Person:Jonathan Knight (55)

MILITARY: Connecticut Pensioners, 1835 March 1, 2005 12:05 AM

Name: Jonathan Knight Rank: Surgeon's mate Annual Allowance: 240 00 Sums received: 700 16 Description of service: Connecticut line When placed on the pension roll: July 16, 1818 pension date: May 1, 1818 Age: 76 Laws under which inscribed, increased or reduced OR Remarks: Dropped under act May 1, 1820. Restored commencing February 8, 1825. Relinquished for the benefit of act May 15, 1828.

Source Information: United States Senate. Report from the Secretary of War, in Obedience to Resolutions of the Senate of the 5th and 30th of June, 1834, and the 3d of March, 1835, In Relation to the Pension Establishment of the United States. [Connecticut Section], WASHINGTON, D.C.: Duff Green, 1835.

Connecticut Pensioners, 1835 March 1, 2005 12:07 AM

Name: Jonathan Knight Rank: Surgeon's mate Annual Allowance: 480 00 Sums received: 894 66 Description of service: 4th regiment Connecticut line When placed on the pension roll: December 18, 1828 pension date: March 3, 1826 Names of agents or representatives: A. Ogden and J. R. Nourse, attorneys, Clark Bissell, administrator Laws under which inscribed, increased or reduced OR Remarks: Died April 30, 1829.

Source Information: United States Senate. Report from the Secretary of War, in Obedience to Resolutions of the Senate of the 5th and 30th of June, 1834, and the 3d of March, 1835, In Relation to the Pension Establishment of the United States. [Connecticut Section], WASHINGTON, D.C.: Duff Green, 1835.

CENSUS: 1850 United States Federal Census 1850 United States Federal Census Name: J Knight Age: 15 Estimated birth year: abt 1835 Birth Place: Connecticut Gender: Male Home in 1850 (City,County,State): New Haven, New Haven, Connecticut Source Citation: Year: 1850; Census Place: New Haven, New Haven, Connecticut; Roll: M432_47; Page: 271; Image: 336.

1860 United States Federal Census 1860 United States Federal Census Name: Jonathan Knight Age in 1860: 70 Birth Year: abt 1790 Birthplace: Connecticut Home in 1860: New Haven Ward 4, New Haven, Connecticut Gender: Male Post Office: New Haven Physician Household Members: Name Age Jonathan Knight 70 Georgi W Staples 51 Mary L Staples 39 Mary E Staples 15 Harriet L Staples 11 Mary A Smith 21 Catherine Meginnis 18 Source Citation: Year: 1860; Census Place: New Haven Ward 4, New Haven, Connecticut; Roll: M653_87; Page: 473; Image: 6.

BIOGRAPHY: New Haven Connecticut, City Directory, 1840/1846/1860 Knight, Jonathan, M.D., Professor of Pricipals and Practice of Surgery, Y.C., 84 Church

From the Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable American. Vol. VI - K, Pg. 278 . Published, Boston, MA: The Biographical Society, 1904.

"Knight, Jonathan, surgeon, was born in Norwalk, Conn., Sept. 4, 1789; son of Jonathan Knight, a surgeon in the Revolutionary army, and a practising physician in Norwalk for nearly half a century. He was graduated from Yale, A.B. 1808, A.M. 1811. He taught school in Norwalk and New London, Conn. 1808-1810; was a tutor at Yale, 1810-11; attended medical lectures at the University of Pennsylvania, 1811-13, and was a pupil of Dr. Rush, having been chosen by the Medical society of Connecticut and corporation of Yale college to be associated in the work of commencing and carrying on a system of medical instruction with Dr. Nathan Smith, [ p. 278] Dr. Eli Ives and Professor Silliman. He was licensed to practise medicine by the Connecticut Medical Society in August, 1813, and received the degree of M.D. from Yale in 1818 . He was professor of anatomy and physiology at Yale, 1813-38; of the principles and practic e of surgery, 1838-64, and professor emeritus, 1864. He also lectured on obstetrics at Yale , 1820-29, and was a prominent lecturer on surgery. He was president of the American Medical Society, 1853-54, and was a director and president of the board of the General Hospital of Connecticut. He was influential in establishing the Knight Military Hospital at New Haven , Conn., in 1862. See "Life" by Dr. Francis Bacon (1865). He died in New Haven, Conn., Aug . 25, 1864."

Notes from the Yale University internet website: http://www.info.med.yale.edu/library/exhibits/hospitals/

knighthosp.html

"JONATHAN KNIGHT (1789-1864)--"Jonathan Knight was one of the founding professors of the Medical Institution of Yale College and a leading surgeon in Connecticut. He served first as professor of Anatomy and Physiology from 1813 to 1838, and then as Professor of Surgery from 1838 to 1864. He was one of the incorporators of the General Hospital Society of Connecticut. Noted for his skill as an organizer, Knight served as President of the Board of Directors from 1842 to his death in 1864. He was president of the National Medical Convention that formed the American Medical Association in 1846, and subsequently served as the 7th president of the AMA in 1853-54.

The original oil portrait [of Jonathan Knight] by Nathaniel Jocelyn in 1827 hangs in the gallery above the rotunda of the Medical Library.

A portrait of Dr. Jonathan Knight at the Convention that founded the American Medical Association appears on the official AMA website. Dr. Jonathan Knight served as the Chairman of the two conventions that brought about the foundation of the American Medical Association. He is sometimes referred to as the "Father of the American Medical Association." He was elected the first president of the AMA, but the physicians of New York University felt that Yale would have more influence in the organization and threatened to withdraw, so Dr. Knight withdrew from that position and a new president was elected. Dr. Knight was served as the 7th President of the American Medical Association from 1853-1854.

"In the fall of 1862, the directors of the State Hospital leased the hospital building to the United States government for a military hospital. (Regular hosptial functions were carried out in rented quarters on Whalley Avenue). The military hospital was named, the Knight U.S. Army General Hospital, after Dr. Jonathan Knight, president of the Board of the Directors of the General Hospital Society of Connecticut and professor at the Medical Institution of Yale College. The military built temporary quarters on the hospital land, and were thus able to accommodate 1,500 patients. 25,340 soldiers were treated in the Knight Hospital from 1862 to 1865 with only 185 deaths." (Today New Haven Hospital sits on the site of the former Knight Military Hospital.)

Dr. Jonathan Knight is buried at Grove Street Cemetery, [29 Cedar Lane] New Haven, New Haven , Connecticut. The cemetery is located near the campus of Yale University and "The Green" at New Haven.

The Knight Family American Genealogical Research Institute 1975 - Page 84 - 90 Jonathan Knight (4 September 1789 - 25 August 1864): physician Born in Norwalk, Connecticut, Jonathan was the son of Dr. Jonathan and Ann (Fitch) Knight. Knight entered Yale College at the age of fifteen and graduated four years later. He began a teaching career but at the same time studied medicine. Knight was granted his license to practice by the Connecticut Medical Society in 1811. He spent the next winter studying anatomy and physiology at the University of Pennsylvania and for the next twenty-five years lectured to students on this subject. In 1818 Knight recieved the honorary degree of M.D. from Yale College. Eight years later he helped to found the General Hospital Society of Connecticut which raised funds for a hospital in New Haven. In 1846 Knight served as president of the National Medical Convention which formed the American Medical Association. He was elected president of this association in 1853. Knight became the leading surgeon in Connecticut and was the first surgeon to use compression to cure aneurisms. During the Civil War, New Haven Hospital was taken over by the Federal government and by order of the surgeon generall, the name was changed to the Knight United States General Hospital. In October 1813, Knight married Elizabeth Lockwood at Greenwich,Connecticut. He died in New Haven at the age of sevently-four.

Green's Connecticut Annual Register and United States Calendar For the year 1844 Hartford Published by Samuel Green 1844 Jonathan Knight is listed as the following Prof. of the Principles and Practice of Surgery - Yale College, New Haven President of the General Hospital Society Member of the Connecticut Medical Society (New Haven County) Corresponding Secretary for the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences

Catalogue of Members Yale Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa Alpha of Connecticut 1905 - Page 52 Class of 1808 Jonathan Knight M.A., M.D. Prof. of Anatomy at Yale - New Haven, Conn. d. 1864

An Early Connecticut Engraver and his work By Albert C. Bates Hartford 1906 - Page 27

  A volume of poems by Richard Savage printed in 1805 and recently picked up the writer in a second hand book store in New Haven, contains the plate of Jonathan Knight. It also contains the autograph  of “Jonathan Knight New Haven Conn. June 5th 1807.” This is of course, Jonathan Junior, who was at that time a student in Yale College, and at once brings up the question whether the plate should be credited to him or to his father of the same name, to whom it is assigned by Mr. Allen. It seems most likely that the plate belonged to the senior Jonathan, although in this instance it was used by his son.
  Jonathan Knight, Senior, was born at Norwich, Conn., Jan. 10, 1758. He served in the Continental army during the Revolution, being commissioned as Surgeon's Mate of the Fourth regiment “Connecticut Line,” Feb. 1, 1778, and retired Jan. 1, 1781. He was a pensioner under the act of 1818. On Oct. 11, 1781, he married a daughter of Dr. Asahel Fitch of Redding and the same year removed to Norwalk, Conn., where he became a practicing physician. In 1875 he bought land and built a house on what is now Knight street. There three children were born, the eldest of whom was Jonathan, born Sept. 4, 1789. Dr. Knight is described as “a skilled medical practitioner who continued active in his work until his death in March, 1829.”
  Jonathan Knight, Junior, was graduated at Yale College in 1808, and received its honorary M.D. in 1818. Returned to Yale as a tutor; was appointed Professor of Anatomy and Physiology at the organization of the Medical School in 1813; was transferred to the Chair of Surgery, and after twenty-five years in each professorship resigned early in 1864. For many years he also lectured in the Academical department; and he also kept up an extensive medical practice in New Haven. He was one of the founders of the Amercan Medical Association, and its President in 1853. At his death, Aug. 25, 1864, he was President of the American Mutual Life Insurance Co. The United States Government hospital in New Have was named after him.

BIRTH: BIRTH: KNIGHT, Jonathan Christening Sex: Male Birth Date: 04 Sep 1789 Recorded in: Newent Congregational Church, Lisbon, New London, Connecticut Death Date: 25 Aug 1864 Father: Jonathan KNIGHT Father's Father: Jonathan KNIGHT Source: FHL Number 4706 Dates: 1724-1885

DEATH: Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale College Deceased from July, 1859, to July, 1870 New Haven, Conn. Printed by Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor 1870 - Page 163 1808 - Jonathan Knight, died in New Haven, August 25, 1864, aged 75 years, nearly.

  He was a son of Dr. Jonathan Knight, a Surgeon's mate in the Revolutionary army, and was born in Norwalk, Conn., Sept. 4, 1789. His mother was a daughter of Dr. Asahel Fitch of Reading.
  For two years after graduation he taught school in Norwich and New London, and was next a Tutor in Yale College for one year. He then attended two annual courses of medical lectures in the University of Pennsylvania Medical Society, in August, 1811. He received the honorary degree of M. D. from Yale College in 1818.
  The Medical Institution of Yale College was organized in 1813, and he was appointed the Professor of Anatomy and Physiology. He continued in this post for twenty-five years, when he was transferred to the Chair of Surgery. After having lectured for more than fifty years to successive classes of students, he resigned all connection with the college, in May, 1864. For many years, in addition to his duties in the medical school, he lectured on Anatomy and Physiology to the Senior class in the Academical Department. During all his residence in New Haven, he was engaged in extensive practice.
  He was President in 1846 and 1847, of the Convention which formed the American Medical Association, and was also President of the Association itself in 1853. At the time of his death he was President of the American Mutual Life Insurance Co. The Knight Hospital of the U. S. Government, in New Haven, was named in his honor.
  A funeral discourse by Rev. Dr. Bacon, and a commemorative sketch by Prof. F. Bacon, M. D., were printed.