Armanis F. Knotts

Knotts was born in Highland County, Ohio on either February 29, 1860[1] or January 29, 1856[2] to Frank D. and Margaret (Bell) Knotts. His father was a farmer and carpenter from Pennsylvania, and his mother, a native of Ohio, was the daughter of an early Irish settler of Ohio.[1]

In 1868, the Knotts family moved to Indiana, settling in Medaryville in Pulaski County where he grew up working on the family farm and attending first the local district schools and then Valparaiso University. In 1870, his mother died, and his father married a woman named Jennie Yates. In 1884, Knotts married Mary Hennessey. In the lates 1880s, after spending several years teaching, Knotts enrolled in a law course at Valparaiso. During his studies, he was elected to be the county surveyor of Porter County. He held the office for eighteen months, from 1887 until 1888, then resigned after graduating from the law course.

In 1888, he moved to Hammond, Indiana, where he set up a law practice.[1] He quickly became involved in local politics, and was a strong supporter of the idea of giving Hammond a harbor on Wolf Lake to connect with Lake Michigan, earning the nickname "Harbor Knotts" for his zeal.[3]

He was elected to the Indiana House of Representatives in 1898 as the joint representative of Lake and Jasper counties.[3] As a legislator, he ensured the passage of the Circuit Court bill, which elevated the Superior Court of Hammond to the same level as the Circuit Court, and provided for the building of a new Superior Court House in Hammond.[3][4] He served one term and then was elected mayor of Hammond from 1902 to 1904.[4] While serving as mayor, he worked on bringing new industries into Hammond.[3][4]

Armanis and his brother, Thomas Knotts, were also heavily involved in the development of the city of Gary, Indiana.[4] In 1905, the United States Steel Corporation decided to open a new plant in the Midwest, and chose the current site of Gary for its location. They hired Armanis to act as their lawyer, and he worked to purchase the land for the mill, acting surreptitiously so as not to drive up prices.[5][6] Soon afterwards the Gary Land Company was set up in order to lay out the town and supervise its construction, with Knotts as its manager.[7]

In 1923, Knotts moved to Florida and founded the town of Yankeetown.[4]

In 1975, Armanis's nephew Eugene Knotts opened the A. F. Knotts Library in Yankeetown, Florida in honor of his uncle.[5]

• Ball, T.H., ed. (1904). Encyclopedia of Genealogy and Biography of Lake County, Indiana With A Compendium of History 1834-1904: A Record of the Achievements of Its People in the Making of a Commonwealth and the Founding of a Nation. The Lewis Publishing Company. Archived from the original on 2012-03-16. Retrieved 2010-03-29.
• Howat, William Frederick, ed. (1915). A Standard History of Lake County, Indiana And The Calumet Region. Vol. 1. p. 238. Retrieved 2010-03-29.
• Moore, Powell (1959). The Calument Region: Indiana's Last Frontier. Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Bureau. Archived from the original on 10 March 2010. Retrieved 2010-03-29.
• Lane, James B. (1978). City of the Century: A History of Gary, Indiana. Indiana University Press. p. 28. ISBN 9780253111876. Retrieved 2010-03-29. Armanis F. Knotts.

• A. Frank Knotts - Uncle A.F. and the Early Residents of Yankeetown Information on the founding of Yankeetown
• Armanis F. Knotts collection, Rare Books and Manuscripts, Indiana State Library