Benjamin Knower

Benjamin Knower (1775 Roxbury, now a borough of Boston, Massachusetts – August 23, 1839 Watervliet, Albany County, New York) was an American merchant, banker and politician.

Life

By 1800 he had removed to Dutchess County, New York, and on June 21, 1800, he married Sarah Van Kleek (1779–1833) at the Dutch Reformed Church in Poughkeepsie, New York. Before 1810, he settled in Albany, New York where he sold hats made by his brother Timothy in Guilderland, New York. Local lore had it that the hats were made waterproof by immersion in the Bozenkill, a stream behind a mansion in Knowersville, a village of Guilderland.

Knower was a presidential elector in 1820, voting for James Monroe and Daniel D. Tompkins.

He was New York State Treasurer from 1821 to 1824, and was one of the leading members of the Albany Regency. On April 28, 1824, his daughter Cornelia (ca. 1801–1889) married State Comptroller William L. Marcy.

Knower became rich as a financier of the Erie Canal and as a director of the Mechanics and Farmers Bank of Albany. After the death of his first wife, on June 23, 1836, he married Sophia P. Castle (d. 1886) in New York City.

He was buried at the Albany Rural Cemetery in Menands, New York. His home at Guilderland, New York known as the Knower House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.[1]

Sources
  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
Political offices
Preceded by
Gerrit L. Dox		 New York State Treasurer
1821–1824		 Succeeded by
Abraham Keyser, Jr.
gollark: Oh, and their prison which tortures people into insanity, and this is seen as a feature?
gollark: There *were* those people tortured into insanity.
gollark: IIRC there's an offhand mention to flying carpets, *being banned* due to apioformic tradition by the ministry.
gollark: WHO thought "hmm, I can make arbitrary objects fly. Why don't I put said flight thing on a really thin object which is not merely irritating to sit on but also hard to control?"‽
gollark: No, it just lets them know where you are.
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