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Ancestors of Jeffrey Paul Knight

Generation No. 3


      4. Merl Willis Knight, born March 6, 1889 in Manchester, Iowa; died September 1945 in Fort Dodge, Iowa. He was the son of 8. Willis Russell Knight and 9. Viola Adel Holmes (Allen). He married 5. Josephine Helena Keefe August 1, 1912 in Fulton, IL.

      5. Josephine Helena Keefe, born January 21, 1884 in Coalville, Iowa; died December 2, 1962 in University Hospital, Iowa City, IA. She was the daughter of 10. James Michael Keefe and 11. Mary Lynch.

Notes for Merl Willis Knight:
Merl Knight died at age 55 in Webster City, Iowa as noted in the Freeman Journal, 9/27/1944. Merl was a barber and died of complications following an operation. The funeral was at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic church. He was born in Manchester and his family moved to a farm near Alta when he was young.

Merl married Josephine Keefe in Fulton IL in 1812. Them moved to Ft. Dodge and lived there until 1917, when they moved to Storm Lake. They then moved to Webster City in 1922. He was survived by his twin brother Melvin and his sister, Mrs. R. C. Brodmus of Downer's Grove, IL.


Notes for Josephine Helena Keefe:
Parents names documented in Foster's funeral home records.

Document written by Josephine Keefe:

      My father came to Iowa from the small town of Lucan, Bidulph Township, in Middlesex County, Ontario, Canada with his parents, Charles Keefe, Sr., and Julia Toohey Keefe.       He was the oldest of a family of eight children, six being born in Canada and two in Iowa, three boys and five girls. One brother, Tom, died on March 15, 1879 and was buried in Corpus Christi Cemetery in Fort Dodge. The family originally settled in Dubuque arriving there on the 9th of January, 1869.

      Ten days later his father came on to Fort Dodge, coming as far as Iowa Falls on what at that time was the Dubuque and Sioux City Railroad. From Iowa Falls to Fort Dodge, he came on a stage coach.

      The old Dubuque, Sioux City Railroad which is now the Illinois Central came only as far west as Iowa Falls at that time, however, the track was being laid from Iowa Falls westward. The grade of the present Illinois Central was finished to the foot of Central Avenue, then Main Street, in the fall of 1868. Many of my father's age will, no doubt, recall the occasion when the first trains came into Fort Dodge, during the month of June, 1869. Everybody living here at that time celebrated, with a large blow out, the evening of the arrival of that first train. When the track reached Webster City in the spring of 1869, his father having watched for this event, had the family take an emigrant car attached to a construction train, and came on to Webster City in what was the first car to carry passengers. After staying in a small cottage for the night rented from the late Walter Wilson of Webster City, they were met by his father with two team of horses driven by the late Timothy Coleman and Barney Callahan, and brought them overland to Fort Dodge on March 9th, leaving Webster City at about 9am and arriving at Fort Dodge at 3pm of the same day. On their arrival, they moved into a one room log house with a side hill basement on North 8th Street owned by the late John Haire, Sr.

      My father went to school at the old Corpus Christi, at that time taught by a man by the name of Donovan, who together with Father Butler, pastor of Corpus Christi at that time, kept an eye on them all. Attending school with my father were the Haires, Londons, Hogans, Burkes, Noonaus, Nashes, Connors, O'Briens, O'Laughlins, O'Haras, Garahaus, McCabes, Hines, Brennans, Furlongs, and Mulroneys. After going to school for six weeks, he went to work carrying water at a little over twelve years of age, on a subcontract under a foreman by the name of King who was excavating down to a solid foundation in the Des Moines river for the piers that the Illinois Central bridge now rests on.

      The late Mike Foley, at that time, was quarrying the rock that went into these piers, on the west side of the river a short distance above the present site of the Municipal dam. When the excavation for the piers was finished by Mr. King, he and his gang were sent to strip rock for Mr. Foley and his gang. My father carrying water then for both gangs until the work was completed. The trains coming into Fort Dodge had to have coal, and there being large deposits of it down on Holiday Creek, the late John F. Duncome and Charles Richards formed a partnership and contracted to furnish coal for the Illinois Central Railroad and others. This was the beginning of the development in a large way of the coal mining industry at Holiday Creek, Coalville, Kalo, and Lehigh. About the latter part of October, 1869, his father, Mr. Charles Keefe, Sr., met the late Mr. James Timmons, Sr. on the Main Street in Fort Dodge. Mr. Timmons told him he was looking for someone to start a boarding camp down at Holiday Creek for the miners; his father accepted the proposition. The mines were just opening up and the coal had to be hauled out in small cars, and Father tells that mules were used for that purpose, but in this case it was a small sorrel pony named "Billy" sent down from Fort Dodge by Mr. Duncombe and Mr. Richards, owners of the mines.

      As the mine developed, the pony became too light for the work and mules were substituted to do the work. The late Charley Wickman, Sr., later years on Knierim, drove the first mule.

      Father at that time started to the old Mericle School at Holiday Creek, to Mr. Dan Rhodes, Sr., who was the teacher at that time. The class was composed of Rhodes, Scotts, Derrings, Fosters, Mericles, Coreys, Websters, Butlers, Woodburys, Seeleys, Callahans, Donahes, Munns, McLaughlines, Dingmans, TImmons, Crouses, Langs, and Holidays. Holiday Creek and Corpus Christi are now dead.

      In the spring of 1871, my father moved with his parents to Buena Vista County, four miles east and two miles south of Storm Lake. He drove oxen for his father to break the sod on his fathers farm and broke land and put up hay for others by contract. His father died on October 27, 1873 and was buried at Storm Lake until 1885, when his body was moved to Corpus Christi Cemetery in Fort Dodge.

      After his father's death, the family moved back to Fort Dodge and rented a house from Steve Powers, Sr., near where the Serum Company, the former shoe factory building, now stands. The winter of 1873 and 1874 he drove a small mule, hauling coal from the miners out of a mine owned by the late M.B. Kelley in Craig's Hollow, which many are still familiar with.

      In the early spring of 1874, he went to work pushing mine cars from mines at the Duncombe and Richards Co., then located in Coalville. He worked there and on farms until October 14, 1879 when he was married to Mary Lynch of Emmetsburg, Iowa, who died September 15, 1905 leaving a family of four sons and eight daughters. My father was active in the operation of coal mines at Holiday Creek and Coalville in partnership with the late William Munn, later buying Mr. Munn's interest out at Coalville. This consisted of one bituminous mine and one cannel coal mine and the selling of his interest to Mr. Munn in the Holiday Creek mine.

      Later Father sold an interest to Mr. Charles B. Smith of Fayette County, who later sold his interest in the cannel coal mine to the late Mr. Jim Platts, still later Father sold his interest in the cannel coal mine to Mr. Platte also. He then leased a soft coal mine from Lucas Hart of Kalo and worked that mine until it was worked out. Father worked up a large business on soft coal for steam purposed in Sioux City and other points in Northwest Iowa. He leased another soft coal mine that the old Fort Dodge Coal Company had abandoned. This was situated on Section Sixteen, about one mile east of the old Fort Dodge Coal Company's store of which the late John Platte was the manager (John Platte was the brother of the late J.L. Platte, President of the Fort Dodge Coal Company). When the market for steam coal was assured, the later Walter Wilson and Jacob Funk of Webster City, and the late Sam McClure of Fort Dodge, bought the land from the late Z.W. Thomas, trustee for the stockholders of the Fort Dodge Coal Company. This transaction froze my father out of the mine, forcing him to sell the mine equipment to the new company.

      He then was approached by the late Mr. Hay of Coalville who wanted him to take over his mine. This mine was what they call a slope mine, and the mine cars were hauled up the slope by steam power to what is called a tipple and dumped into wagons, trucks, railroad cars, or on platforms, whichever the circumstances called for.

      After operating this mine about three months, it seems that his nigh watchman on the night of January 1, 1893, went to sleep. When he woke up, he started pumping cold water into the hot boiler, causing it to blow to bits together with the engine house. Fortunately, it was quite early in the morning on January 2. None of the miners or teamsters had yet come to work. The night man was blown about 25 yards down a ravine, where he landed in a drift about six feet deep, receiving only slight damage. He was hit by a flying brick on his right heel.

      Father then went to Des Moines and bought another steam boiler from a firm by the name of Kirfirt Brothers, had it shipped to Fort Dodge by rail, and then hauled to Coalville by the late Ben Layman. He had it bricked up by Louis Gunther, Jake and Billie Kehm, and Louis Fessel. About the time everything was in shape to start mining and shipping coal again, the 1893 panic came on, losing my father a lot of money and causing him to close down the mined. He sold the boiler to the late H.G.R. Reynolds who installed it in the Old Reynolds Block, where from last reports it is still doing duty. He later operated another mine on the late J.M. Johnson's farm, Johnson was the father of the late Ed Johnson, the attorney. This mine was located on the last part of what was originally known as the old Dau Fitzpatrick farm. Father retired from the coal business altogether in the spring of 1899.

     
Children of Merl Knight and Josephine Keefe are:
  2 i.   Willis James Taylor Knight, born October 4, 1914 in Ft. Dodge Iowa; died March 17, 2000 in Webster City, Iowa; married Gladys Mae Digranes 1935 in Illinois.
  ii.   Charles Knight, born July 3, 1916; died November 25, 1995 in Webster City, IA; married Esther Schumacher June 5, 1941 in Woolstock, IA.
  iii.   Allan Herbert Knight, born November 2, 1915; died November 9, 1981; married Beverly Compton 1936 in Webster City, IA.


      6. Swein Larsen Digranaes, born 1878 in Norway; died 1945 in Jewell, IA. He was the son of 12. Lars Digranaes. He married 7. Olava Osterson.

      7. Olava Osterson, born April 11, 1886 in Hardanger, Norway; died February 1986 in Englewood, CO. She was the daughter of 14. Lars Osterson and 15. Min Osterson.
     
Children of Swein Digranaes and Olava Osterson are:
  3 i.   Gladys Mae Digranes, born July 21, 1916 in Jewel, Iowa; died November 27, 1982 in Webster City, Iowa; married Willis James Taylor Knight 1935 in Illinois.
  ii.   Christine Digranes
  iii.   Oswald Digranes, born 1910; married Dorothea.
  iv.   Joe Digranes


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