Thomas S. Knap

From the earliest settlement of Brownville, there have been found there a greater number of men of culture and weight of character than usually falls to the lot of a village of its size. Prominent among this class of men was

THOMAS S. KNAP

Those who knew Mr. Knap remember him as a man of remarkable social power. His fine physical development, noble bearing, and dignified manner, with his cultured mind and rare “common sense", made him an acquisition in the social circle, and a recognized power in the community.

In 1829, Mr. Knap came from his home in New Berlin, New York, to take charge of the business of his brother, Tracy S. Knap, whose inform health obliged him to relinquish business for a time. Mr. Knap gave his attention to the manufacture of linseed oil, and for this purpose engaged the farmers in the vicinity to cultivate large crops of flax. To utilize and prepare the flax, “a long stretch of wooden troughs, about fifteen feet wide, ten feet high, and thirty rods long (as remembered by the narrator), were arranged in what was called “Philomel creek woods"; these troughs were filled with the stalks of flax, divested of its seed, and water from the creek was made to flow into this trough, for the purpose of rotting the glutinous part of the plant and setting the fibre free, thus fitting it for the purposes of a neighboring rope-walk.” The flax-seed was converted into linseed oil by being crushed under heavy burr-stones, and the remaining oil-cake converted into feed for horses and cows.

In addition to the manufacture of linseed oil, and by far the more important business in which he was engaged, was the manufacture of white lead and lithic paints. This occupied a period of about twelve years, from 1838 to 1850. In 1851, Mr. Knap left Brownville for Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to become associated with his brother, Charles Knap, of the Fort Pitt Iron Works. His family were prepared to follow him, when the community was startled by the news of his death from cholera.

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Transcribed by Holice B. Young from Jefferson Co. History by L. H. Everts.