Capt. Cornelius Knapp, a resident of Albany, was born July 9, r830, in the township of Mooers, Clinton Co., N. Y., and is the third son of Robert and Emily (Frost) Knapp. His father was born in 1792, in Nassau, N. Y., and was brought up in Lansingburg, near the city of Troy. He was a commissioned officer during the war of 1812, and after its close located in Clinton County, where he was a citizen until his removal to Illinois in 1845. He made the journey with his family, comprising his wife and five children, and they set out from Rouse's Point on Lake Champlain, whence they proceeded to Whitehall. They went from there via the Champlain and Erie Canals to Buffalo, and thence on the lakes to Chicago. A farmer brought the party from the Garden City to Whiteside County.
Mr. Knapp bought a tract of Government land in what is now Garden Plain Township, on which he built a small frame house, suited to the times and his means; but it soon gave way to one of more convenient dimensions. On this place which the proprietor placed under excellent improvements, he resided until his death, in 1871, a period of 26 years. The mother was born May 4, 1799, in Rutland, Vt., and she died March 15, 1877, aged 78 years. Their children were five in number. C. Seymour lives in Garden Plain Township, which is also the place of residence of George M., the second son, and of Hiram F. and Mary Almira.
Captain Knapp was 15 years of age when he accompanied his father's family to Whiteside County. In the winter following he attended school at Albany, and in the ensuing summer he was employed as teamster by Capt. W. S. Barnes. He spent the succeeding winter in school at Union Grove. In the spring of 1847 he engaged in rafting on the Mississippi River, and followed that occupation three consecutive seasons, attending school two alternating winters and teaching a third in the school-house in Cedar Creek District. In 1850 he went to California, journeying thither most of the way on foot, supplies, etc., being transported by horse teams. He was enroute three months. He became interested in gold mining and remained on the Pacific coast until the fall of 1853, when he returned via the Isthmus of Panama and New Orleans. In 1854 he once more engaged in his former occupation of rafting on the river, and was engaged in that business until the war. In 1857 he bought an interest in a steamboat, but was not concerned personally in its management. On the advent of civil war, Captain Knapp became master on a freight boat plying between St. Croix, and Burlington, which he conducted one summer. In the winter following he took the boat to Memphis and sold it. Captain Knapp continued in the river service until 1884, operating during the time principally as master and pilot on steamboats. He was engaged two years on the " Diamond Joe" line, which was his only digression from the service above mentioned.
Captain Knapp was married Nov. 22, 1855, to Harriet L. Townley. She was born in Quincy, IlL, and is the daughter of William and Harriet (Huntington) Townley. Her father was born March 5, 1803 in Elizabethtown NJ. Her mother was born in Owega NY March 3, 1808. The family settled in New York in 1833. The two older children of Capt. and Mrs. Knapp, Florence and Mildred C., live in Chicago, William T. lives in Clinton Iowa, Mary L. lives with her parents. Florence is the widow of Harry Leland
Portraits & Biographical
