Jefferson County PA Archives Biographies.....KNAPP, Moses 1778 - 1847
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  File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
  Nancy Lorz honeypete@certainty.net April 27, 2005, 9:04 pm
  
  Author: Ernest O. Knapp
  
  Relative Gives Account of Life of Moses Knapp
  
  The relative has furnished us with a short biographical account of the life of 
  Moses Knapp, one of the four original settlers of what is now Brookville.  The 
  account follows:
  
  The Jefferson county atlas includes a biography of Moses Knapp, among the 
  prominent citizens of the county.  The first paragraph reads as follows:
  
  "In the spring of 1796 Andrew and Joseph Barnett, Samuel Scott and Moses Knapp 
  left the mouth of Pine Creek on the West Branch of the Sesquehanna, (sic) in 
  Lycoming county, and wended [their] waywith their effects, to the confluence of 
  Mill Creek with the Sandy Lick, now Port Barnett for the purpose of 
  establishing a settlement.  Three days after their arrival, Andrew Barnett was 
  taken sick with cholera morbus and died.  He was buried on the bank of the Red 
  Bank, a few rods below the mouth of Mill Creek, and this was the first white 
  man that died in the place.  His grave is yet pointed out to the curious, as 
  the first white man's grave"
  
  According to the account the "death of Andrew Barnett cast a gloom over those 
  who had come with him."  They were discouraged and considered returning to the 
  Sesquehanna but finally remain.  Samuel Scott was a millwright by trade and was 
  assisted in his work by Moses Knapp, who was then about nineteen years of age.  
  They first built a mill on Mill Creek.  The mill was owned by Scott.
  
  Moses Knapp exhibited considerable mechanical ingenuity in his work, and soon 
  built a mill for himself on North Fork Creek.  He left his mill stand idle 
  during a winter (likely 1800-1801) while he went to Indiana, Pa., to attend a 
  term of school.  While there he became acquainted with Miss Susan Matson, a 
  daughter of Uriah Matson.
  
  The acquaintance soon ripened into an engagement, and Moses Knapp and Susan 
  Matson were married.  She returned with him to Port Barnett.  He build a cabin 
  near his mill and there the young couple commenced housekeeping.
  
  Knapp continued to be active in the lumber business and ran the first raft of 
  sawed lumber out of Red Bank Creek.  The planks were used to sheet one of the 
  first dams on the Monongahela River.  Knapp would frequently take a canoe along 
  with him to Pittsburgh.  There he would load his canoe with supplies purchased 
  for his home, and would then paddle the canoe up the Allegheny iver and Red 
  Bank Creek.
  
  Moses Knapp sold his original mill and "betterments" and moved to a new 
  location at the mouth of North Fork Creek.  A clipping in the possession of the 
  writer (date and origin unknown) reads, "the first white person to settle in 
  what is now Brookville was Moses Knapp, who build a log house about 1801 at the 
  mouth of North Fork creek.  In this log cabin was born the first white child in 
  what is now Brookville, Pa."  Ten children were born in the vicinity of 
  Brookville and the eleventh child, Eliza Ann, was born at Dowlingville, now 
  Baxter, in 1823.
  
  In the spring of 1821 Moses Knapp moved to Dowlingville, which was located 
  along Red Bank Creek about five miles from Brookville.  Here he continued his 
  lumber business but misfortune soon came in the way of a serious accident.  
  While cutting timber he got a foot and leg crushed so badly that an amputation 
  became necessary.  A Doctor Stewart from Indiana, and a Dictor (sic) Ranki of 
  Licking (now Clarion, Pa.) performed the operation in the summer of 1821.  This 
  was, in all probability the first surgical operation performed in Jefferson 
  county.
  
  When the doctors decided to amputate they were without a saw.  One of the boys 
  was sent to borrow one and returned with a small miter saw.  At that early date 
  anesthesia had not come into use so the doctors gave their patient a liberal 
  amount of whiskey.  The sons then held their father while the limb was 
  amputated.  The saw used in the operation bore the trade-mark "Made by H. Hull, 
  Sheffield, England."  The late Dr. A. J. Simpson, of Summerville, Pa., owned 
  the saw for many years.  He had it reconditioned and exhibited it to the 
  Jefferson County Medical Society.  At the present time the saw is owned by 
  James Simpson, Summerville, Pa.
  
  Moses Knapp recovered from the operation and whittled for himself a "peg leg" 
  with which he got along quite well.  He was very active for one so handicapped, 
  and carried on his work for many more years.  He died in 1847 and was buried in 
  what is now known as the old Jefferson cemetery, and which is located near 
  Baxter, Pa.
  
  >From the Jeffersonian Democrat, Brookville, PA., Saturday, June 25, 1955
  
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