My Genealogy Hound

Abner A. McKnight is a farmer, of the Fifteenth District, and was the son of Enos and Sallie (Grier) McKnight. He was born in Rutherford County, July 22, 1820, and is one of four children, two of whom are living: Nancy E., wife of J. M. Shelton, of Texas (deceased), and our subject. His father and grandfather were natives of North Carolina. His father was of Scotch-Irish ancestry, and born in North Carolina in 1801. The father’s father died when he was young, so his mother raised him. They moved to Rutherford Co. with him when he was four years of age; they purchased land and remained there until their death, his father being killed in 1807. When our subject’s father was about twenty-four years of age, he married Miss Sallie Grier. In 1852 he moved to Gibson County, remained a year, then moved to Dyer County and purchased a farm of 333 acres. Mrs. McKnight died in 1833, and in 1842 he married Miss Jane C. Knox, by whom he had three children. After she died he married, in 1849, Miss Rosanna McCombs. He was a good business man and successful. He died in March, 1884. Our subject was educated at home. He then clerked two years, and February 28, 1856, he married Miss Judith A., daughter of James and Elizabeth Wilson, of Gibson County. They had eight children, only one, Zillah Ann, now living. After Mr. McKnight’s marriage, he located on his present farm of 360 acres, three miles southeast of Trimble. He is a good citizen and a man of integrity; also a Democrat, and with his wife belongs to the Cumberland Presbyterian Church.