1906 Knight Family Letter

HERE IS THE TEXT OF THE 1906 LETTER, written by James Knight Kreutzinger to his son, Edmund Philip Kreutzinger:

"Mt. Vernon, Ind. 2-11-1906

Dear Edmund--

I was naturally somewhat surprised to note your request for all possible information concerning my mother's family; these things gradually pass out of our recollection and unless some pride is taken in cultivating the family tree it rapidly falls into decay. All that I know authentically is that Grandfather Knight was born in the year 1791 in the County of Hampshire England. His father was James Knight, a well-to-do and rather intelligent farmer, who had two sons: James my grandfather, and Richard, four years younger. Grandfather became a floriculturist in South London and in 1836 and 1837 was awarded silver medals by the South London Floricultural Society; we have one bearing the date of 1837. Uncle David's family has the other. I do not know the maiden name of grandfather's first wife, who was the mother of 7 children:

Eliza (Dewey)

James (supposed to have been blown from a steamboat)

John (supposed to have died of yellow fever in the south)

Richard and Thomas (who remained in England and whose descendants still remain there, except Jessie Grace who came to America about 10 years ago)

Edmund and

Joseph.

After her death he married Esther, second daughter of Thomas Mayne and Esther Bryan. the latter died during the early childhood of my grandmother, as did the youngest daughter, Anna; and grandmother and her eldest sister, mary, were placed in the family of a relative, mrs. Andrews, where they remained until the latter emigrated to Australia, when grandmother entered the employ of Mrs. Colton as a companion where she was living when she met James Knight. Her faher, Thomas Mayne, was a watchmaker and made each of his daughters a watch, one of which is now in our family in a dilapidated condition. My grandmother claimed relationship with the historian Gibbon, just what degree I am unable to say, but the mother of Esther Bryan was a Gibbon.

Of the sons and daughters of James Knight by his two marriages Eliza, the eldest, married Thomas Dewey, came to America, and became the mother of one son, John, who died upon reaching his majority; his mother died about 1842. James became a civil engineer, came to the U.S. and married becoming the father of 3 children two of whom, with their mother died in the early '50's; the youngest child was brought up by the family of his mother's parents. Uncle James was never heard from after the blowing up of a steamer on her way up the Ohio. John disappeared in an equally mysterious manner; Thomas and Richard who remained in London were goldsmiths, I think as was also their Uncle Richard. The Knights were Regular Baptists and during their residence in London attended the Church of John Stevens, a picture of whom is now in my possession. Those of the family who remained in England were member of Charles Spurgeon's Tabernacle. Edmund, Joseph, Ebenezer, David, Esther and Mary came to America with their parents and all married and reared families except Mary, who died at the age of 16. Samuel, the youngest child, died just before the family left England.

The children of James Knight and Esther Mayne were Ebenezer, David, Esther, Mary and Samuel. The only surviving member of the two branches of the family is Ebenezer, who lives in Harrison County, Indiana at the village of Elizabeth, just below New Albany. We have had no communication with our London relatives since Jessie Grace came to America some 10 years ago. Grandmother Knight was born Aug. 25, 1799, and died in Kansas in 1879. Grandfather Knight died in Posey County Indiana
in 1859. Mary, the older sister of grandmother Knight, died in the latter part of 1858; she never married. This is about all I know for a certainty of our ancestry on the Knight side.

Of course you heard of the death of Rillie Ries by drowning in the YMCA pool at Evansville?

This is all I can think of just now so goodbye. We all send our love.

Yours truly,

/s/ James K. Kreutzinger"

I did some research, and discovered that the South London Royal Floricultural Society was formed in 1835.