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KANAWHA COUNTY WEST VIRGINIA - BIOS: KNIGHT, Edward Boardman
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Submitted to the West Virginia Biographies Project by:
Sandy Spradling
SSpradling@AOL.com
September 26, 1999
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History of Charleston and Kanawha County, West Virginia and Representative
Citizens
W.S. Laidley
Richmond Arnold Publishing Co., Chicago, ILL.
1911
p. 424-425
EDWARD BOARDMAN KNIGHT, formerly a prominent member of the Charleston bar and
a citizen held in high esteem, was born in Hancock, N. H., August 22, 1834,
son of Asa and Melinda (Adams) Knight. He graduated at Dartmouth college in
the class of 1861. He was admitted to the bar in September, 1863, and
practiced for a short time in New London, N. H., and also in Dover, N. H. In
March or April, 1865, he came to Charleston, W. Va., and entered into a
partnership for the practice of the law with Col. Benjamin H. Smith under the
firm name of Smith & Knight. In a very few years Col. Smith retired and his
place in the firm was taken by his son, Mr. Issac N. Smith, the firm name
remaining as before. Mr. Isaac N. Smith died in the fall of 1883 and in 1884
Mr. Knight and Mr. George S. Couch entered into a partnership under the firm
name of Knight & Couch, which continued until Mr. Knight's retirement from
practice January I, 1892. Mr. W. S. Laidley says of him:
"From almost any point of view Mr. Knight was a strong lawyer, and when he
knew he was right always succeeded in impressing the court and jury with the
fact, and generally distinguished himself in important cases by his
clear-cut, forceful and convincing argument, sticking very closely to the
evidence and the truth and therefore to the point. With an apparent
seriousness of mind withal he had a remarkable vein of wit and humor when
occasion called for an expression of this temperament and was a favorite
master of ceremonies, or toastmaster at bar association meetings."
Speaking of his strong manly and moral character, his old law partner, Isaac
Smith, said that he was the purest-minded man with the highest moral ideas he
ever knew. Mr. Knight was very fond of outdoor life and spent his summers
mostly in the beautiful hills around Sunnipee Lake, New Hampshire, and was an
enthusiastic fisherman. Mr. Knight was a member from Kanawha County of the
Constitutional Convention of 1872, but never held any other political office.
He was, how-ever, for a number of years city solicitor of Charleston. In
politics he was always a Democrat.
He married on September 15, 1854, Hannah Elizabeth White, of Newport, N. H.,
who died November '4, 1878. On February 13, 1882, he married Mary Elizabeth
White, who with three children by his first wife Edward Wallace, Harold
Warren, and Mary Ethel (now Mrs. George W. McClintic)-survived
him at his death on December 16, 1897.
Edward Wallace Knight, son of Edward B. and Hannah Elizabeth Knight, was horn
April 30, 1866. He graduated from Dartmouth college in the class of 1887,
read law in the office of Knight & Couch, and was admit-ted to the bar in
May, 1889. January 1, 1892, he entered into a partnership for the practice of
law with Messrs. James F. Brown and Mal-colm Jackson, who had theretofore
been in partnership under the name of Brown & Jackson, the style of the new
firm being Brown, Jackson & Knight. The present members of the firm, in
addition to those named above, are Messrs. V. L. Black, John Wehrle, Angus W.
McDonald, George S. Couch, Jr., and Oscar P. Fitzgerald, Jr. Mr. Knight has
been general counsel of the Deepwater, Tidewater and Virginian Railways since
1902. He served in the common council of the city of Charleston from 1891 to
1894, but has held no other office. He married, January 25, 1893, Mary
Catherine, daughter of J. E. Dana, and they have three children-Edward Dana,
born March 23, 1894; Elizabeth Swift, horn August 3, 1897, and Mary Ethel,
born July 22, 1911.
Sandy Spradling
SSpradling@AOL.com
State Contact for WV GenExchange
http://www.genexchange.com/wv/index.cfm
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