Andrew Jackson McKnight was born in Jefferson County, near Knoxville, Tennessee and was the last of a family of Sixteen children to depart this life. He served in Company C, ninth regiment, Tennessee Cavalry in the Civil War, when but a boy. He did not take part in the war until the rebels tried to take him captive. He hid away until he could enlist with the union soldiers and served as a private until his honorable discharge, September 11, 1865. He served three years in the army.
October 6, 1864 he was married to Miss Sarah Ellen Mount, of Sevier County, Tennessee, at the home of the bride's parents. To this union nine children were born--five boys and four girls.
A.J., Sarah and first Three Children came to Missouri in 1871 pausing briefly in Ray County finally settling southeast of Braymer.
At the age of 21 S.H. McKnight (son Of A.J. and Sarah) went to Kingfisher OK to stake his homestead. He ran in the Cheyenne- Arapaho run of 1892. In the fall of 1892 he came back to Caldwell County to saw lumber for his shack. In the spring of 1893 he took his lumber back to OK, erected a 12X14 shack near what is now Custer City OK. That fall he came back to Missouri to claim his bride. Miss Rosa Gorty. They were married at the home of the bride on 12/20/1893. In the spring of 1894 Samuel took his bride back to OK. During the twenty years they spent in Oklahoma Sam and Rosa accumulated 560 acres of land. An oil well was drilled on their property in 1920 and was a dry hole. After the farm was sold in 1948 to a Mr Boyd oil was discovered on the property in 1951 and was a booming success. Mr. Boyd is now the Boyd Oil Company of Oklahoma and is still producing gas from wells on the farm. I was told during a visit to Oklahoma that the oil field that was discovered in 1951 produced more that 300 million cubic feet of oil. They made two trips back to Missouri in a covered wagon for visits. In March of 1914 they returned to Missouri with their nine children to make their home. After returning to Missouri and until the farm was sold in 1948 George Bales managed the farm on a share basis. George was Sam and Rosa's brother-in-law. George was married to Rosa's sister Emma. Sam and Rosa and family settled on a farm in the southeast corner of Caldwell County, near the McBee Chapel Community where a daughter, Margurite, was born. In 1920 the McKnights’ purchased a farm from Tom Railsback which was on North Main Street of Braymer where the children attended school. A son Raymond died after they moved to Braymer. After failing health in 1943, they sold the family farm to their son Curtis and moved to the southeast part of Braymer. Sam died 16 April 1944 and Rosa died 25 July 1949. Both are buried in the Evergreen Cemetery, Braymer Missouri.
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