Frederick N. Knapp

Frederick N. Knapp was born in Jamaica Plain, Mass. on 19 Nov. 1821, the son of Jacob Newman Knapp and Louisa (Bellows) Knapp. In 1822, the family moved to Walpole, N.H. Knapp graduated from Harvard in 1843 and Harvard Divinity School in 1847. He was a Unitarian minister in Brookline, Mass. from 1847-1855, but had to step down after he was badly injured in an omnibus accident. During the Civil War, he served as superintendent of the Special Relief Department, U.S. Sanitary Commission. The Commission was organized in 1861 to assist sick and wounded Union soldiers, and the Special Relief Department focused on helping soldiers return to civilian life and supporting disabled veterans and their families. After the war, Knapp preached in Yonkers, N.Y. and then in Plymouth, Mass. from 1869-1874. In 1867, he founded a Home School for Boys (first in Sutton, Mass., then Plymouth). He was also chairman of the Plymouth School Committee and an honorary member of the Grand Army of the Republic. In 1855, Knapp married Lucia Alden Bradford, and the couple had four children: Louisa Bellows Knapp, Frederick Bradford Knapp, Sarah Perkins Knapp, and Maria Bradford Knapp. He died on 12 Jan. 1889.