• w •B/0WAPHK4L AffD Pidf£/<//\L /£!*•£ k'kivir.K^ (J I t- (fii&fM KtrhfP Gilbert Knapp was torn in Chatham, Cape Cod, Mass., December 3, I79S; he was the son of John and Sarah Knapp, both of whom were descended from English ancestors who settled in the east early in tfee I8th. century. His father was a captain in the Revolutionary war, it the end of which he became commander.of a merchant vessel trading with European ports. His mother was a daughter of Elijah Smith, a substantial merchant of Barnstable, Mass, Mm /faVAi @&RJsJ£M Gilbert Knapp had a common school education and amde a special study of the science of navigation* When I5 years of age he went to sea in a ship commanded by his uncle - a Captain Childs. In the war of 1812 he was master's mate on the Leo, a privateer with 17 guns and 150 men, Captain De Sonne, a Frenchman, commanding. The Leo was chartered by the government to carry dispatches to Prance, and was required to run the blockade into French ports. He made three success I ive voyages in this boat, during one of which a British, with a half- million dollar cargo of Chinese silks and cochineal, and #40,000. in gold was captured. The crew lost this prize however, except the money, as before the ship could be sailed to a home port she was re­ taken by a British ship. Captain Knapp participated in many engage­ ments during the tar of 1812, In 1818 Captain Knapp was induced by his friends in the Revenue nearly Marine to ship on a lake cutter, and after.two years of preliminary service he was commissioned Captain, and given command of the cutter A. J. Dallas, After a year at Detroit station he was ordered to Mack­ inac to look after some illicit fur trafficking that was being car­ ried on in that region, which he suppressed, after confiscating a 1 • large amount of contraband goods. In 1827 Capt. Knapp retired to pri~ ( I) private life. PdurtCAL CAREER, In 1835 the territory of Wisconsin was separated from Michigan, and Captain Knapp was elected to represent the county of Milwaukee in the senate of the first territorial legislature,Milwaukee county then covering the whole xsatkxluuuCKalxXlssBxatxxJUixxitaxyx territory now Included in the counties of Milwaukee, Racine, Kenosha, Rock and Walworth. He was also a member of the legislature which met in 1837 "-8 at Burlington, Iowa, then a part of the territory of Wisconsin. The first territorial legislature was convened at Belmont, Iowa county, October 25, 1836, and adjourned December 9> following. Captain Knapp was offerred the nomination for congressman from this district, but United StaKs declined in favor of George W. Jones, who was later elected k&xi&s • senator from Wisconsin. ( Qj From 1840 to 1845, and from 1849 to I853> Captain Knapp was again in the revenue service. After the latter date he was in private life until the out-break of the War of the Rebellion, when he commanded the "Dobbins", in which ship he served on blockade duty on the Capes for some time. Later he was in command of the "Morris" at Boston Har­ bor. After the war he was stationed on the Lakes until 1874, when he retired, finally, to private life. y//s 7/fMMY ±/F£ Captain Knapp was married in April, 1821, to Maria Annan, daughter of Robert J. Annan, of Annandale, Scotland, sne died in II828, at (ffvW) r.ftfl) Footnote;- An account of Captain1 Knapp1 s experiences in founding " the city of Racine is given elsewhere in this history^ ry/TH SON\E £J7/- /V\Are or HIS c/^/iH/^c7i'^, Erie, pa., leaving four children;- Robert Annan, born Mar. 3, 1822, who was a midshipman in the U. S. Navy; later in the railroad busines in Racine, being an officer in the Racine, Jamesville & Mississippi Railroad. He died in Racine in August, I876. The second son, Gilbert, studied law, but not liking that profess­ ion engaged in farming and became a planter near Little Rock, Ark.*, Mary Annan, Capt. Knapp1s daughter, married Alexander McClurg , of Racine. in 1831 Capt. Knapp married a sister of his first wife, who died a year later. On Oct. 25, 1837* he married Almira Meach, at Clinton, N.Y. She was a cultivated woman, highly esteemed by all who knew her. In pioneer days she conducted a high-class private school 3—P—iI for young ladies. Later, as a leader in society, she entertained with lavish hospitality. She died in December I876. UBA TH & r CA P r. Kt/A P P Capt. Knapp died in Racine July 31, 1887, &nd the funeral was held on August 3, following, at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Mary Annan Knapp McClurg. Flags were flown half-mast from the public buildings and from ships in the harbor. The men from the Racine Business Men^S Association, the Old Settlers* Society, the City Council, and the m*m crew of the revenue cutter "Andy Johnson" attended in bodies. His on­ ly son Gilbert, from Arkansas, was also in attendance. The sermon *as preached by Rev. Mr. schultze. The honorary pail-bearers were James R. Doolittie, Charles E. Dyer, Jerome 1. Case, Mayor D. A. Olin, Fred M. Knapp, John M. Osgood, and the officers of the "Andy Johnson", as follows;- Capt. J. G. Baker, Lieuts. J.S.Baldwin, Edmund Burke and J. H. Starkweather. Six members of the crew of the revenue cutter acte d as pall-bearers. Juj) QES £A<J£ Mi> IJN* PP On Sept. 6, 1834, Milwaukee County was set off from Brown County, and included within its limits the whole south-eastern por­ tion of WlsconslnTerrltory - about one hundred square miles, which was then a part of Michigan Territory. On the same day that the a«* bove act was approved by the governor of Michigan, he appointed County, the officials for MilwaukeeA among whom were two Racine men,- Joel Sage, Associate Justice, and Gilbert Knapp, Judge of Probate. Gilbert Knapp was, therefore,the first county judge of Milwaukee County, and a large portrait of Aim still hangs on the wall of the Court House in that city, with those of others who followed him in that office. In I836 Wisconsin was made a territory,and 1$ is likely that Messrs. Sage and Knapp had 11 tie occasion, to exercise the duties of their offices during the brief Interval in which they were held* @ John Tabor Kingston, son of Paul Kingston, was born in St.Claire county, I|2*, January 31, ISI9. It will be noted by reference to the sketch of his father, that he came of rugged pioneer stock, in I832 his father undertook to remove, with his family, from central Illinois to Chicago, but because of the Sauk Indian War did not reach there until the spring of 1333. In his fifteenth year John Kingston left home to seek his fortune in the territory of Wiscon­ sin, locating at the mouth of Root River in the winter of I834-5, where he made a claim and built a house. Later in the winter he visited his father's home in Illinois, returning to Racine in March 1835, where he made his home for the next seven years. While on a visit to Racine in 1882,(at which time he was aresident of Nece- dah, and a state senator) in recalling old times, he said that in the late thirties he had a potato patch where the FirstIM.E.Church now stands, at the northwest corner of Main and Eighth streets, and that he had to stand night-watch with a musket, to keep Chica- (I) go Indians from stealing them. In 1842, Mr. Kingston removed to Grand Rapids, and in 1848 to Necedah, of which city he is reputed to have been the founder, and which was his home during the remainder of his life. He held numer­ ous county and state offices, being several times a member of the Legislature. He died in Necedah in I899» Surviving members of his family and descendants are still resident there* (I) Foot-note;- See Racine Journal,Feby. 22, 1882. < Paul Kingston was born in 1783, a native of the county of Cork, Ireland, with English blood on one side and French Huguenot on the other. He came to the United States in 1805; two years la­ ter he came west and settled at St. Genevieve, Missouri, in I807# engaging with his brother in the mercantile business, freighting to and from New Orleans, and making occasional trips up Red River, the Ohio, and other tributaries of the Mississippi, in I8II he crossed the Mississippi and settled at Kaskaskla, 111.,and fin­ ally removed to the territory of Wisconsin, settling in Racine in the spring of 1835. The exact length of Paul Kingston's residence in Racine is not definitely known, but it was probably about twelve years. He ivas one of the founders of the First Methodist Episcopal Church here. Alanson Filer, a well-known pioneer of Racine, married a daughter of Paul Kingston* (h kj Nelson Adams Walker, Racine county pioneer, was born in Rutlati. county, Vt., April 20, 1807. He married Lucinda Taggart, in Byron, Genesee county, In August, 1834. in October, 1835 Mr. Walker came to Racine, haDing walked all of the way from Toledo, Ohio, and set­ tled on a claim in Yorkville, at Ives Grove, where he lived until 1838, when he moved to another clain in Mt.Pleasant. In the spring of I839 he moved to a farm in Mount Pleasant within three miles his from the mouth of Root River, which became hi .permanent home, where his children were born; their names were;- Robert Mosely, Jane, who married Milo George, George, William H.