J. Knapp Brown Biography


	This biography appears on page 1071 in "History of Dakota 
	Territory" by George W. Kingsbury, Vol. V (1915) and was 
	scanned, OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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				J. KNAPP BROWN. 

	J. Knapp Brown, president and general manager of Knapp Brown & 
Company, automobile distributors, has made his home in Sioux Falls 
continuously since 1907 and for the past three years has been engaged 
in his present line of business. He is a native son of the city of St. 
Louis, Missouri, his birth having there occurred on Christmas Day of 
1880. His parents are William E. and Elizabeth (Knapp) Brown, the 
former a native of Athens, Ohio, and now a resident of Fort Madison, 
Iowa, where he is engaged in the lumber business as manager of the 
Hawkeye Lumber Company. He is a son of Daniel T. Brown, a native of the 
state of New York. 

	In 1885 William E. Brown removed with his family to Fort Madison, 
Iowa, and there J. Knapp Brown pursued his education, putting aside his 
textbooks at the age of eighteen years. He remained at Fort Madison 
through the ensuing four years and subsequently went upon the road as a 
traveling salesman out of Minneapolis for the National Biscuit Company 
for three years. On the expiration of that period he came to Sioux 
Falls in 1907 and three years later, or in 1910, he began dealing in 
automobiles, selling the Franklin machine exclusively. The growth of 
this business is manifest in his trade. He annually places a large 
number of machines among townsmen and farmers of his part of the state. 
He is prepared to talk intelligently upon the subject, thoroughly 
understanding the manufacture of the Franklin machine and its many good 
points. In December, 1914, Knapp Brown & Company removed to their up-
to-date fireproof garage in the Bleeg building on Ninth street, where 
their business is now conducted. 

	On the 29th of January, 1912, at Sioux Falls; Mr. Brown was 
united in marriage to Miss Marguerite Booth. They attend the Episcopal 
church and Mr. Brown belongs to the Dacotah and the New Country Clubs. 
He is well known in Masonic circles as a Scottish Rite Mason and a 
Mystic Shriner. His position upon political questions is never an 
equivocal one, earnest support being given to the republican party. His 
business activities are the paramount interest in his life, yet the 
duties of citizenship are never neglected and he cooperates in many 
movements for the welfare of Sioux Falls.