Windham

KNAPP, Lyman E.

Men of Vermont: Illustrated Biographical History of Vermonters & Sons of 
Vermont. Ullery. Brattleboro: Transcript Publishing Company, 1894, part III, 
pp 99-100

Lyman E. KNAPP, of Sitka [Sitka County], Alaska, son of Hiram and Elvira 
(STEARNS) KNAPP, was born in Somerset [Windham County, Vermont], 05 November 
1837. He was the fourth in direct line of descent from Captain Joseph KNAPP, 
of Taunton [Bristol County], Massachusetts, who commanded a company in 
Colonel TITCOMB's regiment during the War of the Revolution. His 
grandfather, Cyrus KNAPP, removed to Dover, [Windham County, Vermont] about 
the beginning of the nineteenth century. His first ancestor in this country 
came from Yorkshire, England, and settled at Brighton [Suffolk County], 
Massachusetts, in 1640 [and later moved to Taunton, Massachusetts. According 
to the records of the Daughters of the American Revolution (vol 112, p 203), 
the parents of Lyman Enos KNAPP were Hiram KNAPP (1803-1859) and Elvira 
(STEARNS) KNAPP (1804-1880); paternal grandparents: Cyrus KNAPP (1764-1852) 
and Thankful STEARNS, married in 1792; paternal great grandparents: Job 
KNAPP (born in 1740 in Douglas, Worcester County, Massachusetts, died in 
1785, buried in Douglas) and Ruth REED (1747-1811); great great grandfather: 
Joseph KNAPP.]

Lyman E. KNAPP prepared for college at Barre Seminary, Manchester [Bennington 
County, Vermont], and graduated with honors from Middlebury College in 1862. 
Directly after graduation he enlisted as a private in Company I, Sixteenth 
Regiment Vermont Volunteers for nine months; elected and commissioned captain 
of the company before mustered into the U. S. service. Received his baptism 
of fire in the battle of Gettysburg and was wounded in his right shoulder by 
a bullet from a spherical case shot during the famous bayonet charge of the 
Sixteenth Vermont Regiment, to meet the rebel charge under PICKETT. The 
wound proved not to be serious, and after discharge from his first service, 
he re-enlisted, raised, raised a company of volunteers at Townshend [Windham 
County, Vermont], which was assigned as Company F, Seventeenth Regiment 
Vermont Volunteers; in command of that company he served in GRANT's famous 
Wilderness campaign of 1864. The regiment saw very severe service, was 
engaged in fourteen of the historic battles of the war and suffered greater 
losses in killed and wounded during sixteen months of service than most of 
the regiments which put in their full terms of three and four years. He was 
engaged with his regiment in all these battles and was wounded at two of 
them, Spottsylvania and the capture of Petersburg, though not severely. 
Promoted to major, 25 October 1864, and lieutenant colonel a few days later. 
Also received a brevet commission from the President [Lincoln] "for gallant 
and meritorious action" in the battle of Petersburg, 02 April 1885. At the 
close of the war he settled in Middlebury [Addison County], Vermont.

In 1872-1873 he was one of the clerks of the Vermont House of 
Representatives. In 1886-1887 he was an influential member of the same body. 
For twenty years, from 1869 to 1889, he was the trial justice of the peace 
of his county, before whom the more important and difficult cases were 
brought for adjudication. He was register of probate for two years and 
became judge of the same court in 1879, which office he held by successive 
elections until he resigned in 1889 to accept an appointment from President 
HARRISON as the office of Governor of Alaska.

He was chairman of the Republican committee of his county eight years, and 
has served as a member of the school board for his district; chairman of the 
county temperance society; vice president of the Western Vermont 
Congregational Club; town clerk for a number of years; treasurer of the 
Addison County grammar school; chairman of the business committee of the 
Middlebury Congregational Religious Society; town assessor of taxes; chairman 
of the county evangelization committee, and connected with every movement for 
the promotion of morals and philanthropy which came within his reach. 
Sometimes he made addresses on occasions like the Fourth of July, Memorial 
Day, religious conventions, temperance meetings, and society anniversaries, 
and wrote editorial articles and communications for periodicals and 
newspapers other than his own. These articles were highly appreciated and 
much sought after. [He was editor and publisher of the "Middlebury Register" 
from 1865-1878, and contributed editorial articles to the "American Law 
Register" and the "Chicago Inter-Ocean." He was admitted to the Vermont bar 
in 1876.]

In college he was a member of the Delta Upsilon fraternity and belonged to 
the honorary Alumni society, Phi Beta Kappa, after graduation, and has held 
the office of president of the local chapter. Soon after the war he became a 
member of the Grand Army of the Republic, and served several terms as 
commander of his post. His interest in the work of the learned societies 
never flagged. He is still a member of four historical societies, including 
the Alaska Historical Society of which he is president, of the National 
Geographic Society, of one ethnological society, of the American Institute of 
Civics of New York, whose object is to promote a higher and purer 
citizenship; and has made geology and mineralogy the special study of many of 
his summer vacations.

In addition to his professional and official work he had an extensive loan 
business of which he conducted the eastern and western agencies in Kansas, 
Iowa, Minnesota, Dakota, and Washington, and he had the management of several 
trust estates. All these business connections he laid aside in 1889 on 
leaving for Alaska. He became Governor of Alaska on taking the oath of 
office, 20 April 1889, since which time he has conducted the business of the 
executive of that territory. The duties of that office have been exceedingly 
onerous, and the responsibilities heavy and wearing. He has made four 
extended annual reports, which have been published and have become the 
authority on matters embraced therein. [He served as Governor of Alaska 
until 09 January 1893.] Politically his sympathies were ever with the 
Republican party. His first vote for President was cast for Abraham Lincoln 
in 1860. He became a member of the Congregational church at the age of 
fifteen, and has ever remained devotedly attached to the principles of that 
faith. On 23 January 1865 at Washington, D. C., he [Lyman E. KNAPP] married 
Martha A., daughter of Ebenezer and Corcina (JONES) SEVERANCE; their children 
are: George E., Frances A., Lyman Edwin, and May A.

Submitted by Cathy Kubly