Garland Hester Knight 1830-1862 Family Bible
Garland Hester Knight was born in Smith County, Tennessee on 16 September 1830, son of William
Montague Knight (1802-1853) and Frances (Hester) Knight (1802-1883). On 15 April 1852, he
married Jane Shields Draper, daughter of William Draper (1798-1879) and Nancy (Payne) Draper
(1797-1860). Garland and Jane Knight had five children:
1)Victoria Helen Knight born 26 November 1853,
2)Virginia Margaret Knight born 20 March 1855,
3)Joel Breckinridge Knight born 10 May 1857,
4)Isaac Franklin Knight born 20 April 1859, and
5)Woodson Howard Knight born 18 October 1860.
When his homeland was threatened during the "Civil War", Garland Knight enlisted at Mill Springs
on the 20 of December 1861 for a period of 12 months, joining Company D of the 28th Tennessee
Infantry, Confederate States of America, later attaining the rank of corporal. Just two months later,
in February 1862, the cruelties of war brought death to Garland Hester Knight, leaving his 32
year old wife Jane a widow, with five small children to raise. Seven years later, on 27 February 1869,
Jane married Thomas Cornwell and lived in Macon County, Tennessee. They had five children:
1)Ida C. Cornwell,
2)Virgil B. Cornwell,
3)Simeon Alma Cornwell,
4)Cornelia C. Cornwell,
5)Willie Mae Cornwell.
Thomas Cornwell also had children from a previous marriage. Thomas and Jane Cornwell, along
with sometimes a dozen or more children, lived in a log house near West Fork Creek, Macon
County, Tennessee. Tragedy struck again when on 16 September 1883, Jane was drowned after
trying to cross the flooded creek during a rainstorm.
Garland Knight's Bible passed to his youngest son Woodson Howard Knight, then to his daughter
Verna Esther Knight, then to her daughter Martha (Knight) Carver, then to her grand nephew Nathan Knight.
