My Genealogy Hound

Elijah Haynie Knight, a physician and surgeon of the Eighth District of Smith County, was born in 1841 in the Sixteenth District, and is a son of Robert G. and Susan (Haynie) Knight. The father is of Scotch-English descent, born in 1811 in North Carolina. His parents died in his early childhood. At the age of eight years he came to Tennessee with his uncle, James High, and settled where Wm. Derickson now lives. Mr. Knight became a farmer and was quite prosperous. For many years he was thus engaged on the farm in the Sixteenth District now owned by William Gibbs. In 1858 he sold out and moved to Chestnut Mound where he now resides with his son, in the enjoyment of good health and a pleasant old age. The mother is of English origin, born in 1818 on Peyton Creek in Smith County. Of her family of seven children, five are still living. Mrs. Knight is highly esteemed by all who know her. Our subject received his literary education in the common schools of his native county. In the summer of 1858 he began the study of medicine in the office of his cousin, Dr. John P. Haynie, which he prosecuted until the breaking out of the civil war, when, in April, 1861, he joined Company B, Seventh Tennessee Regiment, Confederate service. He took part in the famous battles of Seven Pines, Gaines Mills, Ox Hill, South Mountain and Fredericksburg. At the latter place he was shot in the lung with a rifle ball, in consequence of which he was indefinitely furloughed. About eight months after his return home he was captured by Federal troops and taken to the prison at Gallatin, Tenn., where he was retained three months, at the expiration of which time broken down in health he took the oath of allegiance to the Federal Government and went home. While in the hospital at Charlottesville, Va., he attended a course of medical lectures, afterward devoting some two years to the study of the profession. He began to practice in 1866, at Chestnut Mound, where he has had an extensive patronage. Physical disabilities have forced him to abandon active practice for the past two or three years. He engaged to a considerable extent in the raising of stock, and farming, in all of which he has been successful. He owns 350 acres of fine land on Caney Fork, and 110 acres of ridge soil. He is not only a skillful physician and surgeon, but also a first-class manager and financier. He is a Democrat and gave his first presidential vote for Horatio Seymour in 1868. He is Master of Pekin Lodge, No. 563, Masonic order, and a member of the Missionary Baptist Church. In 1870 he was elected trustee of the county, serving one term of two years with entire satisfaction, and would, no doubt, have been re-elected had he not changed his place of residence to Putnam County, where he practiced four years. In 1872 the Doctor married Eliza, daughter of Robert E. and Jane (McKinley) Fain. Mrs. Knight is a native of Putnam County and was born in 1852. The fruits of this union are six children: Jeanne, Robert, Sam, Mabel, Tom and Frank. Mrs. Knight is an exemplary Christian and devout member of the Methodist Church South.