OREGON PIONEERS- "1845"
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Oregon bound emigrants starting from St. Joseph, Missouri.
According to the St. Joseph paper, it was composed of 223 wagons, 954 persons with 345 firearms, 9,425 cattle and 108 horses and mules. John Clark was hired as "pilot" for the journey to the junction with the Independence-to-Oregon Trail.

Knighton Immigrants:
KNIGHTON, HENRY MONTGOMERY - (1818-1863)- married 1841 ELIZABETH MARTIN.

KNIGHTON, JOSEPHINE S.- born circa 1842- never married- (d/o Henry M. & Elizabeth Martin Knighton).

KNIGHTON, LASSELLA F.- b: circa 1844- married ? Struve (d/o Henry M. & Elizabeth Martin Knighton).

HENRY M. KNIGHTON, Founder of St. Helens
by Pearl Becker
Page 17, volume X, 1971
COLUMBIA COUNTY HISTORY

HENRY MONTGOMERY KNIGHTON-- KNIGHTON HOUSE
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Henry MONTGOMERY KNIGHTON, FOUNDER of the City of St. Helens, Oregon, was born in 1818 in New Jersey, according to the record he gave in his application for an Oregon Donation Land Claim. He was married April 23, 1841 in Pettis Township, Platte County, Missouri, to Miss Elizabeth Jane Martin.
By 1845 when he and Elizabeth came to Oregon by ox team, they had two little girls, Josephine, born in 1842 and Louella, born in 1844 in Missouri.

Elizabeth's family came in the same wagon train and settled in Yamhill County. Henry KNIGHTON and family stopped at Oregon City, where he started the City Hotel. His building was used for the meeting place of the first territorial Legislature in 1846, for Oregon City was the state capital at that time. Knighton served as sergeant-at-arms for the session. He was appointed U.S. Marshall in 1846, when Joe Meek, the first Marshall, resigned. He was elected to that office in 1848.

In 1847, KNIGHTON took a Donation Land Claim on the lower Columbia, where he established the town of St. Helens, calling it New Plymouth, Kasenau, and finally, Mt. Helens.
He interested the Pacific Mail steamship Company to make St. Helens its northern terminus and docks and warehouses were built in 1852.
A railroad was planned from this point through Corneluis Pass to the Tualatin Valley. This plan did not develop. The docks burned and the Knightons moved to The Dalles, where he became a ship's captain on the Columbia River, operating ships between the Dalles and Portland. At the time of his death in 1864 from typhoid fever, he was captain of the steamer Iris of the People's Transportation Company.
He is buried at Vancouver, Washington.

When the family came to St. Helens, they lived in a log house where their first son, Sagerlin (called Sam), was born in 1847. It is told that Capt. LeMont's ship came "around the Horn" in 1850, bringing lumber from Maine and Knighton's new house was then built in 1851, using rough lumber from the local mill at Milton and finishing lumber brought by Capt. LeMont. This is the house where, 119 years later, a plaque has been placed by Mount St. Helens Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution designating the house as a historic site.

On the 1860 COLUMBIA COUNTY, Oregon Census:
#73.01= KNIGHTON, HENRY M.- Merchent- age 41 (b:1819)- b:N.J.
Wife: ELIZABETH- age 36 (b:1824) MO
Dau: JOSEPHINE- age 17 (b:1843) MO
Dau: LASSELLA- age 15 (b:1845) MO
Son: SEGARLIN- age 13 (b:1847) OR
Dau: EMMA- age 1 (b:1859) OR
Dau: ANNIE- age 1 (b:1859) OR

Henry Montgomery Knighton was born in Morris county NJ, the son of Thomas Knighton (d 5 May 1874 age 88) & Ann Stevenson Knighton (d 25 July 1868) who emigrated from the Derbyshire area of England sometime about 1816. There was a notice of Henry's death in the 'Jerseyman' newspaper. Thomas & Ann had 9 children, 1 other son ended up in Missouri (Ezra). The rest of the children pretty much stayed in the NJ/NY area.

Thanks, Sue, for your additional information on Henry M. Knighton. Very informative.

Thanks Again,
Peggy

Henry Montgomery Knighton is my GreatGreat Grandfather - I have been to his house in St. Helens and to his grave site in Vancouver, Washington. I am interested in his brothers and sisters? Do you have info on the children of Thomas and Ann Knighton.?

Just saw your request. Thomas & Ann Knighton had 9 children:
Frederick b 1812 Eng d 1888, m Sarah Wilson, 1 daughter, chaplin in Civil War
Eliza m George Washington Hands 1838
Emma b 1815 maybe in Eng, m Isaac Beach 1854
Henry 1818-1863
Ezra 1823-1908 Clay Co MO, 7 children
Sarah 1825-1896, m John Johnson 1844, b Eng, my gggrandfather
Mary 1829-1885, m John Francis Burnet 1854
Martha 1832, not married in 1871 - Thomas' will
Richmond 1832, no other info, in Thomas' will

Dear Susan, thanks so much for the info - it looks like your gggrandfather was a brother-in-law to my gggrandfather Henry. Henry Montgomery Knighton m Elizabeth Jane Martin in Pettis Township, Platte County, Missouri April 23, 1841.

Oh, I forgot to sign my message - my husband and I use the same email - my name is Beverly Knighton Prince, looking forward to sharing more info. for now, Beverly

Beverly - Do you have any info on Thomas? He was born in Ilkeston Derbyshire Eng and was married there in 1811. There are alot of Knightons in that area, but I haven't been able to connect him to any yet. The family does not seem to have any tradition of naming patterns - sons names after fathers etc.

Sue

Hi Sue, we have a daughter named Susan and a d-in-law we call Sue. I have done no research in England. You were my first real connection to Thomas and Ann. I kept running into the names but never could put Henry with them. When Henry and Elizabeth + 2 daughters left Missouri by Oxen in a large wagon train, they finally settled on the Colubia River Oregon and he built the town and called it St.Helens. I had a friend travelling in England a few years ago and she wrote to me about being in St. Helens. Also, I was reading on the blogs some man said he had been to Knighton England and it was a very small nice town with a graveyard but no Knightons in the graveyard. Bev.