Jesse Knight (6 September 1845 — 14 March 1921) was an American

mining Mining is the Resource extraction, extraction of valuable geological materials and minerals from the surface of the Earth. Mining is required to obtain most materials that cannot be grown through agriculture, agricultural processes, or feasib ...

magnate, one of relatively few Latter-day Saints in 19th century Western America to find major success in the field. After the death of his father Newel Knight, Jesse's family was poor throughout his youth. As a young man, he worked as a prospector and discovered the Humbug Mine in the Tintic Mining District near Eureka,

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

in 1896. As the Humbug proved profitable, he acquired other mines in the vicinity, including the Uncle Sam, Beck Tunnel, Iron Blossom, and Colorado mines. After making his fortune, Knight went on to found the Latter Day Saint settlement of

Raymond Raymond is a male given name of Germanic origin. It was borrowed into English from French (older French spellings were Reimund and Raimund, whereas the modern English and French spellings are identical). It originated as the Germanic ᚱᚨᚷ� ...

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

, Canada. In 1964, he was inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners of the

National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum is a museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States, with more than 28,000 Western and Native American art works and artifacts. The facility also has the world's most extensive collection of Amer ...

Biography

Knight was born in Nauvoo,

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

to Newel and Lydia Knight, two prominent members of

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Restorationism, restorationist Christianity, Christian Christian denomination, denomination and the ...

(LDS Church). When Jesse was one-year-old, his family was forced to flee Nauvoo as

Mormon pioneers The Mormon pioneers were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), also known as Latter-day Saints, who Human migration, migrated beginning in the mid-1840s until the late-1860s across the United States from the ...

under the leadership of

Brigham Young Brigham Young ( ; June 1, 1801August 29, 1877) was an American religious leader and politician. He was the second President of the Church (LDS Church), president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) from 1847 until h ...

. Jesse's father died in

Nebraska Nebraska ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Ka ...

on the

Mormon Trail The Mormon Trail is the route from Illinois to Utah on which Mormon pioneers (members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) traveled from 1846 to 1869. Today, the Mormon Trail is a part of the United States National Trails Syst ...

in January 1847; his mother and eight siblings continued on but were not able to reach their

Salt Lake Valley Salt Lake Valley is a valley in Salt Lake County, Utah, Salt Lake County in the north-central portion of the U.S. state of Utah. It contains Salt Lake City, Utah, Salt Lake City and many of its suburbs, notably Murray, Utah, Murray, Sandy, Uta ...

destination until early 1850. Knight is significant in Western American mining and entrepreneurial history because in several important ways he differed from the stereotypical " robber baron" capitalists of the late-nineteenth century

Gilded Age In History of the United States, United States history, the Gilded Age is the period from about the late 1870s to the late 1890s, which occurred between the Reconstruction era and the Progressive Era. It was named by 1920s historians after Mar ...

. His success, like those of others, depended upon the skillful acquisition and management of such business variables as claims, labor, capital, technology, and government services, and also upon the development of cost-efficient integrated enterprises, such as the Knight Investment Company. However, Knight also owned more

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...

ed mining claims in the Intermountain West than did his counterparts, and he was not inclined to engage in

stock manipulation In economics and finance, market manipulation occurs when someone intentionally alters the supply or demand of a security to influence its price. This can involve spreading misleading information, executing misleading trades, or manipulating ...

like many other mining entrepreneurs and railroad barons. Moreover, his business methods, especially when dealing with working men, were far more paternalistic and benevolent than others in the industry. While many other

company town A company town is a place where all or most of the stores and housing in the town are owned by the same company that is also the main employer. Company towns are often planned with a suite of amenities such as stores, houses of worship, schoo ...

and mine owners often exploited their workers, Knight was known for fair treatment and wages in Knightsville, Utah. He equipped the city with a meetinghouse, amusement hall, and school but insisted the city should not have a saloon as he disapproved of drunkenness. Although Knight's

philanthropy Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives for the Public good (economics), public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private goo ...

was not unique for the period, his generous gifts to

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU) is a Private education, private research university in Provo, Utah, United States. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is the flagship university of the Church Educational System sponsore ...

(an interest he shared with his wife, Amanda) earned him the reputation as a

patron saint A patron saint, patroness saint, patron hallow or heavenly protector is a saint who in Catholicism, Anglicanism, Eastern Orthodoxy or Oriental Orthodoxy is regarded as the heavenly advocate of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, fa ...

of BYU. He also donated freely to his church and to many church-related projects. Furthermore, his comfortable but unostentatious home in

Provo, Utah Provo ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Utah County, Utah, United States. It is south of Salt Lake City along the Wasatch Front, and lies between the cities of Orem, Utah, Orem to the north and Springville, Utah, Springville to the south ...

, did not rival the extravagantly garish

mansion A mansion is a large dwelling house. The word itself derives through Old French from the Latin word ''mansio'' "dwelling", an abstract noun derived from the verb ''manere'' "to dwell". The English word ''manse'' originally defined a property l ...

s built by big businessmen from

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

's Nob Hill to New York's

Fifth Avenue Fifth Avenue is a major thoroughfare in the borough (New York City), borough of Manhattan in New York City. The avenue runs south from 143rd Street (Manhattan), West 143rd Street in Harlem to Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village. The se ...

. Knight was known by the moniker "Uncle Jesse" during his lifetime. In his writing, he expressed a belief that his money was for the purpose of doing good and building up his church; he regarded the matter as a "trusted stewardship." As he once said, "The earth is the Lord's bank, and no man has a right to take money out of that bank and use it extravagantly upon himself." Although he strayed from the LDS Church in his early years and briefly affiliated with the anti-Mormon

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. For example, while the political systems ...

in Utah, he was a devout member for most of his life and helped to save the LDS Church from financial ruin incurred from legal battles with the federal government over control of the Utah territory and issues such as

polygamy Polygamy (from Late Greek , "state of marriage to many spouses") is the practice of marriage, marrying multiple spouses. When a man is married to more than one wife at the same time, it is called polygyny. When a woman is married to more tha ...

. After making his fortune in mining, Knight went on to develop settlement and industry in what is today southern

. In 1901, Knight purchased 30,000 acres (120 km²) of land in Canada's

Northwest Territories The Northwest Territories is a federal Provinces and territories of Canada, territory of Canada. At a land area of approximately and a 2021 census population of 41,070, it is the second-largest and the most populous of Provinces and territorie ...

for $2.50 per acre. On this property he established a ranch; Knight later went on to acquire another 226,000 acres (915 km²) of land near his ranch and established a town built around irrigation farming of sugar beets, which were then processed in a local

sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose Glucose is a sugar with the Chemical formula#Molecular formula, molecul ...

factory that Knight built. The settlement was named ''Raymond'' in honor of his son, Raymond Knight. Within five years, over 1,500 Latter-day Saints—mostly from Utah—had immigrated to Raymond. The town incorporated in 1903, and today Knight is honored as the founder of

Raymond, Alberta Raymond is a town in southern Alberta, Canada that is surrounded by the County of Warner No. 5. It is south of Lethbridge at the junction of Alberta Highway 52, Highway 52 and Alberta Highway 845, Highway 845. Raymond is known for its annual rode ...

. Image:JesseKnightMansion2004ProvoUT.jpg, Knight Mansion - built 1905 in Provo, UT Image:KnightBlock2004ProvoUT.jpg, Knight Block built 1900 downtown Provo, UT

Legacy

* Knightville, Utah - mining town * Knightville Road - Juab County, Utah * Knight Academy - Raymond, Warner County, Alberta, Canada

References

* *Hall of Great Westerners of the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum

External links

Jesse Knight papers, MSS 1434
in the L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library,

{{DEFAULTSORT:Knight, Jesse 1845 births 1921 deaths American emigrants to Canada American mining businesspeople American prospectors Brigham Young University people Canadian Latter Day Saints Canadian prospectors People from Nauvoo, Illinois Knight family (Latter Day Saints) Latter Day Saints from Utah Liberal Party (Utah) politicians Mormon pioneers People from Raymond, Alberta Settlers of Canada Canadian city founders American city founders

Biography

Legacy

See also

References

External links