Outstanding Leader in Many Phases of Business, Finance and Insurance; Civic Leader

Submitted by John Appleyard

The Knowles family of Pensacola dated its presence in Florida to early in the Territorial Period, when Peter H. Knowles arrived here. Peter Knowles married Josephine Hyer, daughter of Henry and Julia Kopman Hyer, who had arrived in the United States in 1822 and in Pensacola soon thereafter. The initial generations of these families prospered and laid the financial groundwork for the career of Peter's grandsons, William and L. P.

William Knowles was born near Pensacola December 27, 1857 and was educated in the small private schools which then served the more affluent families of the area. He then spent one term at the University of the South in Suwannee, Tennessee.

In 1875 L. P. Knowles entered into a financial partnership with Francis C. Brent to open a small bank or "counting house" on South Palafox Street which took the name of Knowles & Brent. William Knowles entered the company as a clerk. For more than a decade this bank grew, and William Knowles progressed with it. Early in the 1890s, the elder brother left the organization to become party to a newly founded bank, but William stayed on to be part of what was then called F. C. Brent and Company. In 1893 this institution was merged with the First National Bank of Pensacola, thus becoming the area's largest financial house. Knowles soon became the bank's vice-president, which he remained until the initial retirement of Francis Brent, at which time Knowles succeeded to the presidency.

The 1890s was an era in which many Pensacola business leaders held multiple offices, leading allied firms. William Knowles was an outstanding example of this. In 1860 his brother had established a small insurance company which closed in 1862, then reopened shortly after the war. In 1876 (the year of the Knowles-Brent bank opening) the younger brother joined his older sibling as part of the insurance firm too, and ultimately he became this firm's president as well.

At this time, as lumbering expanded, there were many collateral opportunities, and William Knowles, like Brent and others, took advantage of them. Knowles became president of the Pensacola Finance Company, and then chief executive officer of the Maritime Corporation, which placed his hand in the shipping business. At the century's end he also was one of the managing directors of the Pensacola Lumber Company. Like Brent, William Blount and William Dudley Chipley, Knowles was active in politics, though he apparently never stood for public office himself. A Democrat, he was said to have done much work on behalf of his party. He entertained Secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt at the Knowles' home during Roosevelt's official visit here.

And, as a successful civic leader, Knowles led an active life in church and community. He was a member of Christ Episcopal Church, and belonged to the Army & Navy Club, The Lawyer's Club (both of these being in New York City and suggestive of his travel routines), the Osceola Club, the Pensacola Chamber of Commerce, and the Pensacola Country Club. His home was on the bay shore and was called Harbourview.

Knowles was married in 1885 to Mary Davis Ellis, whose father had been governor of North Carolina in 1861. The Knowles had six children, including Ellis Knowles, Josephine Knowles Seligman, Jeannie Knowles Fay, Peter Knowles and William H. Knowles.

William Hyer Knowles is buried in 2 North Section 17 of St. John's Historic Cemetery.