Rash's Surname Index
Notes for Edward Collins KNIGHT
Edward Collings Knight (1811-1890) capatilist, inventor; developer fo Southwark Sugar Refinery, "Knight" sleeping car (a rival to Pullman's), steamship & railroad lines; Supreme Court case of U.S. v. E.C. Knight Co. (1895) established that a near-monopoly in sugar refining was not commerce "in restraint of trade".
" Edward Collings (6) Knight, the oldest son of Jonathan (5) and Rebecca (Collings) Knight, was born in what is now Collingswood, NJ on December 8, 1813. In 1824, after the death of his father, E.C. (6) Knight, went to live for three years with his grandmother, Elizabeth Haines; then lived with his uncle, Edward Zane Collings. In 1827, E.C. (6) Knight helped his uncle build the home now called the Knight-Collings House which is located on Collings Road, opposite Knight Pard.
In 1832, E.C. (6) Knight moved to Philadelphia with his mother and worked for Atkinson & Cuthbert, wholesale grocers and shipping merchants. On July 20, 1841, he married Anna Marie Magill, daughter of James and Ann Marie (Leinau) Magill of Philadelphia, PA. In 1844, he obtained an interest in the schooner "Baltimore" and traded in the West Indies. By 1849, he was actively engaged in trading to CA.
The American Whig Party nominated E.C. Knight for Congress in 1856 and in 1860, he was an elector on the Republican Presidential ticket for Lincoln.
The firm of E.C. Knight & Co. , sugar refiners, was established in 1857; this was the basis of most of his fortune. In 1859, while on a business trip to New Orleans, E.C. Knight got the idea for a sleeping car took out four patents, formed a company, and sold many of his "Knights", as they were called. These patent rights were sold to the Pullman Co. in 1868 for two million dollars.
E. C. was a charter member and vice-president of the Union League of Philadelphia. He invested in Phila. real estate and PA coal mines; he was a director of several banks and railroads, including the Pennsylvania Railroad. By 1873, he was president of the American Steamship Line, president of the Central Railroad of NJ in 1876 and president of the Reading Railroad in 1887.
In 1889, President Benjaman Harrison offered him the post as Ambassador to Russia. E.C., however, declined the post. Just before he died, E.C. purchased eighty acres in the heart of Collingswood, NJ, the site of the early Knight-Collings holdings, to be set aside as a pard. This together with a hundred thousand dollars was put out in interest for maintenance. Today, Knight Park is administered by six trustees, one of whom is the Collingswood Director of Public Safety. - most of the above information is from The Encyclopedia of Pennsylvania Biography, Vol. XI, pgs. 32-35.
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