Person:John Knight (245)

BIOGRAPHY: Minnie Knight Perry wrote in her manuscript about her father: "John Thomas Knight had his left knee injured in some unknown way (had been playing about a stone wall which was being built and began to suffer with his knee that night) when he was about 12 yrs. old and so was unable to enlist in the army between the States for active service, but took a leading part in the defense of his home town, Elba, Ala., against the deserters when the river bridge was burned, and ever afterward he was called 'Captain' Knight. He owned a tan-yard and was also in mercantile business in Elba and helped greatly in supplying the soldiers, especially by sending shoes by mule wagon to Mobile."

She also wrote: ".....He moved with his parents to Gold Hill, Ala. in 1846. Joined the Masons in 1853. He actively supported the Confederacy at his home in Elba, Ala. He had gone to Elba as a young man and there met a young lady to whom his heart went out in sincere love on their first meeting, and he made the remark to one of his companions, 'That's my girl, if I can get her.' He did succeed, for she, too, fell in love with the unusually handsome young man, and she, a beautiful, accomplished girl of 16 yrs. Missouri (called 'Zou' by all her relatives) Hutchison and John Thomas Knight were married Nov. 18, 1855, in the home of her father, by Judge Perrie D. Costello, Judge of Probate, a close friend of her father. The Hutchison home was near Clintonville, Coffee Co., Ala. The dwelling house has since burned. A school-house which her father helped to build in that community still stands. Seven years after their marriage John Thomas Knight was converted and they were both then members of the Missionary Baptist Church, he and seven of their children, as time went on, being baptised into the same church in Greenville, Ala. Both his parents had been Primitive Baptists, as had her mother. Moving from Elba to Greenville about 1866, he became a dry-goods merchant, the firm name being Steiner, Dunklin and Knight. During the panic of 1878 the business failed and he then removed his family to Mobile where he was a book-keeper for Dunlap Shoe Co. After about three years he returned to Greenville, accepting the position of Ticket and Freight Agent of the Louisville and Nashville Railway, which position he held until two months before his death. Releasing his work on account of his health, the merchants of Greenville showed their esteem of him and confidence in him by signing a petition which was sent to the Superintendent of the R.R. asking that his young son, Jasper, be appointed to the position, and this was done." "Our father, John Thomas Knight, had a beautiful bass voice. About my last recollection of him was when he was standing and leaning on our front gate post, here in Temple, Tex. (for he visited us in May, 1903) and was singing the beautiful old hymn, 'Close to Thee'. He played the violin and our Mother played the accordian, and it was our habit to gather around the piano, with Sister (Caroline) playing accompaniment, and sing, especially on Sunday afternoons when we sang Hymns." Missouri: According to Annie Lillian Knight MacWhorter, Missouri was taken away by John Knight in a covered wagon along with a 15 yr. old slave girl. According to her daughter, Minnie Knight Perry: "....She was educated in a boarding school in Elba, Ala. and was given several accomplishments. Her chief characteristics, as remembered by me, her daughter Minnie, are her beautifully sweet, patient and understanding motherliness and implicit faith in God. She lingered in bed three months before going 'Home' and her Pastor said it was like a little glimpse of Heaven to go into her room..."