Lyman Potter Knowlton (1874 - 1955)

Born 17 Jul 1874 in Knowlton's Landing, Quebec

Ancestors

Husband of Harriet Zelpha (Cleveland) Knowlton — married 5 Jan 1898 in Barnston, Quebec

Descendants

Died 6 Oct 1955 at age 81 in Knowlton's Landing, Quebec

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Judy Young [send private message]

Biography

Lyman was born in 1874. He took over the family properties and was able to restore them to prosperity. They had sold Pine Lodge to John Tuck, and were land poor from years of neglect. They had extensive first growth timber that had never been sold, a good dairy herd of jerseys, and they tapped 5000 trees for maple syrup. Lyman personally took the sap off the maple trees, precisely judging the time, clarity and the weight. His employees then boiled it into syrup. The first sap went for maple syrup which had to weigh exactly 13.4 oz. including the can, the later sap went as an additive to chewing tobacco. Their syrup received awards. He employed teams of workers with their horses and wagons to assist him in the farm, road clearing, timber management and ice cutting. They supplied ice and farm produce to the summer people from Boston and Montreal who vacationed at Knowlton Landing. He ran a complicated year-round business and handled the books and decision-making himself. He had specific ideas about how the work should be done, also, and appearances mattered. No one went to the fields until the horses looked good. While a relative said that he "never saw the guy work," he was planning and controlling everything. His wife and daughter cooked for the work crews and sold ice, eggs, milk, cream and butter to the summer people. For years he was the secretary of Southern Canada Power, an electricity co-op. His crews did line-cutting and repairs for the co-op. Their property included a copper mine that was no longer being worked. His flaw was in being so controlling that it was impossible to work with him, but it produced success in his own operation. He passed away in 1955. In his will he generously left $10,000 to all of his heirs and $50,000 to the Sherbrooke Hospital. Uncle Porter inherited the farm, but could not pay out all the bequests and continue to operate. The family signed off on their inheritances, but the hospital refused and they had to be paid $50,000. He was quite heavy and a diabetic at the end of his life and felt that the hospital had saved his life, hence the large bequest. ^[1]

This profile is a collaborative work-in-progress. Can you contribute information or sources?

Sources

1. ↑ First-hand information as remembered by Cliff Young, October 20, 2015.

See also:

• "Recensement du Canada de 1911," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVB7-2T1M : 16 March 2018), Porter Knowlton in entry for Seyman Knowlton, 1911; citing Census, Brome Sub-Districts 1-25, Quebec, Canada, Library and Archives of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario; FHL microfilm 2,418,542.
• https://www.genealogiequebec.com Deaths 1926-1997 records
• https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-99DQ-P7B8-K?i=3699&cc=2185163