Jesse Knight
American businessman (1845–1921)
Jesse Knight (6 September 1845 – 14 March 1921) was an American mining magnate, one of relatively few Latter-day Saints in 19th century Western America to find major success in the field.
After the death of his father Newel Knight, Jesse's family was poor throughout his youth. As a young man, he worked as a prospector and discovered the Humbug Mine in the Tintic Mining District near Eureka, Utah in 1896. As the Humbug proved profitable, he acquired other mines in the vicinity, including the Uncle Sam, Beck Tunnel, Iron Blossom, and Colorado mines. After making his fortune, Knight went on to found the Latter Day Saint settlement of Raymond, Alberta, Canada. In 1964, he was inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners of the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.
Biography
Knight was born in Nauvoo, Illinois to Newel and Lydia Knight, two prominent members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). When Jesse was one-year-old, his family was forced to flee Nauvoo as Mormon pioneers under the leadership of Brigham Young. Jesse's father died in Nebraska on the Mormon Trail in January 1847; his mother and eight siblings continued on but were not able to reach their Salt Lake Valley destination until early 1850.
Knight is significant in Western American mining and entrepreneurial history because in several important ways he differed from the stereotypical "robber baron" capitalists of the late-nineteenth century Gilded Age.
“Jesse Knight” enters the record as american businessman (1845–1921). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Jesse, Knight and American can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6186526. VIAF identifies the subject as 76260578. The Library of Congress control number is nr2003025332. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1845, 1921, 1896 and 1964.
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This entry incorporates text from “Jesse Knight” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.