Alfred Knobs

Submitted by Marrie Miller

In a work designed to present to the public an account of the lives, achievements and aspirations of the progressive men of Wyoming, all, whose energy, public spirit and usefulness have stamped them as being among the forceful and productive factors in the development and civilization of the state, are entitled to due consideration and a mention. Among this number. Alfred Knobs, of Crook county, one of the prominent and enterprising ranchmen and stock raisers on Houston Creek, Wyoming, and also a successful prospector and miner, has an honored place. It was Switzerland, the land of William Tell and Arnold Winkleried, which gave him birth, on July 29, 1860, and in that land of liberty his ancestors had dwelt and flourished for centuries. His parents were Frederick and Mary (Heuberger) Knobs, the father being a skillful tanner, passing an uneventful life in faithful devotion to his craft and to the welfare of his country. Alfred Knobs was educated in his native land, and when he reached the age of twenty years, in company with an older brother, he came to America. Reaching St Paul without incident worthy of special mention, he there remained, working at various occupations for a year, then went to Montana, and, entering into the spirit of the wild country around him, engaged in hunting and trapping, seeking bears and buffalo, beavers and mink, big game and small, for nine months in different parts of the territory. In the fall of 1882'he went to the Black Hills, locating at Deadwood, and passed a year working at the trade of tanning, which he had learned in Switzerland. In the summer of 1883 he came to Wyoming, and, finding congenial employment in what is now Crook county, he rode the range and worked on ranches for a year in that section, and then took up land on Houston Creek, six miles west of Sundance, being the first settler in that region, finding for companionship there but one lone man. During the first five years, after proving up on his claim, he spent considerable time in prospecting in the Black Hills, then settled permanently on his land and engaged in cattle raising, stocking his broad acres with superior herds, improving them with good buildings, making them fertile by careful cultivation, proving himself in every way a progressive and enterprising man, with ambition for the best results m his work and looking ever to the permanent good of the community in all the elements of his public life. During the winter months of every year he still engages in prospecting, and he now has a number of valuable mining claims in the Bear Lodge Mountains, a section rich in the promise of copper and gold. In polities he is an unwavering Democrat, in no sense, however, an office seeker or active partisan, finding plenty in his business to occupy his time, looking to the general good in civil affairs, rather than to the success of any particular party or class of men.