judge of the United States district court, of Arkansas. Senator Wright is an uncle, by marriage, of Judge Knapp, and Judge Coldwell is a brother-in-law. Judge Knapp was appointed prosecuting attorney by Governor Cark, in 1846, and judge of the third judicial district by Governor Hempstead, in 1850. He was appointed by President Pierce United States attorney for the district of Iowa in 1853; reappointed by President Buchanan, and held the office eight consecutive years. To the office of judge of the second judicial district, which he now holds, he was elected in the autumn of 1874, taking the bench on the 1st of January, 1875, the term extending four years. The judge has had long experience; is very learned in the law; has a naturally legal mind; is independent as a jurist, and with his innate knowledge of what the law is or ought to be, his rulings are usually correct and perfectly just. At an early day he was a circuit lawyer in extensive practice, attending the courts in Wapello, Jefferson, Keokuk, Mahaska, Marion, Monroe, Davis, Appanoose and other counties. But as his home business increased he gradually abandoned his circuit practice. On the l0th of December, 1849, Miss Sarah A. Benton, of Keosauqua, became the wife of Judge Knapp, and they have three daughters. Keo is the wife of Hobart A. Stoddard, of Little Rock, Arkansas; Io is the wife of Fred. H. Hill, of Attica, Michigan, and Hannah Benton is a student in Iowa College, Grinnell.

Van Buren Biographies maintained by Rich Lowe.
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