An Interesting Talk on Jonathan Knight

 

Pat Chase and Me Standing under a Photo of His Book

This evening at the Washington County Historical Society Research and Educational Center, author and historian Pat Chase spoke about the legacy of Jonathan Knight, (11-22-1787 to 11-22-1858). A Quaker born in Bucks County, Pa. Knight moved west with his parents at age 14 to what is now West Pike Run in Washington County. What made me especially interested in the man was the fact that the house he lived in is a couple miles from my own home. Located across from Hugo's Restaurant, the newer house is an addition Knight never lived in. The older stone house connecting to the more elaborate one is where Knight spent 22 years of his life and eventually died there.

As a young boy of 5 or 6, my grandmother took me to a wake in the newer part of the house, an experience I remember to this day. Little did I know that the man who once owned the property was one of the most prominent residents of Washington County in his day.

In a biography written by Boyd Crumrine, the author writes "about the year 1816 Knight was appointed by the State government of Pennsylvania to make and report a map of Washington County, in order to facilitate the forming of Melish's map of the State. This duty involved much field labor, the instrumental surveys requiring a hundred days in their performance. That service having been satisfactorily performed, he served three years as county commissioner, to which office he was elected by the people. Soon Knight entered civil engineering, and, after assisting in a subordinate station in the preliminary surveys for the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal and in those of the National or Cumberland road, between Cumberland and Wheeling, he was appointed in 1825, by the Federal government, a commissioner to extend that road, and accordingly did extend it from Wheeling through the States of Ohio and Indiana to the eastern line of the State of Illinois.

In 1822 Knight was elected a member of the Legislature of Pennsylvania, and served in the House of Representatives and in the Senate six sessions. In 1826 he resigned his seat in that Senate and entered the service of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, and visited England to acquire knowledge in that then new department of civil engineering. Returning, he accepted the office of chief engineer for that company in 1830, which he held until 1842. Retiring then to the farm, he continued the pursuit of agriculture, for which he was always partial, with only occasional times or absence from home on professional or other calls until 1854, when he was elected to the Thirty-fourth Congress in the Twentieth District of Pennsylvania, composed of Fayette, Greene, and Washington Counties. Having served through the three sessions of that Congress, and failing of a re-election in 1856, he again retired to a rural and private life on the farm at East Bethlehem.

Pat Chase an Me Standing under a Photo of the Knight Property near Centerville

After his talk, Chase opened the floor to question s from the audience and the online viewers. Chase has published a book on Knight titled "Jonathan Knight: Pathfinder of American Roads,: The book is available on amazon.com and on kindle. The entire talk can also be viewed on the Washington County Historical Society Facebook page.