Hillsborough-Monroe-Lee County FlArchives Biographies.....Knight, Peter Oliphant 1865 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/fl/flfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com February 1, 2008, 12:02 am Author: B. F. Johnson Peter Oliphant Knight Eminent in the legal profession with a keen interest in politics, prominent in social and club life and an influential factor in industrial and financial circles, Peter O. Knight, of Tampa, has rendered immeasurable service not only in the development of the natural resources of his section and State, but in promoting their industrial and political welfare. He has served his people as Legislator and State's Attorney, but his years have been largely devoted to the practice of his profession in which he has attained enviable success. Energetic and enterprising, he has contributed his time and means to the promotion of measures and interests tending toward the welfare of his adopted home. Mr. Knight is a native of Pennsylvania, having first seen the light at Freeburg, Snyder county, December 16, 1865. He is of pioneer stock, his grandfather, Richard Knight, being the youngest soldier that enlisted in the Revolutionary War, and later a Captain in the War of 1812. Mr. Knight was the only child of James W. Knight, a lawyer and Sarah E. Kantz. As a child he attended the Freeburg Academy, but upon his father's death, when he was nine years of age, his mother removed to Indiana, and there Mr. Knight attended the Indiana Normal School at Valparaiso, from which he graduated in 1884, receiving the degree of LL.B. Removing to Fort Myers, then in Monroe county, Fla., Mr. Knight soon manifested the faculty of successful leadership that has marked his career. He inaugurated a movement for the incorporation of Fort Myers and was honored by being elected the first Mayor of the town, in recognition of his services. His growing reputation was indicated soon thereafter, by his nomination for the Legislature by the Democratic convention which assembled at Key West. This honor he was forced to decline by reason of the fact that he had not yet become of age. Mr. Knight next fathered a movement to make a new county out of a portion of Monroe county and in the success of this effort Lee county came into existence in 1887. His plan to make Fort Myers the county seat was alike successful. Elected the first delegate from the new county to the State Democratic convention in 1888, Mr. Knight had the honor of placing in nomination Judge Mitchell (afterwards Governor Mitchell) for Justice of the Supreme Court. Accepting the nomination for the Legislature, Mr. Knight served as Lee county's first member of the House of Representatives and possibly holds the record as the youngest man who ever held the important position of chairman of the Judiciary Committee. At the conclusion of the session of the Legislature, Mr. Knight removed to Tampa, where he formed a law partnership with Gen. J. B. Wall, and under the firm name of Wall and Knight engaged in the general practice of his profession for three years. In 1893 he was appointed Solicitor of the Criminal Court of Hillsborough county, which court had just been created by the Legislature through his efforts and influence. Mr. Knight held the office of Solicitor for six years, until May, 1899, when he resigned to accept the higher station of State's Attorney for the Sixth Judicial Circuit. He has also rendered the public splendid service as a member of the City Council of Tampa. While he enjoys a large practice in all branches of law, Mr. Knight has devoted much study to corporate law in which he is a recognized authority and for which he has a State wide reputation. As a result he has the record of incorporating a larger number of companies than any other attorney in the State and is retained by more corporate interests than any other attorney. He is the counsel for the combined fish interests of the State, for the syndicate of cigar factories, for the Bell Telephone Company, for the Seaboard Air Line Railway, and for numerous other corporations and business concerns in which he has no financial interest, but he is an officer or director in, and takes an active personal interest in the affairs of the following institutions in which he has investments: The Plant City, Arcadia and Gulf Railway, Tampa Terminal Company, Street Railway and Electric Lighting System of Tampa, Tampa Gas Company, Tribune Publishing Company, Tampa Hardware Company, Tampa Foundry and Machine Company, Tampa Building and Loan Association, Ybor City Land and Improvement Company, Exchange National Bank, Bank of Brooksville, West Tampa Bank, Tampa Investment and Securities Company, Florida Brewing Company, Tampa Ice Delivery Company, Tampa Steam Ways Company, Ybor City Building and Loan Association, Tampa Investment and Security Company. Mr. Knight also has extensive social and lodge connections, being a member of the Cherokee Club, The Spanish Casino, The German Club, The Crescent Club, The Tampa Yacht and Country Club, The Circulo Cubano, The Spanish Asturiano, Knights of Pythias, Woodmen of the World, Elks, Patriotic Sons of America, Sons of the American Revolution, Military Order of Foreign Wars and all branches and degrees of Masonry, being a thirty-third degree Mason. Mr. Knight married Miss Lillie Frierson, daughter of Capt. T. D. Frierson of Sumter, S. C, and they have two bright children. While devoted to his profession Mr. Knight is at the same time active in politics in which field he is as much a recognized leader as in the law and industrial affairs. Of remarkable ability and widely known he is a man of extensive influence. His talents have been wisely exercised, and his ability and integrity command the highest esteem in every circle. His courtesy and affability are proverbial and possibly no man in the State claims more admirers and warm personal friends. A leader in thought and activity, he is one of the men who do things, bettering their own condition and that of their fellow man. Mr. Knight declares that he has "no patience with the hypocrisy and jealousy which now seems to have possession of this country," and expresses the firm conviction that the material welfare and happiness of both State and nation could best be subserved "by stopping the present tirade against the corporations, successful men and business institutions of this country, and recognizing the fact that nearly all men are honest and that practically all of them, from their standpoint, are doing the best they can to better the conditions of themselves and their families and the country in which they live." Additional Comments: Extracted from: FLORIDA EDITION MAKERS OF AMERICA AN HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL WORK BY AN ABLE CORPS OF WRITERS VOL. III. Published under the patronage of The Florida Historical Society, Jacksonville, Florida ADVISORY BOARD: HON. W. D. BLOXHAM COL. FRANK HARRIS HON. R. W. DAVIS SEN. H. H. McCREARY HON. F. P. FLEMING W. F. STOVALL C. A. CHOATE, SECRETARY 1909 A. B. CALDWELL ATLANTA, GA. COPYRIGHT 1909 B. F. JOHNSON Photo: http://www.usgwarchives.net/fl/hillsborough/photos/bios/knight15gbs.jpg File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/fl/hillsborough/bios/knight15gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/flfiles/ File size: 7.5 Kb