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John Knauf

American politician (1868-1952)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 11, 2026
Entity authorityQ6243301
Source-derived summary

John Knauf (April 5, 1868 – September 19, 1952) was an American judge who served as a justice of the Supreme Court of North Dakota in 1906. He died in 1952 at age 84.

Early life and education

Knauf was born in Waterloo, Michigan, on April 5, 1868. When he was young, his parents died and along with his brothers and sisters he moved to Stutsman County, North Dakota, in 1883. Knauf was educated in the school system of Jamestown, North Dakota. For higher education, he spent one year at Jamestown College and one year at St. John's University in Collegeville, Minnesota, before enrolling at the University of Michigan School of Law where he received a law degree in 1892.

Legal and judicial career

After receiving his law degree, Knauf was admitted to practice law in the state of Michigan. He was admitted to the North Dakota Bar in 1893 and thereafter opened a legal office in Jamestown. While in Jamestown, he served for a time as a Stutsman County judge.

Editorial summary

“John Knauf” enters the record as american politician (1868-1952). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what John, Knauf and American can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1868, 1952, 1906, 1883—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1868-04-05. Its strongest next move is a source search built around John, Knauf and American.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“John Knauf” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, John, Knauf and American provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6243301. VIAF identifies the subject as 50848033. The Library of Congress control number is n90660747. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1868, 1952, 1906 and 1883.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “John Knauf”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow John Knauf primary sources, John Knauf archive and John research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “John Knauf”?
  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from John Knauf” 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.