Robert Knaggs

Robert Knaggs went a different route than many of the folks who came to Walton.  He was born in Monroe County, Michigan in 1822 and left the state in 1841 for Bath, Steuben County, New York.  He attended school through the winter and in the spring of 1842 returned to Monroe County and farmed for one season, then engaged in butchering, which he continued for the next twenty years. 

 The night before leaving Detroit, for Traverse City, in 1867,  he was robbed in the hotel of all his money except some small change. He arrived in Traverse City with only eighteen cents to start life in a new surroundings.  He soon obtained work at Hannah, Lay & Company and was employed by them eight years, doing carpenter work the majority of the time. Robert finally set off for Walton in 1875 and opened a hotel and stayed with this business.  

Eliza Ann Buck, a native of Steuben County, New York was to become the wife of Robert in 1842 only to pass on in 1847.  The second marriage for him in 1848 to Lasira Howe, who also died, not long after having two children, in 1853.  Marriage the third time to Harriet Benson, in 1854, and having five additional children, was to be a nice size family for this couple.

Source: The Traverse Region, published 1884.

@Created by Brenda K. Wolfgram Moore 18June2003