W. B. Belknap
| W. B. Belknap | |
|---|---|
| Born | Brimfield, Massachusetts |
| Died | Jefferson County, Kentucky |
| Residence | Louisville, Kentucky |
| Occupation | Founding owner, Belknap Hardware and Manufacturing Company |
| Home town | Louisville, Kentucky |
| Spouse(s) | Mary Richardson |
| Children | Frances Belknap, Caroline Belknap, Lucy Belknap, William Richardson Belknap and Morris Burke Belknap |
| Parent(s) | Morris Burke Belknap, the elder (1780-1877) and Phoebe Locke Thompson (1788-1873). |
W. B. Belknap, also known as William Burke Belknap (the elder) (1811-1889), not to be confused with his grandson William Burke Belknap (the younger) (1885–1965) or great-grandson William Burke Belknap, Jr. (1893–1952), was the founder of W .B. Belknap and Company, an early iron and nail business at Third and Main Street in downtown Louisville, Kentucky which evolved by 1840 into the mammoth Belknap Hardware and Manufacturing Company. He was born in Brimfield, Massachusetts, where he spent his early years helping his father Morris Burke Belknap (the elder) (1780-1877) in an iron furnace foundry business.[1]
Origins of Belknap Hardware and Manufacturing
W. B. traveled to Pittsburgh, East Tennessee, St. Louis, and Cincinnati before settling his hardware business on the banks of the Ohio River in Louisville.[2][3] He became a prominent Kentucky citizen and businessman who hosted Ulysses S. Grant and William T. Sherman in his home during the American Civil War.[4]
Kentucky family
W. B. was the son of Morris Burke Belknap, the elder, and Phoebe Locke Thompson (1788-1873). In 1843 he married Mary Richardson, daughter of William Richardson, President of the North Kentucky Bank.[1] He was the father of three daughters, Frances "Fanny," Caroline, and Lucy, and of two sons, William Richardson Belknap and Morris Burke Belknap. His son Morris Burke Belknap (the younger) married Lily Buckner (1858 -1893), the granddaughter of Simon Bolivar Buckner, the 30th Governor of Kentucky.[5]
W. B.'s son Morris Burke Belknap (the younger (1856 -1910) , and Lily Buckner Belknap were the grandparents of the Belknap/Moorman twins, Charles H. Moorman, Jr. and Morris Burke Moorman, the only children of their only daughter, also named Lily, and Judge Charles Harwood Moorman, Sr. The twins were both born on February 25, 1925 and both were killed in action while serving in the U.S. Army in 1944 during the World War II defense of Normandy, France, thus leaving Lily a widow with no living children or parents.[1]
Progeny
William Burke Belknap (the elder) was the grandfather of Alice Belknap Hawkes, Eleanor Belknap Humphrey, William Burke Belknap, the younger, Mary Belknap Gray, and Christine Belknap Robinson. He was the great-grandfather of Dr. Edward Cornelius Humphrey and Alice Humphrey (who married Gerald D. Morgan). He was the great-great-grandfather of economist Thomas MacGillivray Humphrey and Barbara Morgan Meade, a founder and former co-owner of Politics and Prose.
W. B. Belknap, also known as William Burke Belknap (the elder), was the great-great-grandfather of John Lawrance Hawkes, who edited and published in 2000 the journal of Joel Root, Hawkes' ancestor who kept a log of his journey around the world on a sailing ship sealing expedition which departed from New Haven, Connecticut on September 1, 1802.[6]
References
- 1 2 3 Wiser, Steve. "The Belknap Twins: A Faded Louisville Legacy". Louisville, Kentucky. pp. 1, 10.
- ↑ W.B. Belknap & Co., W.B. Belknap & Co. (c. 1862). Belknap & Company Flyer (Database: WorldCat) (An advertising flyer ed.). Louisville, Kentucky: W.B Belknap & Company.
Iron industry and trade
- ↑ http://www.crayoncollecting.com/Other/Belknap.htm
- ↑ Wiser, Steve. "The Belknap Twins: A Faded Louisville Legacy". Louisville, Kentucky. p. 2.
- ↑ Johnson, E. Polk (1912). A History of Kentucky and Kentuckians: The Leaders and Representative Men in Commerce, Industry and Modern Activities. Chicago, Illinois: Lewis Publishing Company. Retrieved 6 January 2016.
- ↑ John Lawrance Hawkes. The Journal of Joel Root, Supercargo, on the brig Huron, 1802-1806. Preface by John Lawrance Hawkes, transcribed with notes by Donald M. Johnson. Published by John Lawrance Hawkes in Dorset, Vermont, copyright 2000, 87 pp., in a limited edition of 250 copies.