Son of Stephen Knight and Whealtha Brayton Knight; brother of Sophia Amelia, Jeremiah, Mary Briggs, Anna, Elizabeth, Robert,Stephen Albert, and Dexter Newton Knight.
His early life was spent helping his father Stephen Knight on the family farm, and his educational advantages were limited to occasional terms in the district schools, until he was eighteen years old,in 1831, at which time he entered the Spraque Print Works at Cranston Rhode Island, where he served as an operative for two yeas and then returned to farming for two years.
In 1835 he started his first business venture, by purchasing a small building near the Sprague Print Works and opening a general grocery store.
Five years later in 1840, he removed to Providence, and with Olney Winsor and L.E. Bowen, under the firm name of Winsor, Knight & Company, engaged in the wholesale and retail grocery business.
In 1842 he bought controlling interest in the company, and in 1847 his brother Jeremiah Knight became associated with him, under the style of B. B. Knight & Company.
In 1852 he sold a half interest in his company flour and grain business to his brother Robert Knight, and purchased a half interest in the Pontiac Mill and Bleachery, and established the firm of B. B. & R. Knight, the extended into the manufacturing and mercantile fields from this company.
The brothers at one time or another owned as many as 21 cotton mills, in nearly as many villages scattered over Rhode Island, with a total capacity of around 11000 looms and over four hundred thousand spindles.
They had stores located in New York City, at Worth St. and others in Boston, Massachusetts, Philadelphia, and Baltimore.
Brayton Knight also served a term as a state legislator and as a member of the City Goverment of Providence, R.I. He served as alderman from the sixth ward in 1865-66-67, was chairmen of the Finance Committee of the Aldermanic Board, and was twice elected to the General Assembly.
He was President of the Butcher's and Drover's Bank from 1853 until soon before his death.
This company was the founder of the Fruit of the Loom Trade Mark, in 1856, it was registered as a trade mark in the United States Patent Office in (#418) in 1871 one year after passage of the first trademark law by congress. [biography by William Custer Knight]
His early life was spent helping his father Stephen Knight on the family farm, and his educational advantages were limited to occasional terms in the district schools, until he was eighteen years old,in 1831, at which time he entered the Spraque Print Works at Cranston Rhode Island, where he served as an operative for two yeas and then returned to farming for two years.
In 1835 he started his first business venture, by purchasing a small building near the Sprague Print Works and opening a general grocery store.
Five years later in 1840, he removed to Providence, and with Olney Winsor and L.E. Bowen, under the firm name of Winsor, Knight & Company, engaged in the wholesale and retail grocery business.
In 1842 he bought controlling interest in the company, and in 1847 his brother Jeremiah Knight became associated with him, under the style of B. B. Knight & Company.
In 1852 he sold a half interest in his company flour and grain business to his brother Robert Knight, and purchased a half interest in the Pontiac Mill and Bleachery, and established the firm of B. B. & R. Knight, the extended into the manufacturing and mercantile fields from this company.
The brothers at one time or another owned as many as 21 cotton mills, in nearly as many villages scattered over Rhode Island, with a total capacity of around 11000 looms and over four hundred thousand spindles.
They had stores located in New York City, at Worth St. and others in Boston, Massachusetts, Philadelphia, and Baltimore.
Brayton Knight also served a term as a state legislator and as a member of the City Goverment of Providence, R.I. He served as alderman from the sixth ward in 1865-66-67, was chairmen of the Finance Committee of the Aldermanic Board, and was twice elected to the General Assembly.
He was President of the Butcher's and Drover's Bank from 1853 until soon before his death.
This company was the founder of the Fruit of the Loom Trade Mark, in 1856, it was registered as a trade mark in the United States Patent Office in (#418) in 1871 one year after passage of the first trademark law by congress. [biography by William Custer Knight]
Son of Stephen Knight and Whealtha Brayton Knight; brother of Sophia Amelia, Jeremiah, Mary Briggs, Anna, Elizabeth, Robert,Stephen Albert, and Dexter Newton Knight.
His early life was spent helping his father Stephen Knight on the family farm, and his educational advantages were limited to occasional terms in the district schools, until he was eighteen years old,in 1831, at which time he entered the Spraque Print Works at Cranston Rhode Island, where he served as an operative for two yeas and then returned to farming for two years.
In 1835 he started his first business venture, by purchasing a small building near the Sprague Print Works and opening a general grocery store.
Five years later in 1840, he removed to Providence, and with Olney Winsor and L.E. Bowen, under the firm name of Winsor, Knight & Company, engaged in the wholesale and retail grocery business.
In 1842 he bought controlling interest in the company, and in 1847 his brother Jeremiah Knight became associated with him, under the style of B. B. Knight & Company.
In 1852 he sold a half interest in his company flour and grain business to his brother Robert Knight, and purchased a half interest in the Pontiac Mill and Bleachery, and established the firm of B. B. & R. Knight, the extended into the manufacturing and mercantile fields from this company.
The brothers at one time or another owned as many as 21 cotton mills, in nearly as many villages scattered over Rhode Island, with a total capacity of around 11000 looms and over four hundred thousand spindles.
They had stores located in New York City, at Worth St. and others in Boston, Massachusetts, Philadelphia, and Baltimore.
Brayton Knight also served a term as a state legislator and as a member of the City Goverment of Providence, R.I. He served as alderman from the sixth ward in 1865-66-67, was chairmen of the Finance Committee of the Aldermanic Board, and was twice elected to the General Assembly.
He was President of the Butcher's and Drover's Bank from 1853 until soon before his death.
This company was the founder of the Fruit of the Loom Trade Mark, in 1856, it was registered as a trade mark in the United States Patent Office in (#418) in 1871 one year after passage of the first trademark law by congress. [biography by William Custer Knight]
His early life was spent helping his father Stephen Knight on the family farm, and his educational advantages were limited to occasional terms in the district schools, until he was eighteen years old,in 1831, at which time he entered the Spraque Print Works at Cranston Rhode Island, where he served as an operative for two yeas and then returned to farming for two years.
In 1835 he started his first business venture, by purchasing a small building near the Sprague Print Works and opening a general grocery store.
Five years later in 1840, he removed to Providence, and with Olney Winsor and L.E. Bowen, under the firm name of Winsor, Knight & Company, engaged in the wholesale and retail grocery business.
In 1842 he bought controlling interest in the company, and in 1847 his brother Jeremiah Knight became associated with him, under the style of B. B. Knight & Company.
In 1852 he sold a half interest in his company flour and grain business to his brother Robert Knight, and purchased a half interest in the Pontiac Mill and Bleachery, and established the firm of B. B. & R. Knight, the extended into the manufacturing and mercantile fields from this company.
The brothers at one time or another owned as many as 21 cotton mills, in nearly as many villages scattered over Rhode Island, with a total capacity of around 11000 looms and over four hundred thousand spindles.
They had stores located in New York City, at Worth St. and others in Boston, Massachusetts, Philadelphia, and Baltimore.
Brayton Knight also served a term as a state legislator and as a member of the City Goverment of Providence, R.I. He served as alderman from the sixth ward in 1865-66-67, was chairmen of the Finance Committee of the Aldermanic Board, and was twice elected to the General Assembly.
He was President of the Butcher's and Drover's Bank from 1853 until soon before his death.
This company was the founder of the Fruit of the Loom Trade Mark, in 1856, it was registered as a trade mark in the United States Patent Office in (#418) in 1871 one year after passage of the first trademark law by congress. [biography by William Custer Knight]
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