TUSCARAWAS COUNTY OHIO - BIOS: KNAPP, Adam J. (1931)
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INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
Volume V, page 179-180

        ADAM J. KNAPP is a retired Evansville physician who has given more
than thirty-seven years to the routine of his profession and has become one
of the leaders in public health work in Southern Indiana.
        Doctor Knapp was born in Tuscarawas County, Ohio, in October, 1853.
His parents, Frederick and Adelaide (Paul) Knapp, came from Germany, his
father at the age of sixteen and his mother when a young girl. Frederick
Knapp was a merchant and banker in Ohio, and died in 1909, his wife passing
away in 1911.
        Doctor Knapp was next to the oldest in a family of ten children. He
attended public schools and graduated from the medical department of the
University of Tennessee in 1893. He at once located in Evansville, where he
has carried on the work of his profession ever since. Doctor Knapp was a
teacher of successful experience before entering the medical profession,
and while teaching he became interested in the problems of the children,
particularly those who apparently from some physical or pathological cause
had difficulty in making the grades. Shortly after getting established in
his practice he accepted the opportunity to render some special service to
the schools in the way of making free examinations of public school
children for hearing and sight. In that work he had the cooperation of some
other Evansville doctors. The chief result of their work was that many
pupils with marked poor vision and poor hearing received special treatment.
This paved the way for regular and permanent medical inspection and health
work in the public schools, Evansville being one of the first progressive
cities of the state to institute such a program.
        A number of years ago Doctor Knapp, while attending a medical
convention in Iowa, was greatly impressed by the discussion and practical
demonstration of tubercular cows as the source of human tuberculosis. At
that time Evansville was infected with tuberculosis cases, and when he
returned to the city he immediately took steps to arouse the medical
profession and the public in general to the possibility of the white plague
being carried through infected milk. A great deal of praise was given him
for his stand in that matter, though the praise was also accompanied by a
great deal of criticism. At a meeting held in the Walker Hospital by the
county medical association the resolution was adopted asking for the
testing of all dairy cows supplying milk to Evansville. The test showed
that a great number of cows in the local dairies were tubercular, and in
the course of years the campaign has gone on until Evansville was supplied
only with milk from tested herds and today Evansville is comparatively free
from the scourge of tuberculosis.
        Doctor Knapp is a successful physician with an interesting
side-line and hobby as a floriculturist. About Twenty-seven years ago he
began growing peonies, and his hobby has developed into something more than
a pastime. He has contributed to making Southern Indiana the greatest
center in the Untied States for the propagation and breeding of peonies and
his own farm, comprising 200 acres, is one of the largest commercial peony
growing plants in the United States. From his beds he ships thousand of
roots annually and also does an immense business in cut flowers. He
established his own markets in the principal cities and was a pioneer in
the practice of shipping the flowers and buds. On last Mother's Day Doctor
Knapp shipped from one of his farms 48,000 dozens of peony blossoms.
        Doctor Knapp married in October, 1876, Miss Barbara Wise of Ohio.
They have two children, Bleeker J. and Eva. Bleeker, a physician and
surgeon, a well-known Evansville specialist, married Eleanor D. and has two
children, Mary E. and Eleanor Gordon. The daughter, Eva, is the wife of
Doctor Dyer, of Evansville, and has a son, Wallace Knapp Dyer.





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