Guide to the Papers of the McKnight Family, 1831-1974, 1880-1926
Arrangement
Repository
Heinz History Center
Title
Papers of the McKnight Family
Creator
McKnight family.
Collection Number
MSS#250
Extent
51.25 cubic feet(103 boxes)
Date
1831-1974
Date
1880-1926
Abstract
The family of Charles McKnight traces its descent, through connections with the Davis and Wilson families, to the first years of the nineteenth century in Allegheny County. Family members were involved in real estate, the Presbyterian ministry, banking, the steel industry, women's clubs, and charitable organizations. The collection contains personal letters, business correspondence, diaries, financial material, literary manuscripts and typescripts, poetry, leases and other legal documents, minutes and reports.
Language
The material in this collection is in English.
Author
This guide to the collection was originally prepared by Jack Eckert on August 18, 1997. Revisions occurred to the finding aid as a part of the encoding process in Spring 2000.
Sponsor
This finding aid has been encoded as a part of the Historic Pittsburgh project, a joint effort of the University of Pittsburgh and the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania. Funding for this portion of the project has been donated by the Hillman Foundation.
The family of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, banker Charles McKnight traces its descent, through connections with the Davis and Wilson families, to the first years of the nineteenth century in Allegheny County.
The Davis Family
Hugh Davis (1777-1862)
Born in 1777, in Tyrone, Ireland, of Scotch-Irish descent, Hugh Davis emigrated to Pennsylvania from Londonderry in 1801, becoming one of the earliest settlers in the Allegheny area. He settled on a farm facing the Ohio River, in Allegheny City, north of Pittsburgh. In 1805, Davis married Elizabeth Henderson (d. 1852, aged 72), the daughter of Robert Henderson of Steubenville, Pennsylvania.
The Davis family originally lived in a house on the corner of Federal Street and Park Way, then, in 1815, built and removed to a house on Stockton Avenue--supposedly only the first or second brick house in Allegheny--near the present site of Allegheny General Hospital. The family owned five hundred acres of land in Allegheny City, near Woods Run, much of it along Federal Street. Hugh Davis was one of the founders of the First National Bank, Allegheny, and donated the land for the bank, as well as land for the Federal Street suspension bridge.
Hugh Davis ran a public house on Beaver Road in Allegheny, then built and ran the first store in the city. He held several civic offices, including deputy high sheriff of Allegheny County in 1810, and was the borough's first burgess, 1830-1838; he was commissioned marshal for the Western District of Pennsylvania in 1822 and again in 1826. From 1838 to 1841, Davis served as associate judge of the county's Common Pleas, Quarter Sessions, Oyer and Terminer, and Orphans courts. Hugh Davis died on February 17, 1862.
Hugh and Elizabeth Davis had five children: Hannah Davis Morrison, William M. Davis, Robert Hudman Davis (1814-1881), Henderson E. Davis, and John Davis.
Robert Hudman Davis (1814-1881) and Eliza Cochran Davis (1815-1899)
Hugh and Elizabeth Davis' third child, Robert Hudman Davis, was a businessman and charitable worker in Allegheny City. Born on February 5, 1814, he spent his entire life in Allegheny County, was one of the founding members of the First Presbyterian Church, Allegheny, an elder of the Sewickley Presbyterian Church, and one of the first burgesses of the city. In conjunction with his brother-in-law, John Morrison, Robert H. Davis established the first dry-goods house in Allegheny City. By 1839, he owned and operated a successful lumber firm on Water Alley. Davis was involved in local philanthropic work, serving for over fourteen years as a director of the Allegheny County Home, and was one of the original members of the board appointed to organize the workhouse. From 1866 until his death, Davis was an inspector of the Western State Penitentiary and also served as its treasurer. He died on January 15, 1881.
On May 23, 1837, Robert H. Davis married Eliza Cochran. She was born on June 14, 1815, the fourth daughter of William Cochran (1777-1867) of Pine township. Despite indifferent health due, in part, to a spinal injury suffered at the age of 19, Eliza Cochran Davis was an active woman of strong and deep religious convictions and had considered becoming a missionary. She began to teach in a Sunday school soon after experiencing a religious awakening in her youth, and both she and her husband were teachers in the First Presbyterian Sabbath School in Allegheny. Eliza Cochran Davis was also active in the local Bible Class and Foreign Missionary Society. In 1894, she published a short autobiographical pamphlet, The History of a House, describing her religious and personal experiences. Eliza Cochran Davis died on March 1, 1899.
In 1855, Robert Hudman and Eliza Cochran Davis purchased 43 acres from the Robert Peebles estate in the Osborne district of Sewickley, Pennsylvania, and continued to amass land in that area until they owned properties from Orchard Street in Osborne to Straight Street in Sewickley. Davis Lane, in Osborne, derives its name from the couple. The Davis family rebuilt and occupied the Peebles House (built in 1824 and the first dwelling of stone in the Osborne area) in 1859. In 1885, a Queen Anne-style house, designed by her son-in-law, Chambers Miller, was built for Eliza Cochran Davis at Osborne.
Robert H. and Eliza Cochran Davis had four children: Mary Elizabeth Davis Wilson (1838-1880), Anna Jane Davis Miller (1840-1892), Rebekah Boggs Davis Willard (1842-1908), and Morrison Swift Davis (1845?-1919).
Jane Davis Miller (1840-1892)
Anna Jane Davis Miller, the second daughter of Eliza Cochran and Robert Hudman Davis, was born on August 15, 1840, and educated at the Edgeworth Female Seminary in Sewickley. She married Chambers ("Cham") Miller (1839-1924) in June, 1863. The Millers lived first in Altoona, Pennsylvania, but returned to the Sewickley area before 1873. During the 1870s, Chambers Miller worked as a bookkeeper, then, by 1887, as an architect; he designed a number of houses in Sewickley. Under her pen name, "Virginia Dare", Jane Davis Miller published a number of poems in newspapers and, in 1890, a volume, Rosemary and rue. She was also involved in charitable work for the McAll Mission and the home and foreign missionary societies of her church. She died on April 9, 1892.
The Millers had six children: Robert Randolph ("Robin") Miller (b. 1866), Walter Chambers ("Bud") Miller (1869?-1942?), Mary Daisy Miller (1872?-1939?), William Swift Miller (b. 1876?), Rebekah Davis Miller de Rougemont (b. 1879?), and John Meredith Miller (b. 188-?).
Rebekah Boggs Davis Willard (1842-1908)
Re Willard was born on March 3, 1842, and, like her sisters, was educated at the Edgeworth Female Seminary. She taught in local Sunday schools, and she herself founded the Osborne Mission School in 1865. On November 3, 1870, Re Davis married Louis Henry Willard (1840-1906), a homeopathic physician from Bucks County, Pennsylvania; the Willards lived at 955 Western Avenue, in Allegheny, and often spent the summers in Canada, at Beaumaris, in the Muskoka Lake region. The Willards were closely involved with the affairs of the North Presbyterian Church in Allegheny. Rebekah Boggs Davis Willard died on May 10, 1908.
The Willards had three children: Alice Rebekah Willard Morse (b. 1873?), Eleanore Van Court Willard George (1875-1947), and Louis DeNormandie Willard (1881-1946), a physician who married Sarah Ormsby McKnight (1884-1962), a cousin of banker Charles McKnight.
Morrison Swift Davis (1845?-1919)
Swift Davis, the only son of Robert H. and Eliza Cochran Davis, was born on September 24, probably in 1845. His only formal education was at the Sewickley Academy. In 1869, he worked in St. Louis, Missouri, at the Duquesne Iron Store of Macrum, Davis Co, but returned to Sewickley the following year. On June 18, 1874, Swift Davis married Abbie W. (d. 1891). During the 1880s, he worked in Philadelphia for the Atlantic Refining Company. He and his children returned to Western Pennsylvania and lived with his mother after the death of his wife. Swift Davis' later years were spent at Markleton, in Somerset County. He died on January 10, 1919.
The Davises had four children: Katherine Duncan Davis Holdship (b. 1875?), Eliza Cochran Davis (1876-1878), Robert Halsey Davis (1881-1931), and Helen Willard Davis Lisle (b. 1885).
The Wilson Family
Samuel Jennings Wilson (1828-1883) and Daisy Davis Wilson (1838-1880)
Presbyterian minister, preacher, and educator, Samuel Jennings Wilson was born in Washington County, Pennsylvania, on July 19, 1828, the youngest child of a farmer, Henry Wilson, and his wife, Jane Dill Wilson. After his graduation from Washington College in 1852, he entered the Western Theological Seminary in Allegheny and remained associated with the institution for the rest of his life. After completing the course of studies at the Seminary in 1855, Wilson became the instructor of ecclesiastical history and Hebrew, rising to full professor in 1857. In 1876, he became the senior professor and presiding officer of the faculty.
In addition to his teaching, Samuel Jennings Wilson preached at churches in Ohio, then, in 1861, became the pastor of the Sixth Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh and held this post for fifteen years. He was also the moderator of the Presbyterian General Assembly in 1874 and a member of the first general council of the Presbyterian Alliance to plan for confederation of churches in 1877. In 1882, Samuel Jennings Wilson was named the first Moderator of the consolidated Synod of Pennsylvania. He died of typhoid fever at the home of his mother-in-law on August 17, 1883.
On December 22, 1859, Samuel Jennings Wilson married Mary Elizabeth Davis, the eldest child of Robert H. and Eliza Cochran Davis. Known always as "Daisy", she was born on June 4, 1838, and educated at the Edgeworth Female Seminary in Sewickley. The Wilsons lived at 316 Ridge Avenue, in Allegheny, near the Western Theological Seminary. Daisy Wilson suffered from rheumatism during the last ten years of her life and died on June 4, 1880.
Samuel Jennings and Daisy Wilson had three children: twins, Eliza Cochran Wilson McKnight (1860-1926) and Robert Davis Wilson (1860-1890), and a second daughter, Jane Dill Wilson Walker (1864-1943).
Robert Davis Wilson (1860-1890)
Lawyer Robert Davis Wilson, twin brother of Eliza Cochran Wilson McKnight, was born on September 30, 1860. After graduating from Washington and Jefferson College in 1882, he studied law, reading in the office of Hampton amp; Dalzell, and was admitted to the Allegheny County bar in October 1884. In 1888, he entered into partnership with W. K. Jennings, forming the Pittsburgh firm of Jennings Wilson at 110 Diamond Street. Robert D. Wilson died of typhoid fever on July 20, 1890.
Jane Dill Wilson Walker (1864-1943)
Jane Dill Wilson Walker, the third child of Samuel Jennings and Daisy Wilson, was born on May 27, 1864. She attended courses at the Pennsylvania Female College in the 1880s and then, on April 13, 1892, married William Walker (d. 1940), one of the founders of the Harbison-Walker Refractories Company of Pittsburgh, a firebrick manufacturing firm. The Walkers lived on California Avenue, in Allegheny, then moved to Shields, Pennsylvania. Jane Walker died on February 21, 1943.
Jane and William Walker had four children: Mary Elizabeth Walker Stevenson (b. 1893), Hepburn Walker (1894-1946), Katherine Wilson Walker (1899-1985), and Margaret Dill Walker Kipp (b. 1904).
The McKnight Family
Charles McKnight (1863-1926) and Eliza Cochran Wilson McKnight (1860-1926)
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, banker and industrialist Charles McKnight was born on September 2, 1863. He was the second son of journalist Charles McKnight (1826-1881) and Jeanie Reed Baird McKnight (1836-1897) and received his education in grammar and high schools in Sewickley and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Charles McKnight worked first as an office boy with the firm of N. W. Ayer and Son, in Philadelphia, then, at the age of eighteen, started his banking career as an assistant messenger at the Merchants Manufacturers National Bank, on Fourth Avenue, in Pittsburgh. By 1884, he had become a bookkeeper for the bank and was associated with the institution until 1893 when he resigned to establish the National Bank of Western Pennsylvania (reorganized in 1913 as the Western National Bank), where he held the post of cashier. Charles McKnight was elected president of the bank in 1896 and held that position until his retirement circa 1924. He also helped to organize the First National Bank of Sewickley in 1890 and served as one of its vice-presidents. By 1917, he held positions as president of the Carbon Steel Company and Western Coke Company and was treasurer, and later, president, of the Pittsburgh Iron and Steel Foundries Company. During the early years of World War I, Charles McKnight travelled to Europe and obtained the first steel contracts awarded by England to an American firm. He was active in the Clearing House Association of Pittsburgh, a director of the Midland Steel Company and Westinghouse Air Brake Company, and held memberships in the Duquesne Club and Allegheny Country Club in Pittsburgh, the Metropolitan, Recess, and Players' clubs and Union League in New York, and the American Bankers Association. On January 28, 1926, Charles McKnight died of pneumonia in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
On October 31, 1888, Charles McKnight married Eliza Cochran "Kitty" Wilson, the elder daughter of Samuel Jennings and Daisy Wilson. She was born on September 30, 1860, in Allegheny, attended the Allegheny Female Seminary, then graduated from the Pennsylvania Female [later Chatham] College in 1880. After their marriage, the McKnights lived in Sewickley until 1895 when they moved to neighboring Osborne and occupied a new house built by the architectural firm of Longfellow, Alden Harlow, at 1107 Beaver Road, on land originally belonging to Robert H. and Eliza Cochran Davis.
Although most of her time was spent in raising her family and housekeeping matters, Eliza C. McKnight was active in the Presbyterian church and pursued an intellectual life, writing, speaking, and participating tirelessly in the Monday Class, Query Club, and Twentieth Century Club. She had a particular interest in the Woman's Club of Sewickley Valley, which she helped to organize in 1897, and held a number of its offices, including president, vice-president, corresponding secretary, and chairman of the Department of Literature. She was also involved in charitable and philanthropic works, serving as a member of the board and secretary for the Protestant Orphan Asylum of Pittsburgh and Allegheny, corresponding secretary of the Woman's Missionary Society of the Presbyterian Church of Sewickley, Pa., and secretary of the board of the Woods Run Vacation School in Allegheny. Eliza C. McKnight died of heart failure on April 22, 1926.
The McKnights had five children: Rachel Lowrie McKnight Simmons (1889-1979), Charles McKnight, Jr. (1891-1969), Robert Wilson McKnight (1895-1970), Eleanor Baird Wilson McKnight Shumaker (b. 1897), and Francis Harlan McKnight (b. 1900).
Rachel Lowrie McKnight Simmons (1889-1979)
The oldest child of Charles and Eliza C. McKnight, Rachel Lowrie McKnight, was born on November 16, 1889. She attended the Baldwin School, in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, and then graduated from Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, in 1912. From 1918 to 1920, Rachel McKnight studied nursing at the Pittsburgh Training School for Nurses of the Homeopathic Medical and Surgical Hospital. She then became a licensed registered nurse in Pennsylvania in 1920 and New York State in 1921. On January 28, 1921, she married electrical engineer Donald MacLaren Simons (1889-1961); the name was changed to "Simmons" in the late 1920s. Rachel Simmons received an M.A. from Columbia University in 1930 and a Ph.D. from Columbia University Teachers College in 1934; her dissertation was published in 1940 as A study of a group of children of exceptionally high intelligence quotient in situations partaking of the nature of suggestion. Her later years were spent in Sewickley, Pennsylvania. Rachel Lowrie McKnight Simmons died in 1979.
Donald and Rachel Simmons had two children: Donald MacLaren Simmons (b. 1922) and Mary Elizabeth ("Daisy") Simmons Ford (b. 1925).
Charles McKnight, Jr. (1891-1969)
Charles McKnight, Jr., was born on September 16, 1891. He attended the Lawrenceville School in New Jersey, graduating in 1909. During World War I, he served in France with the 21st Machine Gun Battalion and was recommended for the Croix de Guerre. He married Mary McGill DeLong (b. 1896) on August 5, 1918. In the early 1920s, Charles McKnight, Jr., was on the staff of the Carbon Steel Company; by 1923, he was employed by the International Nickel Company in New York. Most of the McKnights' later life was spent in Fork, Maryland. Charles McKnight, Jr., died on October 10, 1969.
Charles and Mary McKnight had one adopted son, Malcolm McC. McKnight.
Robert Wilson McKnight (1895-1970)
Robert Wilson McKnight was born on August 20, 1895. He attended the Hotchkiss School, the Morristown School, and Princeton University. His college career was interrupted by service during World War I. He graduated from Princeton in 1920, then went to work for Dillon, Read Company, a Pittsburgh marketing firm. In 1924, he founded and became vice-president of McKnight, Robinson Company, an advertising firm in Pittsburgh. On August 6, 1921, Robert W. McKnight married Rachel Murdoch Arrott (b. 1896); the McKnights lived in Sewickley, Pennsylvania. He died in 1970.
The Robert McKnights had four children: Anne Arrott McKnight Crampton Murdock (b. 1922), Mary Rachel McKnight Berg (1923-1992), Charles McKnight (1926-1945), and Sally Harlan Baird McKnight Nimick Himes (1929-1987).
Eleanor Baird Wilson McKnight Shumaker (b. 1897)
Eleanor Baird Wilson McKnight was born on October 8, 1897; among her family she was usually known as "Ony." She graduated from Smith College in 1919 and, on March 25, 1922, married a naval officer, Samuel Robert Shumaker (1894-1944). Most of her life was spent in Washington, D.C.
Sam and Eleanor Shumaker had three children: Eliza Cochran Shumaker Soyster (b. 1923), Margaret Blair Shumaker Dickey Nalle (b. 1925), and Samuel Robert Shumaker, Jr. (b. 1930).
Francis Harlan McKnight (b. 1900)
The youngest child of Charles and Eliza C. McKnight, Francis Harlan (generally referred to as "Pud" or "Puddie") was born on August 2, 1900. Like his brother, Robert, he attended the Morristown School and then Princeton University, graduating in 1922. He joined his father's Western National Bank in 1923. On June 3, 1926, Francis H. McKnight married Frederica or Frida Lucci. The McKnights lived in California.
Francis H. and Frida McKnight had two daughters: Laura Lucci McKnight Stabler (b. 1927) and Jeanie Baird McKnight (b. 1928).
The Davis Family
Hugh Davis (1777-1862)
Born in 1777, in Tyrone, Ireland, of Scotch-Irish descent, Hugh Davis emigrated to Pennsylvania from Londonderry in 1801, becoming one of the earliest settlers in the Allegheny area. He settled on a farm facing the Ohio River, in Allegheny City, north of Pittsburgh. In 1805, Davis married Elizabeth Henderson (d. 1852, aged 72), the daughter of Robert Henderson of Steubenville, Pennsylvania.
The Davis family originally lived in a house on the corner of Federal Street and Park Way, then, in 1815, built and removed to a house on Stockton Avenue--supposedly only the first or second brick house in Allegheny--near the present site of Allegheny General Hospital. The family owned five hundred acres of land in Allegheny City, near Woods Run, much of it along Federal Street. Hugh Davis was one of the founders of the First National Bank, Allegheny, and donated the land for the bank, as well as land for the Federal Street suspension bridge.
Hugh Davis ran a public house on Beaver Road in Allegheny, then built and ran the first store in the city. He held several civic offices, including deputy high sheriff of Allegheny County in 1810, and was the borough's first burgess, 1830-1838; he was commissioned marshal for the Western District of Pennsylvania in 1822 and again in 1826. From 1838 to 1841, Davis served as associate judge of the county's Common Pleas, Quarter Sessions, Oyer and Terminer, and Orphans courts. Hugh Davis died on February 17, 1862.
Hugh and Elizabeth Davis had five children: Hannah Davis Morrison, William M. Davis, Robert Hudman Davis (1814-1881), Henderson E. Davis, and John Davis.
Robert Hudman Davis (1814-1881) and Eliza Cochran Davis (1815-1899)
Hugh and Elizabeth Davis' third child, Robert Hudman Davis, was a businessman and charitable worker in Allegheny City. Born on February 5, 1814, he spent his entire life in Allegheny County, was one of the founding members of the First Presbyterian Church, Allegheny, an elder of the Sewickley Presbyterian Church, and one of the first burgesses of the city. In conjunction with his brother-in-law, John Morrison, Robert H. Davis established the first dry-goods house in Allegheny City. By 1839, he owned and operated a successful lumber firm on Water Alley. Davis was involved in local philanthropic work, serving for over fourteen years as a director of the Allegheny County Home, and was one of the original members of the board appointed to organize the workhouse. From 1866 until his death, Davis was an inspector of the Western State Penitentiary and also served as its treasurer. He died on January 15, 1881.
On May 23, 1837, Robert H. Davis married Eliza Cochran. She was born on June 14, 1815, the fourth daughter of William Cochran (1777-1867) of Pine township. Despite indifferent health due, in part, to a spinal injury suffered at the age of 19, Eliza Cochran Davis was an active woman of strong and deep religious convictions and had considered becoming a missionary. She began to teach in a Sunday school soon after experiencing a religious awakening in her youth, and both she and her husband were teachers in the First Presbyterian Sabbath School in Allegheny. Eliza Cochran Davis was also active in the local Bible Class and Foreign Missionary Society. In 1894, she published a short autobiographical pamphlet, The History of a House, describing her religious and personal experiences. Eliza Cochran Davis died on March 1, 1899.
In 1855, Robert Hudman and Eliza Cochran Davis purchased 43 acres from the Robert Peebles estate in the Osborne district of Sewickley, Pennsylvania, and continued to amass land in that area until they owned properties from Orchard Street in Osborne to Straight Street in Sewickley. Davis Lane, in Osborne, derives its name from the couple. The Davis family rebuilt and occupied the Peebles House (built in 1824 and the first dwelling of stone in the Osborne area) in 1859. In 1885, a Queen Anne-style house, designed by her son-in-law, Chambers Miller, was built for Eliza Cochran Davis at Osborne.
Robert H. and Eliza Cochran Davis had four children: Mary Elizabeth Davis Wilson (1838-1880), Anna Jane Davis Miller (1840-1892), Rebekah Boggs Davis Willard (1842-1908), and Morrison Swift Davis (1845?-1919).
Jane Davis Miller (1840-1892)
Anna Jane Davis Miller, the second daughter of Eliza Cochran and Robert Hudman Davis, was born on August 15, 1840, and educated at the Edgeworth Female Seminary in Sewickley. She married Chambers ("Cham") Miller (1839-1924) in June, 1863. The Millers lived first in Altoona, Pennsylvania, but returned to the Sewickley area before 1873. During the 1870s, Chambers Miller worked as a bookkeeper, then, by 1887, as an architect; he designed a number of houses in Sewickley. Under her pen name, "Virginia Dare", Jane Davis Miller published a number of poems in newspapers and, in 1890, a volume, Rosemary and rue. She was also involved in charitable work for the McAll Mission and the home and foreign missionary societies of her church. She died on April 9, 1892.
The Millers had six children: Robert Randolph ("Robin") Miller (b. 1866), Walter Chambers ("Bud") Miller (1869?-1942?), Mary Daisy Miller (1872?-1939?), William Swift Miller (b. 1876?), Rebekah Davis Miller de Rougemont (b. 1879?), and John Meredith Miller (b. 188-?).
Rebekah Boggs Davis Willard (1842-1908)
Re Willard was born on March 3, 1842, and, like her sisters, was educated at the Edgeworth Female Seminary. She taught in local Sunday schools, and she herself founded the Osborne Mission School in 1865. On November 3, 1870, Re Davis married Louis Henry Willard (1840-1906), a homeopathic physician from Bucks County, Pennsylvania; the Willards lived at 955 Western Avenue, in Allegheny, and often spent the summers in Canada, at Beaumaris, in the Muskoka Lake region. The Willards were closely involved with the affairs of the North Presbyterian Church in Allegheny. Rebekah Boggs Davis Willard died on May 10, 1908.
The Willards had three children: Alice Rebekah Willard Morse (b. 1873?), Eleanore Van Court Willard George (1875-1947), and Louis DeNormandie Willard (1881-1946), a physician who married Sarah Ormsby McKnight (1884-1962), a cousin of banker Charles McKnight.
Morrison Swift Davis (1845?-1919)
Swift Davis, the only son of Robert H. and Eliza Cochran Davis, was born on September 24, probably in 1845. His only formal education was at the Sewickley Academy. In 1869, he worked in St. Louis, Missouri, at the Duquesne Iron Store of Macrum, Davis Co, but returned to Sewickley the following year. On June 18, 1874, Swift Davis married Abbie W. (d. 1891). During the 1880s, he worked in Philadelphia for the Atlantic Refining Company. He and his children returned to Western Pennsylvania and lived with his mother after the death of his wife. Swift Davis' later years were spent at Markleton, in Somerset County. He died on January 10, 1919.
The Davises had four children: Katherine Duncan Davis Holdship (b. 1875?), Eliza Cochran Davis (1876-1878), Robert Halsey Davis (1881-1931), and Helen Willard Davis Lisle (b. 1885).
Hugh Davis (1777-1862)
Born in 1777, in Tyrone, Ireland, of Scotch-Irish descent, Hugh Davis emigrated to Pennsylvania from Londonderry in 1801, becoming one of the earliest settlers in the Allegheny area. He settled on a farm facing the Ohio River, in Allegheny City, north of Pittsburgh. In 1805, Davis married Elizabeth Henderson (d. 1852, aged 72), the daughter of Robert Henderson of Steubenville, Pennsylvania.
The Davis family originally lived in a house on the corner of Federal Street and Park Way, then, in 1815, built and removed to a house on Stockton Avenue--supposedly only the first or second brick house in Allegheny--near the present site of Allegheny General Hospital. The family owned five hundred acres of land in Allegheny City, near Woods Run, much of it along Federal Street. Hugh Davis was one of the founders of the First National Bank, Allegheny, and donated the land for the bank, as well as land for the Federal Street suspension bridge.
Hugh Davis ran a public house on Beaver Road in Allegheny, then built and ran the first store in the city. He held several civic offices, including deputy high sheriff of Allegheny County in 1810, and was the borough's first burgess, 1830-1838; he was commissioned marshal for the Western District of Pennsylvania in 1822 and again in 1826. From 1838 to 1841, Davis served as associate judge of the county's Common Pleas, Quarter Sessions, Oyer and Terminer, and Orphans courts. Hugh Davis died on February 17, 1862.
Hugh and Elizabeth Davis had five children: Hannah Davis Morrison, William M. Davis, Robert Hudman Davis (1814-1881), Henderson E. Davis, and John Davis.
Robert Hudman Davis (1814-1881) and Eliza Cochran Davis (1815-1899)
Hugh and Elizabeth Davis' third child, Robert Hudman Davis, was a businessman and charitable worker in Allegheny City. Born on February 5, 1814, he spent his entire life in Allegheny County, was one of the founding members of the First Presbyterian Church, Allegheny, an elder of the Sewickley Presbyterian Church, and one of the first burgesses of the city. In conjunction with his brother-in-law, John Morrison, Robert H. Davis established the first dry-goods house in Allegheny City. By 1839, he owned and operated a successful lumber firm on Water Alley. Davis was involved in local philanthropic work, serving for over fourteen years as a director of the Allegheny County Home, and was one of the original members of the board appointed to organize the workhouse. From 1866 until his death, Davis was an inspector of the Western State Penitentiary and also served as its treasurer. He died on January 15, 1881.
On May 23, 1837, Robert H. Davis married Eliza Cochran. She was born on June 14, 1815, the fourth daughter of William Cochran (1777-1867) of Pine township. Despite indifferent health due, in part, to a spinal injury suffered at the age of 19, Eliza Cochran Davis was an active woman of strong and deep religious convictions and had considered becoming a missionary. She began to teach in a Sunday school soon after experiencing a religious awakening in her youth, and both she and her husband were teachers in the First Presbyterian Sabbath School in Allegheny. Eliza Cochran Davis was also active in the local Bible Class and Foreign Missionary Society. In 1894, she published a short autobiographical pamphlet, The History of a House, describing her religious and personal experiences. Eliza Cochran Davis died on March 1, 1899.
In 1855, Robert Hudman and Eliza Cochran Davis purchased 43 acres from the Robert Peebles estate in the Osborne district of Sewickley, Pennsylvania, and continued to amass land in that area until they owned properties from Orchard Street in Osborne to Straight Street in Sewickley. Davis Lane, in Osborne, derives its name from the couple. The Davis family rebuilt and occupied the Peebles House (built in 1824 and the first dwelling of stone in the Osborne area) in 1859. In 1885, a Queen Anne-style house, designed by her son-in-law, Chambers Miller, was built for Eliza Cochran Davis at Osborne.
Robert H. and Eliza Cochran Davis had four children: Mary Elizabeth Davis Wilson (1838-1880), Anna Jane Davis Miller (1840-1892), Rebekah Boggs Davis Willard (1842-1908), and Morrison Swift Davis (1845?-1919).
Jane Davis Miller (1840-1892)
Anna Jane Davis Miller, the second daughter of Eliza Cochran and Robert Hudman Davis, was born on August 15, 1840, and educated at the Edgeworth Female Seminary in Sewickley. She married Chambers ("Cham") Miller (1839-1924) in June, 1863. The Millers lived first in Altoona, Pennsylvania, but returned to the Sewickley area before 1873. During the 1870s, Chambers Miller worked as a bookkeeper, then, by 1887, as an architect; he designed a number of houses in Sewickley. Under her pen name, "Virginia Dare", Jane Davis Miller published a number of poems in newspapers and, in 1890, a volume, Rosemary and rue. She was also involved in charitable work for the McAll Mission and the home and foreign missionary societies of her church. She died on April 9, 1892.
The Millers had six children: Robert Randolph ("Robin") Miller (b. 1866), Walter Chambers ("Bud") Miller (1869?-1942?), Mary Daisy Miller (1872?-1939?), William Swift Miller (b. 1876?), Rebekah Davis Miller de Rougemont (b. 1879?), and John Meredith Miller (b. 188-?).
Rebekah Boggs Davis Willard (1842-1908)
Re Willard was born on March 3, 1842, and, like her sisters, was educated at the Edgeworth Female Seminary. She taught in local Sunday schools, and she herself founded the Osborne Mission School in 1865. On November 3, 1870, Re Davis married Louis Henry Willard (1840-1906), a homeopathic physician from Bucks County, Pennsylvania; the Willards lived at 955 Western Avenue, in Allegheny, and often spent the summers in Canada, at Beaumaris, in the Muskoka Lake region. The Willards were closely involved with the affairs of the North Presbyterian Church in Allegheny. Rebekah Boggs Davis Willard died on May 10, 1908.
The Willards had three children: Alice Rebekah Willard Morse (b. 1873?), Eleanore Van Court Willard George (1875-1947), and Louis DeNormandie Willard (1881-1946), a physician who married Sarah Ormsby McKnight (1884-1962), a cousin of banker Charles McKnight.
Morrison Swift Davis (1845?-1919)
Swift Davis, the only son of Robert H. and Eliza Cochran Davis, was born on September 24, probably in 1845. His only formal education was at the Sewickley Academy. In 1869, he worked in St. Louis, Missouri, at the Duquesne Iron Store of Macrum, Davis Co, but returned to Sewickley the following year. On June 18, 1874, Swift Davis married Abbie W. (d. 1891). During the 1880s, he worked in Philadelphia for the Atlantic Refining Company. He and his children returned to Western Pennsylvania and lived with his mother after the death of his wife. Swift Davis' later years were spent at Markleton, in Somerset County. He died on January 10, 1919.
The Davises had four children: Katherine Duncan Davis Holdship (b. 1875?), Eliza Cochran Davis (1876-1878), Robert Halsey Davis (1881-1931), and Helen Willard Davis Lisle (b. 1885).
The Wilson Family
Samuel Jennings Wilson (1828-1883) and Daisy Davis Wilson (1838-1880)
Presbyterian minister, preacher, and educator, Samuel Jennings Wilson was born in Washington County, Pennsylvania, on July 19, 1828, the youngest child of a farmer, Henry Wilson, and his wife, Jane Dill Wilson. After his graduation from Washington College in 1852, he entered the Western Theological Seminary in Allegheny and remained associated with the institution for the rest of his life. After completing the course of studies at the Seminary in 1855, Wilson became the instructor of ecclesiastical history and Hebrew, rising to full professor in 1857. In 1876, he became the senior professor and presiding officer of the faculty.
In addition to his teaching, Samuel Jennings Wilson preached at churches in Ohio, then, in 1861, became the pastor of the Sixth Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh and held this post for fifteen years. He was also the moderator of the Presbyterian General Assembly in 1874 and a member of the first general council of the Presbyterian Alliance to plan for confederation of churches in 1877. In 1882, Samuel Jennings Wilson was named the first Moderator of the consolidated Synod of Pennsylvania. He died of typhoid fever at the home of his mother-in-law on August 17, 1883.
On December 22, 1859, Samuel Jennings Wilson married Mary Elizabeth Davis, the eldest child of Robert H. and Eliza Cochran Davis. Known always as "Daisy", she was born on June 4, 1838, and educated at the Edgeworth Female Seminary in Sewickley. The Wilsons lived at 316 Ridge Avenue, in Allegheny, near the Western Theological Seminary. Daisy Wilson suffered from rheumatism during the last ten years of her life and died on June 4, 1880.
Samuel Jennings and Daisy Wilson had three children: twins, Eliza Cochran Wilson McKnight (1860-1926) and Robert Davis Wilson (1860-1890), and a second daughter, Jane Dill Wilson Walker (1864-1943).
Robert Davis Wilson (1860-1890)
Lawyer Robert Davis Wilson, twin brother of Eliza Cochran Wilson McKnight, was born on September 30, 1860. After graduating from Washington and Jefferson College in 1882, he studied law, reading in the office of Hampton amp; Dalzell, and was admitted to the Allegheny County bar in October 1884. In 1888, he entered into partnership with W. K. Jennings, forming the Pittsburgh firm of Jennings Wilson at 110 Diamond Street. Robert D. Wilson died of typhoid fever on July 20, 1890.
Jane Dill Wilson Walker (1864-1943)
Jane Dill Wilson Walker, the third child of Samuel Jennings and Daisy Wilson, was born on May 27, 1864. She attended courses at the Pennsylvania Female College in the 1880s and then, on April 13, 1892, married William Walker (d. 1940), one of the founders of the Harbison-Walker Refractories Company of Pittsburgh, a firebrick manufacturing firm. The Walkers lived on California Avenue, in Allegheny, then moved to Shields, Pennsylvania. Jane Walker died on February 21, 1943.
Jane and William Walker had four children: Mary Elizabeth Walker Stevenson (b. 1893), Hepburn Walker (1894-1946), Katherine Wilson Walker (1899-1985), and Margaret Dill Walker Kipp (b. 1904).
Samuel Jennings Wilson (1828-1883) and Daisy Davis Wilson (1838-1880)
Presbyterian minister, preacher, and educator, Samuel Jennings Wilson was born in Washington County, Pennsylvania, on July 19, 1828, the youngest child of a farmer, Henry Wilson, and his wife, Jane Dill Wilson. After his graduation from Washington College in 1852, he entered the Western Theological Seminary in Allegheny and remained associated with the institution for the rest of his life. After completing the course of studies at the Seminary in 1855, Wilson became the instructor of ecclesiastical history and Hebrew, rising to full professor in 1857. In 1876, he became the senior professor and presiding officer of the faculty.
In addition to his teaching, Samuel Jennings Wilson preached at churches in Ohio, then, in 1861, became the pastor of the Sixth Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh and held this post for fifteen years. He was also the moderator of the Presbyterian General Assembly in 1874 and a member of the first general council of the Presbyterian Alliance to plan for confederation of churches in 1877. In 1882, Samuel Jennings Wilson was named the first Moderator of the consolidated Synod of Pennsylvania. He died of typhoid fever at the home of his mother-in-law on August 17, 1883.
On December 22, 1859, Samuel Jennings Wilson married Mary Elizabeth Davis, the eldest child of Robert H. and Eliza Cochran Davis. Known always as "Daisy", she was born on June 4, 1838, and educated at the Edgeworth Female Seminary in Sewickley. The Wilsons lived at 316 Ridge Avenue, in Allegheny, near the Western Theological Seminary. Daisy Wilson suffered from rheumatism during the last ten years of her life and died on June 4, 1880.
Samuel Jennings and Daisy Wilson had three children: twins, Eliza Cochran Wilson McKnight (1860-1926) and Robert Davis Wilson (1860-1890), and a second daughter, Jane Dill Wilson Walker (1864-1943).
Robert Davis Wilson (1860-1890)
Lawyer Robert Davis Wilson, twin brother of Eliza Cochran Wilson McKnight, was born on September 30, 1860. After graduating from Washington and Jefferson College in 1882, he studied law, reading in the office of Hampton amp; Dalzell, and was admitted to the Allegheny County bar in October 1884. In 1888, he entered into partnership with W. K. Jennings, forming the Pittsburgh firm of Jennings Wilson at 110 Diamond Street. Robert D. Wilson died of typhoid fever on July 20, 1890.
Jane Dill Wilson Walker (1864-1943)
Jane Dill Wilson Walker, the third child of Samuel Jennings and Daisy Wilson, was born on May 27, 1864. She attended courses at the Pennsylvania Female College in the 1880s and then, on April 13, 1892, married William Walker (d. 1940), one of the founders of the Harbison-Walker Refractories Company of Pittsburgh, a firebrick manufacturing firm. The Walkers lived on California Avenue, in Allegheny, then moved to Shields, Pennsylvania. Jane Walker died on February 21, 1943.
Jane and William Walker had four children: Mary Elizabeth Walker Stevenson (b. 1893), Hepburn Walker (1894-1946), Katherine Wilson Walker (1899-1985), and Margaret Dill Walker Kipp (b. 1904).
The McKnight Family
Charles McKnight (1863-1926) and Eliza Cochran Wilson McKnight (1860-1926)
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, banker and industrialist Charles McKnight was born on September 2, 1863. He was the second son of journalist Charles McKnight (1826-1881) and Jeanie Reed Baird McKnight (1836-1897) and received his education in grammar and high schools in Sewickley and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Charles McKnight worked first as an office boy with the firm of N. W. Ayer and Son, in Philadelphia, then, at the age of eighteen, started his banking career as an assistant messenger at the Merchants Manufacturers National Bank, on Fourth Avenue, in Pittsburgh. By 1884, he had become a bookkeeper for the bank and was associated with the institution until 1893 when he resigned to establish the National Bank of Western Pennsylvania (reorganized in 1913 as the Western National Bank), where he held the post of cashier. Charles McKnight was elected president of the bank in 1896 and held that position until his retirement circa 1924. He also helped to organize the First National Bank of Sewickley in 1890 and served as one of its vice-presidents. By 1917, he held positions as president of the Carbon Steel Company and Western Coke Company and was treasurer, and later, president, of the Pittsburgh Iron and Steel Foundries Company. During the early years of World War I, Charles McKnight travelled to Europe and obtained the first steel contracts awarded by England to an American firm. He was active in the Clearing House Association of Pittsburgh, a director of the Midland Steel Company and Westinghouse Air Brake Company, and held memberships in the Duquesne Club and Allegheny Country Club in Pittsburgh, the Metropolitan, Recess, and Players' clubs and Union League in New York, and the American Bankers Association. On January 28, 1926, Charles McKnight died of pneumonia in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
On October 31, 1888, Charles McKnight married Eliza Cochran "Kitty" Wilson, the elder daughter of Samuel Jennings and Daisy Wilson. She was born on September 30, 1860, in Allegheny, attended the Allegheny Female Seminary, then graduated from the Pennsylvania Female [later Chatham] College in 1880. After their marriage, the McKnights lived in Sewickley until 1895 when they moved to neighboring Osborne and occupied a new house built by the architectural firm of Longfellow, Alden Harlow, at 1107 Beaver Road, on land originally belonging to Robert H. and Eliza Cochran Davis.
Although most of her time was spent in raising her family and housekeeping matters, Eliza C. McKnight was active in the Presbyterian church and pursued an intellectual life, writing, speaking, and participating tirelessly in the Monday Class, Query Club, and Twentieth Century Club. She had a particular interest in the Woman's Club of Sewickley Valley, which she helped to organize in 1897, and held a number of its offices, including president, vice-president, corresponding secretary, and chairman of the Department of Literature. She was also involved in charitable and philanthropic works, serving as a member of the board and secretary for the Protestant Orphan Asylum of Pittsburgh and Allegheny, corresponding secretary of the Woman's Missionary Society of the Presbyterian Church of Sewickley, Pa., and secretary of the board of the Woods Run Vacation School in Allegheny. Eliza C. McKnight died of heart failure on April 22, 1926.
The McKnights had five children: Rachel Lowrie McKnight Simmons (1889-1979), Charles McKnight, Jr. (1891-1969), Robert Wilson McKnight (1895-1970), Eleanor Baird Wilson McKnight Shumaker (b. 1897), and Francis Harlan McKnight (b. 1900).
Rachel Lowrie McKnight Simmons (1889-1979)
The oldest child of Charles and Eliza C. McKnight, Rachel Lowrie McKnight, was born on November 16, 1889. She attended the Baldwin School, in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, and then graduated from Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, in 1912. From 1918 to 1920, Rachel McKnight studied nursing at the Pittsburgh Training School for Nurses of the Homeopathic Medical and Surgical Hospital. She then became a licensed registered nurse in Pennsylvania in 1920 and New York State in 1921. On January 28, 1921, she married electrical engineer Donald MacLaren Simons (1889-1961); the name was changed to "Simmons" in the late 1920s. Rachel Simmons received an M.A. from Columbia University in 1930 and a Ph.D. from Columbia University Teachers College in 1934; her dissertation was published in 1940 as A study of a group of children of exceptionally high intelligence quotient in situations partaking of the nature of suggestion. Her later years were spent in Sewickley, Pennsylvania. Rachel Lowrie McKnight Simmons died in 1979.
Donald and Rachel Simmons had two children: Donald MacLaren Simmons (b. 1922) and Mary Elizabeth ("Daisy") Simmons Ford (b. 1925).
Charles McKnight, Jr. (1891-1969)
Charles McKnight, Jr., was born on September 16, 1891. He attended the Lawrenceville School in New Jersey, graduating in 1909. During World War I, he served in France with the 21st Machine Gun Battalion and was recommended for the Croix de Guerre. He married Mary McGill DeLong (b. 1896) on August 5, 1918. In the early 1920s, Charles McKnight, Jr., was on the staff of the Carbon Steel Company; by 1923, he was employed by the International Nickel Company in New York. Most of the McKnights' later life was spent in Fork, Maryland. Charles McKnight, Jr., died on October 10, 1969.
Charles and Mary McKnight had one adopted son, Malcolm McC. McKnight.
Robert Wilson McKnight (1895-1970)
Robert Wilson McKnight was born on August 20, 1895. He attended the Hotchkiss School, the Morristown School, and Princeton University. His college career was interrupted by service during World War I. He graduated from Princeton in 1920, then went to work for Dillon, Read Company, a Pittsburgh marketing firm. In 1924, he founded and became vice-president of McKnight, Robinson Company, an advertising firm in Pittsburgh. On August 6, 1921, Robert W. McKnight married Rachel Murdoch Arrott (b. 1896); the McKnights lived in Sewickley, Pennsylvania. He died in 1970.
The Robert McKnights had four children: Anne Arrott McKnight Crampton Murdock (b. 1922), Mary Rachel McKnight Berg (1923-1992), Charles McKnight (1926-1945), and Sally Harlan Baird McKnight Nimick Himes (1929-1987).
Eleanor Baird Wilson McKnight Shumaker (b. 1897)
Eleanor Baird Wilson McKnight was born on October 8, 1897; among her family she was usually known as "Ony." She graduated from Smith College in 1919 and, on March 25, 1922, married a naval officer, Samuel Robert Shumaker (1894-1944). Most of her life was spent in Washington, D.C.
Sam and Eleanor Shumaker had three children: Eliza Cochran Shumaker Soyster (b. 1923), Margaret Blair Shumaker Dickey Nalle (b. 1925), and Samuel Robert Shumaker, Jr. (b. 1930).
Francis Harlan McKnight (b. 1900)
The youngest child of Charles and Eliza C. McKnight, Francis Harlan (generally referred to as "Pud" or "Puddie") was born on August 2, 1900. Like his brother, Robert, he attended the Morristown School and then Princeton University, graduating in 1922. He joined his father's Western National Bank in 1923. On June 3, 1926, Francis H. McKnight married Frederica or Frida Lucci. The McKnights lived in California.
Francis H. and Frida McKnight had two daughters: Laura Lucci McKnight Stabler (b. 1927) and Jeanie Baird McKnight (b. 1928).
Charles McKnight (1863-1926) and Eliza Cochran Wilson McKnight (1860-1926)
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, banker and industrialist Charles McKnight was born on September 2, 1863. He was the second son of journalist Charles McKnight (1826-1881) and Jeanie Reed Baird McKnight (1836-1897) and received his education in grammar and high schools in Sewickley and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Charles McKnight worked first as an office boy with the firm of N. W. Ayer and Son, in Philadelphia, then, at the age of eighteen, started his banking career as an assistant messenger at the Merchants Manufacturers National Bank, on Fourth Avenue, in Pittsburgh. By 1884, he had become a bookkeeper for the bank and was associated with the institution until 1893 when he resigned to establish the National Bank of Western Pennsylvania (reorganized in 1913 as the Western National Bank), where he held the post of cashier. Charles McKnight was elected president of the bank in 1896 and held that position until his retirement circa 1924. He also helped to organize the First National Bank of Sewickley in 1890 and served as one of its vice-presidents. By 1917, he held positions as president of the Carbon Steel Company and Western Coke Company and was treasurer, and later, president, of the Pittsburgh Iron and Steel Foundries Company. During the early years of World War I, Charles McKnight travelled to Europe and obtained the first steel contracts awarded by England to an American firm. He was active in the Clearing House Association of Pittsburgh, a director of the Midland Steel Company and Westinghouse Air Brake Company, and held memberships in the Duquesne Club and Allegheny Country Club in Pittsburgh, the Metropolitan, Recess, and Players' clubs and Union League in New York, and the American Bankers Association. On January 28, 1926, Charles McKnight died of pneumonia in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
On October 31, 1888, Charles McKnight married Eliza Cochran "Kitty" Wilson, the elder daughter of Samuel Jennings and Daisy Wilson. She was born on September 30, 1860, in Allegheny, attended the Allegheny Female Seminary, then graduated from the Pennsylvania Female [later Chatham] College in 1880. After their marriage, the McKnights lived in Sewickley until 1895 when they moved to neighboring Osborne and occupied a new house built by the architectural firm of Longfellow, Alden Harlow, at 1107 Beaver Road, on land originally belonging to Robert H. and Eliza Cochran Davis.
Although most of her time was spent in raising her family and housekeeping matters, Eliza C. McKnight was active in the Presbyterian church and pursued an intellectual life, writing, speaking, and participating tirelessly in the Monday Class, Query Club, and Twentieth Century Club. She had a particular interest in the Woman's Club of Sewickley Valley, which she helped to organize in 1897, and held a number of its offices, including president, vice-president, corresponding secretary, and chairman of the Department of Literature. She was also involved in charitable and philanthropic works, serving as a member of the board and secretary for the Protestant Orphan Asylum of Pittsburgh and Allegheny, corresponding secretary of the Woman's Missionary Society of the Presbyterian Church of Sewickley, Pa., and secretary of the board of the Woods Run Vacation School in Allegheny. Eliza C. McKnight died of heart failure on April 22, 1926.
The McKnights had five children: Rachel Lowrie McKnight Simmons (1889-1979), Charles McKnight, Jr. (1891-1969), Robert Wilson McKnight (1895-1970), Eleanor Baird Wilson McKnight Shumaker (b. 1897), and Francis Harlan McKnight (b. 1900).
Rachel Lowrie McKnight Simmons (1889-1979)
The oldest child of Charles and Eliza C. McKnight, Rachel Lowrie McKnight, was born on November 16, 1889. She attended the Baldwin School, in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, and then graduated from Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, in 1912. From 1918 to 1920, Rachel McKnight studied nursing at the Pittsburgh Training School for Nurses of the Homeopathic Medical and Surgical Hospital. She then became a licensed registered nurse in Pennsylvania in 1920 and New York State in 1921. On January 28, 1921, she married electrical engineer Donald MacLaren Simons (1889-1961); the name was changed to "Simmons" in the late 1920s. Rachel Simmons received an M.A. from Columbia University in 1930 and a Ph.D. from Columbia University Teachers College in 1934; her dissertation was published in 1940 as A study of a group of children of exceptionally high intelligence quotient in situations partaking of the nature of suggestion. Her later years were spent in Sewickley, Pennsylvania. Rachel Lowrie McKnight Simmons died in 1979.
Donald and Rachel Simmons had two children: Donald MacLaren Simmons (b. 1922) and Mary Elizabeth ("Daisy") Simmons Ford (b. 1925).
Charles McKnight, Jr. (1891-1969)
Charles McKnight, Jr., was born on September 16, 1891. He attended the Lawrenceville School in New Jersey, graduating in 1909. During World War I, he served in France with the 21st Machine Gun Battalion and was recommended for the Croix de Guerre. He married Mary McGill DeLong (b. 1896) on August 5, 1918. In the early 1920s, Charles McKnight, Jr., was on the staff of the Carbon Steel Company; by 1923, he was employed by the International Nickel Company in New York. Most of the McKnights' later life was spent in Fork, Maryland. Charles McKnight, Jr., died on October 10, 1969.
Charles and Mary McKnight had one adopted son, Malcolm McC. McKnight.
Robert Wilson McKnight (1895-1970)
Robert Wilson McKnight was born on August 20, 1895. He attended the Hotchkiss School, the Morristown School, and Princeton University. His college career was interrupted by service during World War I. He graduated from Princeton in 1920, then went to work for Dillon, Read Company, a Pittsburgh marketing firm. In 1924, he founded and became vice-president of McKnight, Robinson Company, an advertising firm in Pittsburgh. On August 6, 1921, Robert W. McKnight married Rachel Murdoch Arrott (b. 1896); the McKnights lived in Sewickley, Pennsylvania. He died in 1970.
The Robert McKnights had four children: Anne Arrott McKnight Crampton Murdock (b. 1922), Mary Rachel McKnight Berg (1923-1992), Charles McKnight (1926-1945), and Sally Harlan Baird McKnight Nimick Himes (1929-1987).
Eleanor Baird Wilson McKnight Shumaker (b. 1897)
Eleanor Baird Wilson McKnight was born on October 8, 1897; among her family she was usually known as "Ony." She graduated from Smith College in 1919 and, on March 25, 1922, married a naval officer, Samuel Robert Shumaker (1894-1944). Most of her life was spent in Washington, D.C.
Sam and Eleanor Shumaker had three children: Eliza Cochran Shumaker Soyster (b. 1923), Margaret Blair Shumaker Dickey Nalle (b. 1925), and Samuel Robert Shumaker, Jr. (b. 1930).
Francis Harlan McKnight (b. 1900)
The youngest child of Charles and Eliza C. McKnight, Francis Harlan (generally referred to as "Pud" or "Puddie") was born on August 2, 1900. Like his brother, Robert, he attended the Morristown School and then Princeton University, graduating in 1922. He joined his father's Western National Bank in 1923. On June 3, 1926, Francis H. McKnight married Frederica or Frida Lucci. The McKnights lived in California.
Francis H. and Frida McKnight had two daughters: Laura Lucci McKnight Stabler (b. 1927) and Jeanie Baird McKnight (b. 1928).
Scope and Content Notes
The Papers of the McKnight Family include personal letters, business correspondence, diaries, financial material, literary manuscripts and typescripts, poetry, leases and other legal documents, minutes, reports, and other archival records of the Protestant Orphan Asylum of Pittsburgh and Allegheny, the Woman's Club of Sewickley Valley, and Woman's Missionary Society of the Presbyterian Church of Sewickley, Pa., and printed ephemera documenting the lives and experiences of members of the McKnight, Davis, Wilson, and Simmons families of Allegheny, Osborne, and Sewickley, Pennsylvania, from 1831 to 1974.
The bulk of the collection documents the life of Eliza C. McKnight (1860-1926) and describes her marriage with banker and industrialist Charles McKnight (1863-1926), relations with her five children, friendship with Philadelphia missionary worker Rachel Lowrie (1861?-1957), and struggle to reconcile the demands of family life with her personal intellectual and literary ambitions.
Arrangement
This collection consists of five series, designated for papers of members of the Davis family, Wilson family, Charles McKnight, Eliza Cochran Wilson McKnight, and Rachel Lowrie McKnight Simmons and the other McKnight children, respectively.
The McKnight Family Papers are housed in 103 archival boxes.
Conditions Governing Access
This collection is open for research.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
These materials came in six accessions and were combined into one body of papers in 1997.
Acc# 1992.016 Gift of Ms. Anne McKnight Murdock, (McKnight Family Genealogical Papers. Ms. Murdock is the daughter of Robert W. McKnight and granddaughter of Charles and Eliza C. McKnight).
Acc# 1992.0163 Gift of Ms. Anne McKnight Murdock, (Eliza Cochran Davis and Daisy Wilson Papers).
Acc# 1992.0279 Gift of Ms. Anne McKnight Murdock, (Papers removed from McKnight House in Sewickley, Pa.).
Acc# 1993.0068 Purchase from Mr. John Schulman, Caliban Book Shop, (Robert W. McKnight Papers).
Acc# 1996.0206 Gift of Ms. Mary Elizabeth Ford, (Rachel L. Simmons Diaries, Charles McKnight Business and Personal Correspondence, and Contents of Eliza C. McKnight's Desk. Ms. Ford is the daughter of Rachel L. Simmons and granddaughter of Charles and Eliza C. McKnight).
Acc# 1996.0346 Gift of Ms. Anne McKnight Murdock, (Photographic print of S. J. Wilson).
Preferred Citation
Papers of the McKnight Family, 1831-1974 (bulk 1880-1926), MSS #250, Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania
Processing Information
This collection was processed by Jack Eckert on August 18, 1997.
Revision and rearrangement for the encoded version of the finding aid provided by Martha L. Berg on February 1, 2000.
Conditions Governing Use
Property rights reside with the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania. Literary rights are retained by the creators of the records and their heirs. For permissions to reproduce or publish, please contact the curator of the Archives.
Subjects
Corporate Names
Chatham College -- Students.
Presbyterian Church -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh -- Clergy.
Presbyterian Church -- Missions -- China.
Presbyterian Church -- Missions -- India.
Princeton Univesity -- Students.
Smith College -- Students.
Baldwin School -- Students.
Lawrenceville School -- Students.
Presbyterian Church of Sewickley, Pa. -- Woman's Missionary Society.
Protestant Orphan Asylum of Pittsburgh and Allegheny.
United States. -- Army. -- Infantry, 119th.
United States. -- Army. -- Machine Gun Battalion, 21st.
Woman's Club of Sewickley Valley.
Carbon Steel Company.
Chatham College.
First National Bank of Sewickley.
Longfellow, Alden Harlow (Firm).
Monday Class.
Osborne Mission School.
Query Club.
State Federation of Pennsylvania Women.
Twentieth Century (Pittsburgh, Pa.).
Western National Bank (Pittsburgh, Pa.).
Western Theological Seminary of the Presbyterian Church.
Woods Run Vacation School.
Personal Names
McKnight family.
Davis, Eliza Cochran, -- 1815-1899.
Davis, Hugh, -- 1777-1862.
Davis, Robert H. -- (Robert Hudman), -- 1814-1881.
Knox, Philander C. -- (Philander Chase), -- 1853-1921.
Lowrie, Rachel, -- 1861-1957.
McKnight, Charles, -- 1863-1926.
McKnight, Eliza Cochran Wilson, -- 1860-1926.
Simmons, Rachel M. -- (Rachel McKnight), -- 1889-1979.
Wilson, Daisy Davis, -- 1838-1880.
Wilson, Samuel Jennings, -- 1828-1883.
Abbott, William L.
Alexander, Harriet K.
Baldwin, Mary.
Brown, Charles W. -- (Charles William), -- 1858-1928.
Bryan, Kate P. -- (Kate Plumer), -- 1831-1898.
Davis, Morrison Swift, -- 1845?-1919.
Davis family.
Faris, W.W. -- William Wallace, -- 1843-1925.
Faust, Frederick DeC. -- (Frederick DeCourcey).
Harlow, Beth D.
Hilliard, H.R. -- Henry Raymond, -- b.1890.
Holdship, C.F. -- (Charles Frederick).
Holmes, Catharine S.
Hukill, Ralph V.
Jeffers, W.H.
Kitchel, Alice Lloyd.
Lowry family.
McKnight, Charles, -- 1826-1881.
McKnight, Francis H. -- (Francis Harlan), -- b.1900.
McKnight, Charles, -- 1891-1969.
McKnight, Robert Wilson, -- 1895-1970.
Miller, Jane Davis, -- 1840-1892.
Patterson, Margie.
Penrose, Boies, -- 1860-1921.
Reisinger, Clarence.
Schwartz, Em. L. -- (Emma L.), -- d.1921.
Shumaker, Eleanor Baird Wilson McKnight, -- b. 1897.
Simmons, Donald M. -- (Donald MacLaren), -- 1889-1961.
Smith, Esther Ann.
Totten, Louise.
Tuthill, Charles Woodward, -- 1894-1985.
Walker, Jane Dill Wilson, -- 1864-1943.
Wardrop, James R.
Warfield, Annie K.
Watterson, Henry, -- 1840-1921.
Whitehead, Dorothy P.
Willard, Rebekah Boggs Davis, -- 1842-1908.
Wilson, D.R.
Wilson, Robert D. -- (Robert Davis), -- 1860-1890.
Wilson, Robert Dick, -- 1856-1930.
Wilson family.
Wylie, Jennie C., -- d.1925.
Geographic Names
Allegheny (Pa.) -- Social life and customs.
Sewickley (Pa.) -- Social life and customs.
Adirondack Mountains (N.Y.) -- Description and travel.
Cuba -- Description and travel.
Europe -- Description and travel.
Jamiaca -- Decription and travel.
Osborne (Pa.) -- Social life and customs.
Sewickley (Pa.) -- Intellectual life.
Sewickley (Pa.) -- Social life and customs.
Other Subjects
Banks and banking -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh.
Charities -- Pennsylvania -- Allegheny County.
Steel industry and trade -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh.
Women -- Pennsylvania -- Sewickley.
Women missionaries -- China.
Women missionaries -- India.
World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives, American.
