John C. Knight, M. D.
After graduating with the Class of 1881 from the Kentucky School of Medicine, Dr. Knight first offered his professional services to the community of Jonesboro, where he was already known as a hard working student and later as a teacher. Patronage was not long in coming, and for thirty years he has been well established, not only as a first-class doctor, but as a man of influential citizenship. Of the physicians in practice at Jonesboro, when he opened office, all are now gone, and he is therefore Dean of the local fraternity. Dr. Knight has membership and is a former President of the County Medical Association, while he is a member of the Untied States District Examining Board for Marine and Military Service.
John C. Knight was born in Madison County, Indiana, October 24, 1856. His education was acquired in the Grant County schools, and owing to the early loss of his parents he was reared largely in the homes of friends and began doing for himself when a boy. His father, Sebborn G. Knight, was born in the County of Essex at Colchester, England, about 1820, and was the only one of his family to leave England and establish a home in America. He grew up and was educated in his native locality, and when a young man of about eighteen years started for the United States, making the voyage in a sailing vessel, and from the Atlantic Coast came on to Grant county and finally established himself in Madison County, of one of the very earliest families there, and after their marriage they located on a farm in Grant County but eventually returned to Madison County where the mother died in 1858 while in middle life. The father died there in 1860. They were good Christian people, and their family of children are states as follows:
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William, who died in Iowa, in 1909 at the age of fifty-six was a farmer, and left three children as follows: John E., Birnet D., wife of William Dove, and Glenn, all of whom live in Iowa, and are married with the exception of Glenn.
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Mary E., the second child, married Sylvanis C. Thompson, who died November 25, 1913, and she now lives in Marion.
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Dr. John C. Knight was the next in order of birth.
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Charles E., a Grant County farmer in Jefferson Township, had by his first marriage, a daughter, Josephine, who is now the wife of Charles Lloyd of Fairmount.
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One daughter was born to the doctor's father by a second wife, and is now Mrs. Elizabeth Davidson of Fairmount.
Dr. Knight was fostered through his childhood and youth largely by Thomas Harvey and wife of Grant County, who are now deceased. He came to Jonesboro, and by his own efforts attained an education in the high school, and subsequently earned money as a teacher to put him through medical college. He was married in Jonesboro to Miss Josephine Wilson, who was born in 1860 in Grant County, received her education in this vicinity, and her parents were William G. and Keziah (Spence) Wilson, both now deceased. Her father was born in Virginia, and her mother in Ohio, and they were married in Grant County, and died at Jonesboro. William Wilson was one of the early cabinet makers and undertakers at Jonesboro, and his vocation recalls an older custom. In earlier days, at a death, an order was placed with a coffin maker for a coffin according to the proper measurements, since the undertakers carried no stock of such merchandise, and all the coffins were made by hand and to order. William Wilson filled that very important service in the community of Jonesboro for a number of years. The Wilson's were Presbyterians in religion.
Mrs. Knight died at Jonesboro, November 16, 1908. She was for many years an active worker in the Methodist Church, a member of the Ladies Aid and the Missionary Society, and was greatly missed both in church circles and in her home. Dr. Knight and wife had no children. He has membership in the Jonesboro Lodge, No. 109, A. F. & A. M., and the Knight Templar Commandery, belongs to the subordinate Lodge, No. 82, of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows at Jonesboro, and has filled all the chairs in Lodge No. 102 of the Knights of Pythias. A Republican in politics, he has for the past twenty years at different times served as a member of the board of education, and is now secretary of the board.
Source: Centennial History of Grant County Indiana 1812-1912. The Lewis Publishing Co., 1914, page 1113.