BIOGRAPHY: John Alden KNIGHT, Mifflin County, PA

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The Commemorative Biographical Encyclopedia of the Juniata Valley, 
Comprising the Counties of Huntingdon, Mifflin, Juniata, and Perry, 
Pennsylvania.  Chambersburg, Pa.: J. M. Runk & Co., 1897, Volume I, 
pages 452-454.
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  JOHN ALDEN KNIGHT, Lewistown, Mifflin county, Pa., was born at 
Hubbardston, Mass., March 25 1851. He is a son of Christian Weber and 
Pauline E. (Alden) Knight. His maternal grandparents were John and Isabella 
(Phillips) Alden, of Massachusetts. Mr. Alden was a farm and veterinary 
surgeon; he was a man of intelligence, interested in the topics of the 
times, and active in local political affairs. He and his wife were steady 
and faithful members of the church; they had six daughters and four sons. 
Mr. Alden traced his descent to the John Alden and Priscilla of "Pilgrim" 
days, whose pretty romance has become a "household word" among readers of 
Longfellow. Mr. Knight's grandparents on the paternal side came from 
Holland. They also had a family of ten, one son and nine daughters. The son 
was Christian Weber Knight, born in Philadelphia and educated in its 
superior common schools. He acquired early in life a thorough knowledge of 
building and construction, and became widely and favorably known through his 
skill and the success which he carried out many building projects. Mr. 
Knight married in Hubbardston and resided there for a number of years. In 
1854, he removed to Port Deposit, Md., assuming the position of 
superintendent of the quarry and granite works of McClenahan Brothers. He 
was of exemplary character, and highly respected. Christian Weber Knight was 
married March 18, 1841, to Pauline E. Alden. Their children are: George W., 
of Philadelphia, married; John Alden; William, married, and died while still 
a young man; Charles, died very young; Luna Isabelle, formerly of Brooklyn, 
N.Y., married William H. Gamble, who was the business manager of the O. N. 
T. Thread Works of George A. Clark & Sons, offices in New York City, died in 
1892, leaving three children, Christian, Weber, who died aged thirteen; 
Royal A.; and Pauline Alden; and Mary W. (Mrs. H. W. Geiger), of 
Philadelphia. Christian W. Knight died May 1, 1888; Mrs. Knight resides with 
her daughter, Mrs. Gamble, at Lewistown. She and Mrs. Gamble are members of 
the Presbyterian church.
  Having acquired the rudiments of education in the common schools of Port 
Deposit, Md., John Alden Knight entered at the age of twelve the academy of 
the same town. At the age of eighteen, he became a member of the engineering 
corps under J. B. Hutchinson, employed in the survey of the Columbia and 
Port Deposit Railroad for the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. This engagement 
lasted from January, 1872, to January, 1879; he then came, still employed by 
the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, to Lewistown, where he has since held the 
position of chief clerk and paymaster of the Lewistown Division. He is a 
capable official, a public-spirited man, and a promoter of all useful 
enterprises. Mr. Knight is general manager of the Lewistown Electric Light, 
Heat and Power Company, and was one of its charter members. He was among the 
incorporators of the Mann Edge Tool Company, of Lewistown, and filled the 
position of secretary for more than a year. He is also one of the 
incorporators, and now the president, of the Masonic Association of 
Lewistown; is a director, and was for some time secretary of the Lewistown 
Gas Company. Mr. Knight is a member of Lodge No. 203, Chapter No. 186, and 
Commandery No. 26, F. and A. M., of Lewistown, and of the Harrisburg 
Consistory of the same order, Harrisburg, Pa. He is a Republican.
  John Alden Knight was married February 19, 1884, to Harriet Howard, 
daughter of Andrew Parker and Mary Elizabeth (Van Valzah) Jacob, of 
Lewistown, Pa., Their children are: Elizabeth Van Valzah and John Alden. Mr. 
Knight and his family attend the Presbyterian church at Lewistown, of which 
Mrs. Knight is a member.
  The Van Valzah family, Mrs. Knight's maternal ancestors, are descended 
from Robert Van Valzah, a native of Holland, born April 26, 1733, who came 
to America, and settled near the Croton river, in New York. He married and 
had sons and daughters. One of his children was Robert (2), born in 1764, 
who served in the Continental army during the Revolution. He studied 
medicine, and practiced in Union and the adjacent counties of Pennsylvania. 
He married Elizabeth, daughter of Colonel Sutherland, of Union county. Their 
children were: Robert; Thomas; John; William; Elizabeth; Jane, and Margaret. 
Robert Van Valzah (3), and his brother Thomas Van Valzah both became eminent 
as physicians; the former married and had seven sons, five of whom graduated 
as doctors of medicine. Dr. Thomas Van Valzah was a graduate of the 
University of Pennsylvania. He married Harriet, daughter of Thomas and 
Elizabeth (Harris) Howard. Mrs. Van Valzah died nine days prior to the 
fiftieth anniversary of their marriage. They had four sons, three of whom 
graduated in medicine from the University of Pennsylvania. Mrs. Howard was a 
daughter of James Harris of Derby, Pa., who served in the Revolutionary war, 
and was in the battles of Trenton, Princeton, the Brandywine and Germantown. 
The children of Dr. and Mrs. Thomas Van Valzah were: Thomas Howard, born in 
Lewisburg, Pa., March 29, 1821, graduated in medicine from the University of 
Pennsylvania in 1845, practiced in Clarion, Pa., with his father in 
Lewistown, served in a hospital during the Rebellion, afterwards practiced 
successfully in Lewistown until his retirement a few years before his death, 
which occurred January 17, 1894; Robert Harris, born September 18, 1823, 
graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1847, was a resident 
physician at the Pennsylvania Hospital in 1846-47, practiced extensively at 
Freeport, Ill., where he died, aged thirty-seven, July 25, 1860; Laird 
Howard, born February 14, 1828, died February 18, 1843; Mary Elizabeth (Mrs. 
Andrew P. Jacob), had one daughter, Harriet Howard (Mrs. John Alden Knight); 
John William, born September 12, 1830, at Lewisburg, Pa., was a graduate of 
1855 from the University of Pennsylvania, practiced and studied at the 
Pennsylvania Hospital, 1854-55, practiced with his brother, Dr. R. H. Van 
Valzah, at Freeport, Ill., was surgeon of the Fifteenth Illinois Volunteers 
during the Civil war, died at Freeport, August 10, 1863, of a disease 
contracted at the siege of Vicksburg; Jane Howard (Mrs. Ezra Doty Parker), 
of Mifflintown, Pa., has four children, Harriet Howard; Rebecca Cloyd; Dr. 
Thomas Van Valzah, a graduate of Cooper College, San Francisco, Cal., and 
Edmund Southard, besides a stepson, Andrew Parker, son of Mr. Parker by a 
former marriage with Mary Hamilton, who died in Juniata county; Harriet 
Rebecca, died aged two years; and David Dougal, born January 6, 1840, served 
throughout the Rebellion in the Twelfth United States Infantry, regular 
army, as first lieutenant, was taken prisoner at the battle of the 
Wilderness and paroled after eight months' captivity, is at present colonel 
of the Eighteenth Regiment, United States Infantry, married Ellen Jane 
Murphy, of San Antonio, Tex.
  The father of this large and influential family, Dr. Thomas Van Valzah, 
was born December 23, 1793, in Union county, Pa., He was educated in the 
classics by Rev. Thomas Hood, prepared for his medical course under his 
father, was a surgeon in the army during the war of 1812, when barley twenty 
years of age, graduated at the University of Pennsylvania in 1818, and 
practiced, first in Lewisburg, then from 1837 to 1842 in Freeport, Ill., and 
lastly in Lewistown, in all, fifty-eight years. He died, lamented as 
scarcely any one but an old and faithful physician, the trusted and 
beneficent friend of many families of all classes, ever is mourned. He was 
famed for his gracious and kindly manner, his generosity and his 
hospitality, no less than for his skill as a physician, and especially in 
the delicate and difficult branch of surgery. He was known far and wide 
among his professional brethren, as one occupying the foremost rank. In 
support of this assertion, we can instance only the fact that he performed 
the second successful high operation in lithotomy accomplished in America, 
his only predecessors in attempting the operation of this side of the 
Atlantic having been the celebrated Dr. Gibson, of Philadelphia, and Dr. 
Carpenter, of Lancaster, Pa.,
  Mrs. John Alden Knight, formerly Miss Harriet Howard Jacob, was a graduate 
of the class of 1869 from Monmouth Seminary, Birmingham, Pa. Her father, 
Andrew Parker Jacob, Esq., attorney-at-law, was graduated from Washington 
and Jefferson College in 1840, and practised with eminent success at 
Lewistown, Pa., He was born October 6, 1820, and died December 20, 1856. His 
widow resides with her daughter, Mrs. Knight, at Lewistown.