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An Illustrated History of the Counties of ROCK and PIPESTONE Minnesota

By ARTHUR P. ROSE
MEMBER OF THE MINNESOTA HISTORICAL Society
Author of the Histories of
NOBLES COUNTY
JACKSON COUNTY, ETC
NORTHERN HISTORY PUBLISHING Company
LUVERNE, MINNESOTA
Publishers 1911

Pages 514-515

PIERCE J. KNISS (1870), deceased. Of
all the men who at one time or another
have given of their energy and resources
in an unlimited extent to promote the material
advancement of the capital city of
Rock county, none is more deserving or
more willingly conceded a high place of
honor in the regard of Luverne's people
than is the late P. J. Kniss, who spent the
best years of his life in the upbuilding of
the town he selected in an early day for
his home. He is rightly regarded as one
of the founders of Luverne, for it was he
who surveyed the townsite, and it was he
who from the first year of its existence to
his own untimely death watched with
a parental pride over the needs of the
growing young municipality, and in a great
measure the city of today is indebted to
Mr. Kniss for its prosperous condition.
A native Ohioan, the honored subject of
this review was born at Old Defiance, Defiance
county, on the sixteenth day of November,
1839. His father was Jacob
Kniss, a Pennsylvanian by birth and a
man who won prosperity as a leather merchant.
The mother of our subject was
Minerva (Taylor) Kniss, a native of Virginia.
Pierce J. Kniss was left fatherless
in early infancy. Until after his fifteenth
birthday his home continued to be in the
Buckeye state, which he left with the rest
of the family soon after that event to become
a resident or Wisconsin. He completed
his education in the academy at
Delton, in Sauk county, following which
for a number of years he taught school in
Wisconsin and in Illinois. Mr. Kniss
early became a proficient surveyor and
eventually devoted his entire attention to
a career as civil engineer. He spent a
number of years in the employ of the
state in connection with the draining of
the state swamp lauds.
Mr. Kniss was numbered among the defenders
of the country's honor in the great
sectional struggle of the sixties. He enlisted
as a private in company K, Fiftieth
Wisconsin infantry, was subsequently promoted
to sergeant, and at the completion
of a sixteen months' service was mustered
out as the regimental adjutant. His regiment
was with the division which bivouacked
on the Missouri river and which
was finally ordered to Fort Rice, Dakota,
to campaign against the hostile redskins.
Sergeant Kniss was an active participant
in more than one spirited engagement in
the protection of the few settlers on the
frontier who were subject to the ravages
of the rebellious Indians.
It was in the month of June, 1870, that
Mr. Kniss first set foot on Rock county
soil. He selected land, and in the fall of
the same year he surveyed the town plat
of Luverne were not confined alone to the chosen site
of the future town, but were made to embrace
the whole county. He thoroughly
covered every portion of the then unorgani-
ed territory and platted every quarter
section, camping at night on the prairie
wherever night chanced to overtake
him, until the task was brought to a
conclusion. Mr. Kniss was Rock county's
first officially selected county surveyor.
For a number of years in the early seventies
he was largely engaged in railroad
contracting, building seventy miles of the
old St. Paul & Sioux City line of road and
also fifty miles for the Milwaukee system.
In 1876 P. J. Kniss, in company with O.
D. Brown, established a private banking
house in Luverne. This institution prospered
and eventually was incorporated as
a state bank. Ten years after the commencement
of his banking career Mr.
Kniss was instrumental in the organization
of the First National Bank of Luverne
and was its president for a number
of years. He was largely interested in the
organization and support of many of Luverne's
leading business and civic enterprises.
In a political way he was'selected
for preferment on several occasions. Mr.
Kniss was elected chairman of the board
of county commissioners in 1884, an office
he held for several terms. He served as
president of the village council and for
two terms represented the people of his
district in the lower house of the state
legislature.
Only a few months before he took up
the work which Destiny had selected for
him in Rock county, P. J. Kniss was married
to Minerva Donaldson, of Linden,
Wisconsin. Mrs. Kniss died in Pasadena,
California, November 22, 1887. To this
union were born three sons and three
daughters, named Lillian M., Everett J.,
Ella M., Paul D., Ruth G. and Pierce W.
It was in the holiday season of the year
1896 that Luverne was plunged into mourning
because of the passing away of her
foremost citizen. On December nineteenth
P. J. Kniss answered Death's call.
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Pierce J. Kniss, whose residence was in Necedah WI, enlisted on 3/6/1865 as a 1st Sergeant. On 3/6/1865 he mustered into "K" Co. WI 50th Infantry. He was Mustered Out on 6/14/1866.
Sources include:
* Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War Graves National Registration Database www.suvcw.org
* Minnesota Historical Society, Veterans Graves Registration
* Historical Data Systems, Inc., which used:
- Roster of Wisconsin Volunteers: War of the Rebellion
(c) Historical Data Systems, Inc. @ www.civilwardata.com

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