After the recent Knight Family Reunion, there have been some links to interesting stories about Joseph Knight Sr. and his descendants. This is a BYU devotional by a Geology professor at BYU in Oct 2001. . A big part of the talk is related to Jesse Knight who was a first cousin with Lora Demille Gifford (our 2nd Great Grandmother born in 1828). Jesse's father was older than Lora's mother but Anna Knight got married when she was 15 and Jesse comes from a second marriage of his father
Jesse Knight was a grandson of Joseph Knight Sr but he was born in Nauvoo in 1845. His father Newell Knight died when he was 16 months old and his grandfather Joseph Sr. died less than 4 weeks later in Feb 1847. So his experience with the Church and the restoration of the Gospel was colored by the repercussions of those events. By the time his mother died in 1884 he was 38 years old and quite opposed to the Church and its leaders. Near the end of his mother's life he noticed a change in her attitude ...
Jesse (still opposed to the church): "Mom, how is it you're not preaching to me as you usually do."
Lydia: "Jesse, I've prayed in the temple for my children many times,
and on one occasion the Lord made it known to me I was not to worry
about you any more..."
This devotional gives some of the rest of the story... The Knight family story starts at 10:14 into the devotional but please listen from the beginning as it sets the stage.
[When I went to the LTM (Language training mission...precursor to the MTC) our language group was in the Amanda Knight building, named after the wife of Jesse Knight.]
