Tulare County Biographies

U. G. KNIGHT

Transcribed by: Craig A Hahn

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm


     The editor of the Exeter Sun, published at Exeter, Tulare county, Cal., was 
born in Constantine, Mich., in the late �60s, a son of Captain G. W. Knight, of 
Company E, Third Regiment, Minnesota Infantry, who served nearly five years 
including all the period of the Civil war, and won praise for his bravery, 
especially at the time of the Indian uprising in Minnesota and Dakota in 1863, 
in the suppression of which he took part with his regiment. Captain Knight 
passed away in Nebraska in 1898. His widow is living in Los Angeles county, Cal. 

     The future editor of the Sun accompanied his parents to Webster county, 
Neb., when he was but a few years old, and there grew to manhood and acquired an 
education, beginning his active career as a school teacher. In 1886 he journeyed 
to California and spent a year in looking over the state, but went back to the 
Grasshopper State, where he was married in 1895 to Miss Daisy M. Garner, of 
Invale, Neb, who has borne him a son now a student in the Exeter high school. 
 
     In his early days, Mr. Knight turned his attention to newspaper work, 
almost entirely editorial and reportorial, and was time to time employed on the 
Omaha Bee, the Omaha World-Herald, the Lincoln Journal, the Kansas City Star and 
several papers in Nebraska. Eventually he came to the conclusion that, to be a 
competent all-round newspaper man in business for himself, he should understand 
the types and presses. So, dropping work at far better pay, he took employment 
in the press rooms of the Hebron (Neb.) Journal, and later he held cases on the 
Denver Daily News and other large papers, also working in and out of editorial 
offices as occasion offered. 
 
     Soon after is marriage, Mr. Knight turned to the soil as a farmer in 
Nebraska. A certain amount of success rewarded him for several years, but two or 
three �lean� years drove him out of the business. In 1900 he passed a civil 
service examination and was given a responsible position in the semi-secret 
service of the United States, in which his duties consisted in part in obtaining 
data and official figures required by the Government. In this work he traveled 
over most of the Middle and Mountain states, encountering many dangers, but 
turning in such satisfactory information that he was urged to retain the place. 
He resigned, however, and went to Alberta, Canada, stayed a year, than came back 
to California.
 
     Here he again engaged in newspaper work, at first as editor and part owner 
of the Oxnard Sun. Later that paper emerged with the Oxnard Courier and he 
continued as editor, but in 1905 he sold out his interests at Oxnard and became 
editor and part owner of the San Pedro News, a daily. After six months he sold 
out and was given editorial employment on the Los Angeles Herald, which he gave 
up a few months later to go on the Los Angeles Examiner. In January, 1908, he 
resigned and moved to Exeter to take an interest in the Sun, of which he later 
became sole proprietor and editor. 
 
     The Sun is a sprightly paper, more newsy than most papers published in 
small towns, well liked and well patronized. It has practically grown up with 
the town, is now twelve years old, and as a booster of Exeter and vicinity it 
has been a factor in the uplift of the city. To considerable extent Mr. Knight 
is interested in real estate, having sold many of the choicest tracts in the 
vicinity. He is considered one of the best authorities and judge of the land in 
the county. He is also interested in banking, having a large number of shares in 
the new Citrus Bank, which was established in Exeter in May, 1912, and was 
offered a directorship in this institution but did not care to accept. 
Fraternally, he affiliates with the Masons, Red Men, Modern Woodmen and other 
secret and beneficial organizations, including the Masonic auxiliary order of 
the Eastern Star. He has one of the finest homes in Exeter, a large house and an 
orange grove inside the city limits. He is a member of the Exeter Board of Trade 
and in many ways has demonstrated a public spirit that makes him a most helpful 
citizen with his pen and otherwise.  
 
SOURCE:  History of Tulare and Kings Counties, California with Biographical 
Sketches - Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company, 1913 Pp 368, 369, 370