Jesse Knight

Jesse Knight (1845-1921)

Jesse Knight was a "humbug miner" and Brigham Young University benefactor. Photograph courtesy Utah State Historical Society.

Family Background

1845. September 6: Born in Nauvoo, Illinois, to Newel Knight and Lydia Goldthwait. His parents' wedding was the first marriage performed by Joseph Smith.

Jesse's father died crossing the plains in 1847. Brigham Young appointed a family to care for one of Lydia's wagons and ox teams, but when they arrived in Utah the family insisted that President Young had given them the wagon and oxen. Despite pleas to the Church president, the property was never returned, and Jesse remained disaffected from the Church for nearly forty years as a result.

The Knight family moved to Provo when Jesse was twelve. At the age of fifteen, he began working as a freighter in Nevada and Montana. In 1867 he fought in the Blackhawk War in Sanpete County, Utah. He married Amanda McEwan in 1869; they had six children.

Conversion

1891. Amanda was a faithful Latter-day Saint, but Jesse professed to "have no faith in the Church." Then a dead rat contaminated the well at the Knight family home in Payson, Utah. The children became seriously ill, with high fever and chills—probably from typhoid fever. Jennie, the youngest, was given up to death by her attending physician, but the faithful Amanda pleaded with Jesse to call in the elders for administration. When he finally did, the child was healed.

Jesse records: "Soon after the miraculous healing of Jennie, our oldest girl, Minnie, was stricken, and a little later all the other children at once lay very sick. From the time she was taken ill, Minnie felt that she would not recover. When asked why she felt so, she answered that when Jennie was so bad she had asked God to take her if she would do as well as Jennie; so she counted the days, believing she would live but thirty days from the time she took sick.

"Every day she kept the count, and departed as she had said. Her going was peaceful, her breath leaving her as she said the prayer, 'Oh God, bless our household.' I remembered now that when she was a baby she had diphtheria, and that then, almost seventeen years ago, I had promised the Lord that if he would spare her life I would not forget him. I had not kept that promise. How keenly I felt the justice of her being taken from us! I suffered in my feeling. I prayed for forgiveness and help. My prayer was answered and I received a testimony."

"Humbug Miner"

1869. Prospecting on the east side of Godiva Mountain near Eureka, Utah, Knight sat down under a tree to rest. Suddenly he heard a voice: "This country is here for the Mormons." A short time later, he dreamed about a rich vein of ore. The location was indelibly impressed on his mind, and when he went there, it was exactly as he had dreamed.

When he offered Jacob Roundy a partnership in the mine, the experienced Roundy replied, "I do not want an interest in a darned old humbug like this." "Humbug" struck Knight's fancy, and when a 150-foot shaft was completed, he christened it "Humbug Mine."

Two months later Knight and his partners struck a fabulously rich vein of lead and silver ore. Removing the first wheelbarrow of ore himself, Knight declared, "I have done the last day's work that I ever expect to do where I take another man's job from him. I expect to give employment and make labor from now on for other people."

"Uncle Jesse" then proceeded to make good a promise he had made to himself a few years before. He paid his back tithing, with compound interest. President Heber J. Grant later disclosed that Knight paid a lifetime tithe of $680,000—more than the entire Church tithes collected in 1893.

Entrepreneur

Knight became the largest owner of mining properties in the Intermountain West. In 1901 he purchased 226,000 acres of land and built the second sugar factory in Canada at Raymond, a town named after his son. He also purchased 30,000 acres of land near Spring Coulee, Alberta, where he grazed over 4000 head of cattle.

Other ventures included the Tintic Smelting Company, Knight Consolidated Power, Mapleton Sugar, Layton Sugar, Bonneville Mining, Knight Woolen Mills, Ellison Ranching, Spring Canyon Coal, and Knight Trust and Savings, which eventually merged with the First Security Bank.

Church Benefactor

1896. The Edmunds-Tucker Act of 1887 stripped the Church of its legal standing and confiscated all Church assets in excess of $50,000. The Church, over $300,000 in debt, found loans next to impossible to obtain. The panic of 1893 compounded financial difficulties: tithing dropped from $879,394 in 1890 to $576,584. Only secured loans from the Eastern financial giant H.B. Claflin Company prevented the Church from bankruptcy.

When the Claflin note came due in 1895, the Church was able to meet only the first principal payment. "Uncle Jesse" loaned $10,000 to save the Church's credit. Eventually the Claflin note was paid off with Church stock in Saltair Beach and the Salt Lake and Los Angeles Railway.

Two years later Knight loaned the Church another $10,000 to protect the reputations of Joseph F. Smith, Francis M. Lyman, and Abraham H. Cannon, who were in an awkward position in the bankruptcy of the Utah Loan and Trust Company of Ogden.

Brigham Young University Benefactor

1901. After ten years on the board of trustees, Knight became vice-president of Brigham Young University. He donated $65,000 to help construct the Karl G. Maeser Memorial Building, and in 1914 he endowed BYU with an additional $100,000.

Death

1921. March 14: Jesse Knight died in Provo, Utah, at the age of seventy-six. Buried in the Provo City Cemetery.

1960. The Jesse Knight Building at Brigham Young University was named in his honor.

Sources
Allen, James B., and Leonard, Glen M. The Story of the Latter-day Saints. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1976.
Butterworth, Edwin, Jr. One Thousand Views of One Hundred Years. Provo: Brigham Young University Press, 1975.
Knight, Jesse William. The Jesse Knight Family. Salt Lake City: Deseret News Press, 1940.

	A Book of Mormons Richard S. Van Wagoner and Steven C. Walker Copyright 1982, Signature Books Salt Lake City, Utah Contents

	Family Background 1845. September 6: Born in Nauvoo, Illinois, to Newel Knight and Lydia Goldthwait. His parents' wedding was the first marriage performed by Joseph Smith. Jesse's father died crossing the plains in 1847. Brigham Young appointed a family to care for one of Lydia's wagons and ox teams, but when they arrived in Utah the family insisted that President Young had given them the wagon and oxen. Despite pleas to the Church president, the property was never returned, and Jesse remained disaffected from the Church for nearly forty years as a result. The Knight family moved to Provo when Jesse was twelve. At the age of fifteen, he began working as a freighter in Nevada and Montana. In 1867 he fought in the Blackhawk War in Sanpete County, Utah. He married Amanda McEwan in 1869; they had six children. Conversion 1891. Amanda was a faithful Latter-day Saint, but Jesse professed to "have no faith in the Church." Then a dead rat contaminated the well at the Knight family home in Payson, Utah. The children became seriously ill, with high fever and chills—probably from typhoid fever. Jennie, the youngest, was given up to death by her attending physician, but the faithful Amanda pleaded with Jesse to call in the elders for administration. When he finally did, the child was healed. Jesse records: "Soon after the miraculous healing of Jennie, our oldest girl, Minnie, was stricken, and a little later all the other children at once lay very sick. From the time she was taken ill, Minnie felt that she would not recover. When asked why she felt so, she answered that when Jennie was so bad she had asked God to take her if she would do as well as Jennie; so she counted the days, believing she would live but thirty days from the time she took sick. "Every day she kept the count, and departed as she had said. Her going was peaceful, her breath leaving her as she said the prayer, 'Oh God, bless our household.' I remembered now that when she was a baby she had diphtheria, and that then, almost seventeen years ago, I had promised the Lord that if he would spare her life I would not forget him. I had not kept that promise. How keenly I felt the justice of her being taken from us! I suffered in my feeling. I prayed for forgiveness and help. My prayer was answered and I received a testimony." "Humbug Miner" 1869. Prospecting on the east side of Godiva Mountain near Eureka, Utah, Knight sat down under a tree to rest. Suddenly he heard a voice: "This country is here for the Mormons." A short time later, he dreamed about a rich vein of ore. The location was indelibly impressed on his mind, and when he went there, it was exactly as he had dreamed. When he offered Jacob Roundy a partnership in the mine, the experienced Roundy replied, "I do not want an interest in a darned old humbug like this." "Humbug" struck Knight's fancy, and when a 150-foot shaft was completed, he christened it "Humbug Mine." Two months later Knight and his partners struck a fabulously rich vein of lead and silver ore. Removing the first wheelbarrow of ore himself, Knight declared, "I have done the last day's work that I ever expect to do where I take another man's job from him. I expect to give employment and make labor from now on for other people." "Uncle Jesse" then proceeded to make good a promise he had made to himself a few years before. He paid his back tithing, with compound interest. President Heber J. Grant later disclosed that Knight paid a lifetime tithe of $680,000—more than the entire Church tithes collected in 1893. Entrepreneur Knight became the largest owner of mining properties in the Intermountain West. In 1901 he purchased 226,000 acres of land and built the second sugar factory in Canada at Raymond, a town named after his son. He also purchased 30,000 acres of land near Spring Coulee, Alberta, where he grazed over 4000 head of cattle. Other ventures included the Tintic Smelting Company, Knight Consolidated Power, Mapleton Sugar, Layton Sugar, Bonneville Mining, Knight Woolen Mills, Ellison Ranching, Spring Canyon Coal, and Knight Trust and Savings, which eventually merged with the First Security Bank. Church Benefactor 1896. The Edmunds-Tucker Act of 1887 stripped the Church of its legal standing and confiscated all Church assets in excess of $50,000. The Church, over $300,000 in debt, found loans next to impossible to obtain. The panic of 1893 compounded financial difficulties: tithing dropped from $879,394 in 1890 to $576,584. Only secured loans from the Eastern financial giant H.B. Claflin Company prevented the Church from bankruptcy. When the Claflin note came due in 1895, the Church was able to meet only the first principal payment. "Uncle Jesse" loaned $10,000 to save the Church's credit. Eventually the Claflin note was paid off with Church stock in Saltair Beach and the Salt Lake and Los Angeles Railway. Two years later Knight loaned the Church another $10,000 to protect the reputations of Joseph F. Smith, Francis M. Lyman, and Abraham H. Cannon, who were in an awkward position in the bankruptcy of the Utah Loan and Trust Company of Ogden. Brigham Young University Benefactor 1901. After ten years on the board of trustees, Knight became vice-president of Brigham Young University. He donated $65,000 to help construct the Karl G. Maeser Memorial Building, and in 1914 he endowed BYU with an additional $100,000. Death 1921. March 14: Jesse Knight died in Provo, Utah, at the age of seventy-six. Buried in the Provo City Cemetery. 1960. The Jesse Knight Building at Brigham Young University was named in his honor. Sources Allen, James B., and Leonard, Glen M. The Story of the Latter-day Saints. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1976. Butterworth, Edwin, Jr. One Thousand Views of One Hundred Years. Provo: Brigham Young University Press, 1975. Knight, Jesse William. The Jesse Knight Family. Salt Lake City: Deseret News Press, 1940.