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KNOX Vol. 3, p. 1052, 1053 In the technical and scientific work of his profession Mr. KNOX, the general manager of the Oklahoma Railway, has achieved distinctive success and specially high reputation, and there are few electrical engineers in the United States who have been more prominently concerned with the construction and operation of urban electric transit lines than has he, the consistency of this statement being assured when it is known that from 1893 to 1900 he was chief electrical engineer and engineer of construction of the Chicago City Railway, the lines of which cover the entire south side of the great western metropolis. In his present position he has, as may well be supposed, brought the street-car and adjunct electric systems of Oklahoma City up to the highest standard of efficiency, and as one of the progressive and public-spirited citizens of the Oklahoma capital city he merits special recognition in this history of the state. George Washington Knox was born at Milledgeville, Carroll County, Illinois, on the 21st of June, 1865, and is a son of George W. and Mary J. (PALMER) Knox, the former of whom was born in Grayson County, Kentucky, and the latter at Ashtabula, Ohio. The genealogy of the Knox family traces back to distinguished English origin and the subject of this review is a direct descendant of Doctor Knox, who served as a surgeon in the English army, in the command of the famous General BRADDOCK. The Knox family has been established in America for more than a century and here its record is that of worthy achievement and high personal honor, as one generation has followed another on to the stage of life's activities. The paternal grandfather of Mr. Knox was born and reared in Pennsylvania, and marked the passing years with admirable accomplishment in connection with normal activities of life. He removed from the old Keystone State to Kentucky, and became a prominent and influential citizen of Grayson County. George W. Knox, Sr., father of him whose name initiates this review, may be considered as having been a pioneer settler in the State of Illinois and was actively identified with the development and upbuilding of that great common-wealth, where the father resided until his death and where his wife continues to reside. The general manager of the Oklahoma Railway is indebted to the public schools of Illinois for his preliminary educational discipline, and in 1885 he was graduated in the Northern Illinois College, at Fulton, as a civil and mechanical engineer. Of him the following estimate has been made: "Immediately after his graduation he jumped into the vortex of advanced scientific development and practical application, and though he is now in the very prime of life, the story of his career reads like a romance recording the doing of things worth while. His initiative and administrative ability had been on a parity with his fine technical skill, and his success has been of distinctive and unequivocal order." Mr. Knox was the engineer and builder of the first electric street- car line in the City of Chicago, -the Forty-seventh Street line, - which was placed in operation on the 10th of May, 1893, the year in which Chicago came gloriously to the front through the medium of the World's Columbian Exposition. The success of this venture led to the retention of Mr. Knox as chief electrical and construction engineer of the Chicago City Railway Company during the development and construction of its gigantic electric street-car system, which now covers all parts of the south side of Chicago and the great metropolitan centers of the country. After leaving college Mr. Knox was for two years in the service of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Company, and thereafter he was identified with the street-car department of the Pullman Palace Car Company until he turned his attention specially to electrical work in the employ of the Thomas-Houston Company, as a representative of which he had charge of the equipping of the first electric street cars that were placed in service west of the Mississippi River, - those for the City of Omaha. In 1889 he joined the Sprague Company of New York City, with his executive headquarters in Chicago. Thereafter he had the supervision of the construction of electric street and interurban lines of the most important order, including such facilities in Minneapolis, St. Paul. Milwaukee, and Cincinnati, as well as in Columbus and Newark, Ohio; Lincoln and Springfield, Illinois; St. Joseph, Missouri, and many other important cities. In the autumn of 1891 Mr. Knox was sent by the General Electric Company to install the motors and generators on the Kansas City Elevated Railway. While in that city, through the late M. K. BOWEN, he was tendered a position with the Chicago City Railway Company, and the 200 miles of the street-car lines of this company were equipped through-out under his personal charge and direction. In addition to serving as electrical engineer for the company he was made also its engineer of construction, in charge of all track and special work. Mr. Knox remained in the service of this great Chicago public-utility corporation until 1900, when he resigned his position to turn his attention to general railway-construction work, in which connection and he became associated with Kohler Brothers, of Chicago, as manager of the firm's railway department. Early in the spring of 1901, however, he severed his connection and in Chicago engaged in independent business as an electrical engineer and builder of electric railways and light plants. While thus engaged in Chicago in 1902, Mr. Knox made the ordinal report on the Oklahoma railway situation, and in consonance with his report was instituted the construction of what is now admitted to be one of the model electric street-car and interurban systems of the West. From the initiation of the great project Mr. Knox acted in the e capacity of consulting engineer, and on the 1st of August, 1911, he was elected second vice president and general manager of the company. He forthwith established his residence in Oklahoma City, and here he has since accomplished a wonderful work in the development of the fine electric railway system and in gaining to it, through effective service, the strongest popular commendation supporting patronage. As a citizen, the people of Oklahoma uniformly admire Mr. Knox and are appreciative of his character and achievement, for he is as liberal and aggressive in civic affairs as he is vigorous and efficient in the work of his chosen profession. Mr. Knox is actively identified with the American Association of Electrical Engineers and the American Electric Railway Association, and it has been said, with full measure of consistency, that "wherever an electric current is carried from a power house to a trolley, there the name George W. Knox is known." In the City of Chicago Mr. Knox still retains membership in the Union League Club, one of the representative and most influential organizations of its kind in the Union. He also retains his interests in the engineering concern which he established in Chicago in 1901. In politics he is aligned as a staunch supporter of the cause of the republican party. He is a Scottish Rite of thirty-second degree Mason, also has received the chivalric or Knights Templar degrees and is affiliated with the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. On the 5th of September, 1898, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Knox to Miss Alice H. MEERS, daughter of Robert A. and Emily (BURTON) Meers, of Evanston, Illinois, and the two children of this union are Alice Henrietta and George Washington III. Typed for OKGenWeb by: Vickie Neill Taylor, October 28, 1998.