Seymour Horace Knox I (April 1861 – May 17, 1915), was a

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from Sou ...

businessman who made his fortune in five-and-dime stores. He merged his more than 100 stores with those of his first cousins, Frank Winfield Woolworth and Charles Woolworth, to form the

F. W. Woolworth Company The F. W. Woolworth Company (often referred to as Woolworth's or simply Woolworth) was a retail company and one of the pioneers of the five-and-dime store. It was among the most successful American and international five-and-dime businesses, se ...

. He went on to hold prominent positions in the merged company as well as Marine Trust Co. He was the father of Seymour H. Knox II and grandfather of Seymour H. Knox III and Northrup Knox, the co-founders of the

Buffalo Sabres The Buffalo Sabres are a professional ice hockey team based in Buffalo, New York. The Sabres compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference. The team was established in 1970, along w ...

in the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

Early life

He was born in April 1861 in Russell, Saint Lawrence County, New York. His father was James Horace Knox, a farmer married to Jane E. McBrier. James' grandfather had fought in the

American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revoluti ...

. William Knox, was the first of this line of Knoxes to come to

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...

from

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom ...

, Ireland, in 1737. Seymour attended the Russell district school and at fifteen, though he had never gone to high school, began to teach in school himself.

Career

At seventeen, he moved to

Hart, Michigan Hart is a city and county seat of Oceana County, Michigan The population was 2,126 at the time of the 2010 census. The city is located within Hart Township, but is politically independent. Hart is also home to the north end of the Hart-Montagu ...

, where for a few years he worked as a salesclerk. Then he left for Reading, Pennsylvania, where he entered into a partnership with his first cousins. He later donated the Knox Memorial Central School Building (dedicated on July 30, 1913) that served the town until the Knox Memorial School and Edwards Central School merged. He initially became a partner with the Woolworths by jointly opening a Reading, Pennsylvania, Woolworth & Knox store with them on September 20, 1884, using his entire life savings. The Reading store's first several hours had no sales. However, after the partners took a lunchtime walk, they returned at 1:30 to find the local factory workers had been let out at 1:00—with their paychecks. Sales were brisk, and the partners never looked back. His second store, in

Newark, New Jersey Newark ( , ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the seat of Essex County and the second largest city within the New York metropolitan area. The third venture, in

Erie, Pennsylvania Erie (; ) is a city on the south shore of Lake Erie and the county seat of Erie County, Pennsylvania, United States. Erie is the fifth largest city in Pennsylvania and the largest city in Northwestern Pennsylvania with a population of 94,831 ...

, enabled them to buy out the Newark lease. He partnered with Frank to open the first Buffalo store, at 409 Main Street, on October 13, 1888. By 1889, he was able to buy out his cousins. He maintained a collegial business relationship with his cousins after the buyout. In fact, he bought Woolworth merchandise at wholesale and sometimes traded in competition. He formed another brief partnership with another friendly rival, Earle Perry Charlton, from 1889–1895, opening his Buffalo "S.H. Knox Co." 5 and 10 Cent Store in 1890. In 1890, he made established headquarters in the Buffalo store.Brown, p. 120 Sources disagree on the chronology of later stores. One source says that the second Buffalo store was opened at 549 William Street on June 20, 1891. Another says Knox opened his second store on December 18, 1893, at 519 Main Street, four days after the first store at 409 Main Street was destroyed in the Wonderland Building Fire. The 519 Main Street store replaced the 409 Main Street after the December 14, 1893, fire and moved to 395 Main Street in 1895.Brown, p. 121 He continued to build his S.H. Knox Co. 5 and 10 Cent Store empire. By the time of the 1911 incorporation of

, Knox was the second largest of six store operators with 98 U.S. and 13 Canadian locations. In 1912, he received $12 million of the $65 million merger proceeds and was appointed Director and Senior Vice-Principal of the Corporation. Knox is remembered as the pioneering city center store operator. His

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

store was the first outside of the agricultural and small-market towns. Many of the Woolworth's friendly rivals emulated his plan. In 1913, he purchased

Stephen Merrell Clement Stephen Merrell Clement or S. M. Clement, Jr. (November 4, 1859 – March 26, 1913) was an American banker, businessman and industrialist in Buffalo, New York. Early life Clement was born on November 4, 1859, in Fredonia, New York, to Steph ...

's interests in Marine National. At his death, Seymour was Vice President of the Woolworth Co. and Chairman of the Board of the Marine Trust Co. He was the first of three generations of the family to serve as Chairman.

Personal life

In 1890, Seymour was married to Grace Millard (1862–1936), a daughter of Charles Abram Millard and Sarah Amelia ( née Avery) Millard. Together, they had four children, one of whom died in infancy: * Gracia Knox (1893–1895), who died in infancy. * Marjorie Knox (1900–1971), who married Joseph Hazard Campbell of

Providence, Rhode Island Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts ...

in 1927. After Campbell was killed in a small plane accident in 1938, Marjorie remarried to Benjamin Klopp in 1948. * Dorothy Virginia Knox (1896–1980), who married Frank Henry Goodyear Jr. in 1915. After Goodyear is killed in a car accident in 1930, Dorothy remarried to Edmund Pendleton Rogers, a widower from New York, in 1931. * Seymour H. Knox II (1898–1990), who married Helen Northrup. Knox died on May 17, 1915, in

. After his death, his wife built a new mansion on Delaware Avenue for her and their children, designed by New York City architect C. P. H. Gilbert, known today as the Mrs. Seymour H. Knox House.

Descendants

Among his grandchildren were Seymour H. Knox III and Northrup R. Knox, the original principal owners of the

NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

. Grace established The

University at Buffalo The State University of New York at Buffalo, commonly called the University at Buffalo (UB) and sometimes called SUNY Buffalo, is a public research university with campuses in Buffalo and Amherst, New York. The university was founded in 18 ...

's first endowment fund in 1916 when she donated $250,000. Knox bred champion trotters and pacers and was a polo enthusiast.

References

;General sources *

External links