Hillsborough-Monroe-Lee County FlArchives Biographies.....Knight, Peter Oliphant 1865 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com February 1, 2008, 12:02 am

Author: B. F. Johnson

Peter Oliphant Knight

    Eminent in the legal profession with a keen interest in politics, prominent
in social and club life and an influential factor in industrial and financial
circles, Peter O. Knight, of Tampa, has rendered immeasurable service not only
in the development of the natural resources of his section and State, but in
promoting their industrial and political welfare. He has served his people as
Legislator and State's Attorney, but his years have been largely devoted to the
practice of his profession in which he has attained enviable success. Energetic
and enterprising, he has contributed his time and means to the promotion of
measures and interests tending toward the welfare of his adopted home.

    Mr. Knight is a native of Pennsylvania, having first seen the light at
Freeburg, Snyder county, December 16, 1865. He is of pioneer stock, his
grandfather, Richard Knight, being the youngest soldier that enlisted in the
Revolutionary War, and later a Captain in the War of 1812. Mr. Knight was the
only child of James W. Knight, a lawyer and Sarah E. Kantz. As a child he
attended the Freeburg Academy, but upon his father's death, when he was nine
years of age, his mother removed to Indiana, and there Mr. Knight attended the
Indiana Normal School at Valparaiso, from which he graduated in 1884, receiving
the degree of LL.B.

    Removing to Fort Myers, then in Monroe county, Fla., Mr. Knight soon
manifested the faculty of successful leadership that has marked his career. He
inaugurated a movement for the incorporation of Fort Myers and was honored by
being elected the first Mayor of the town, in recognition of his services. His
growing reputation was indicated soon thereafter, by his nomination for the
Legislature by the Democratic convention which assembled at Key West. This honor
he was forced to decline by reason of the fact that he had not yet become of
age. Mr. Knight next fathered a movement to make a new county out of a portion
of Monroe county and in the success of this effort Lee county came into
existence in 1887. His plan to make Fort Myers the county seat was alike
successful. Elected the first delegate from the new county to the State
Democratic convention in 1888, Mr. Knight had the honor of placing in nomination
Judge Mitchell (afterwards Governor Mitchell) for Justice of the Supreme Court.
Accepting the nomination for the Legislature, Mr. Knight served as Lee county's
first member of the House of Representatives and possibly holds the record as
the youngest man who ever held the important position of chairman of the
Judiciary Committee.

    At the conclusion of the session of the Legislature, Mr. Knight removed to
Tampa, where he formed a law partnership with Gen. J. B. Wall, and under the
firm name of Wall and Knight engaged in the general practice of his profession
for three years. In 1893 he was appointed Solicitor of the Criminal Court of
Hillsborough county, which court had just been created by the Legislature
through his efforts and influence. Mr. Knight held the office of Solicitor for
six years, until May, 1899, when he resigned to accept the higher station of
State's Attorney for the Sixth Judicial Circuit. He has also rendered the public
splendid service as a member of the City Council of Tampa.

    While he enjoys a large practice in all branches of law, Mr. Knight has
devoted much study to corporate law in which he is a recognized authority and
for which he has a State wide reputation. As a result he has the record of
incorporating a larger number of companies than any other attorney in the State
and is retained by more corporate interests than any other attorney. He is the
counsel for the combined fish interests of the State, for the syndicate of cigar
factories, for the Bell Telephone Company, for the Seaboard Air Line Railway,
and for numerous other corporations and business concerns in which he has no
financial interest, but he is an officer or director in, and takes an active
personal interest in the affairs of the following institutions in which he has
investments: The Plant City, Arcadia and Gulf Railway, Tampa Terminal Company,
Street Railway and Electric Lighting System of Tampa, Tampa Gas Company, Tribune
Publishing Company, Tampa Hardware Company, Tampa Foundry and Machine Company,
Tampa Building and Loan Association, Ybor City Land and Improvement Company,
Exchange National Bank, Bank of Brooksville, West Tampa Bank, Tampa Investment
and Securities Company, Florida Brewing Company, Tampa Ice Delivery Company,
Tampa Steam Ways Company, Ybor City Building and Loan Association, Tampa
Investment and Security Company.

    Mr. Knight also has extensive social and lodge connections, being a member
of the Cherokee Club, The Spanish Casino, The German Club, The Crescent Club,
The Tampa Yacht and Country Club, The Circulo Cubano, The Spanish Asturiano,
Knights of Pythias, Woodmen of the World, Elks, Patriotic Sons of America, Sons
of the American Revolution, Military Order of Foreign Wars and all branches and
degrees of Masonry, being a thirty-third degree Mason.

    Mr. Knight married Miss Lillie Frierson, daughter of Capt. T. D. Frierson of
Sumter, S. C, and they have two bright children. While devoted to his profession
Mr. Knight is at the same time active in politics in which field he is as much a
recognized leader as in the law and industrial affairs. Of remarkable ability
and widely known he is a man of extensive influence. His talents have been
wisely exercised, and his ability and integrity command the highest esteem in
every circle. His courtesy and affability are proverbial and possibly no man in
the State claims more admirers and warm personal friends. A leader in thought
and activity, he is one of the men who do things, bettering their own condition
and that of their fellow man.

    Mr. Knight declares that he has "no patience with the hypocrisy and jealousy
which now seems to have possession of this country," and expresses the firm
conviction that the material welfare and happiness of both State and nation
could best be subserved "by stopping the present tirade against the
corporations, successful men and business institutions of this country, and
recognizing the fact that nearly all men are honest and that practically all of
them, from their standpoint, are doing the best they can to better the
conditions of themselves and their families and the country in which they live."


Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

FLORIDA EDITION
MAKERS OF AMERICA
AN HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL WORK BY AN ABLE CORPS OF WRITERS
VOL. III.
Published under the patronage of 
The Florida Historical Society, Jacksonville, Florida

ADVISORY BOARD:
HON. W. D.  BLOXHAM
COL. FRANK HARRIS
HON. R. W. DAVIS
SEN. H. H. McCREARY
HON. F. P. FLEMING
W. F. STOVALL
C. A. CHOATE, SECRETARY

1909
A. B. CALDWELL
ATLANTA, GA.

COPYRIGHT 1909
B. F. JOHNSON


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