W.S. McKnight
Arizona, The Youngest State, 1913, pg 757

W.S. McKnight, who is now capably and satisfactorily filling 
the office of sheriff of Santa Cruz County, being the first 
to hold that office under the state laws, was born in White 
County, Illinois, October 12, 1864.  He spent his childhood 
and youth in that section, coming to Arizona on the 12th of 
April 1887, and associating himself with mining interests 
which held his attention for many years.  For a time he was 
connected with the Hudson and Bent Company at that time 
operating the Humboldt Camp gold and silver mine.  He 
remained with them for six years and then went to the 
Arinoca mine in the old Con-Arizona mill.  He remained 
there for two years, finally abandoning mining and turning 
his attention to the butcher business in the Oro Blanco 
district.  He afterward resumed his mining operations in
Montana camp, where he helped to erect the Old Glory Stamp 
Mill, of which he later became superintendent.  He worked 
in the Oro camp as milman for some time, going finally to 
Crittenden, where he acted as ranch foreman for R.R. 
Richardson on the Pennsylvania ranch.  Two years later 
he went to Patagonia and formed a partnership with W.H. 
Barnett in the butcher business, with which he was 
connected until 1899 when he came to Nogales.

After spending a year in the butcher business in Nogales, 
Mr. McKnight was appointed mounted customhouse inspector 
for three years, then received the government contract to 
furnish beef and grain to Fort Huachuca for four years.  
In 1910 he established himself as a general merchant in 
Tubac and in the fall of 1911 he was elected sheriff of 
Santa Cruz County and again took up his residence in 
Nogales.

Mr. McKnight married Miss Geneva Crocomb, a native of 
California and they have nine children: William M., 
Josephine, Edmund, Raymond, Edna, Earl, Mabel, Earl 
and Wilber.


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