John Jay Knox

John Jay Knox Jr. (March 19, 1828 – February 9, 1892) He was a son of Sarah Ann (née Curtis) Knox (1794–1875) and John J. Knox Sr. (1791–1876), a prominent merchant and bank president and was himself the namesake of Knoxboro. $1 note issued by The Central Bank of New Ulm signed by J. Jay Knox, president. Knox became an advocate of the system of national banks proposed by U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase and contributed ideas to the national bank debate, advocating safe and convertible notes of a uniform type for all national banks, backed by the guarantee of government bonds. He authored two influential articles on the matter, published in Hunt's Merchants' Magazine in 1861 and 1862, which gained the notice of Secretary Chase. He was reappointed to a second 5-year term by President Rutherford B. Hayes in 1877, and to a third term by President Chester A. Arthur in 1882. At the time of his resignation he had served 17 years in the Comptroller's office as part of almost 22 years in the Treasury Department, making him the longest serving officer in that department.

John Jay Knox (1874–1875), who died in infancy. John Jay Knox III (1877–1913), who died in Colorado Springs. Irving Gilliss Knox (1879–1921), a Yale University graduate who became a member of L.F. Rothschild & Co. in New York. Herman Warren Knox (1882–1931), the former secretary of the Texas and Pacific Oil Company.

Knox died at his home in New York City on February 9, 1892. He was 63 years old at the time of his death and was buried at Oak Hill Cemetery in Washington. His widow died in 1922 while she was President of the Women's Board of the Babies Hospital.

Works

The Surplus and the Public Debt: Address of the Hon. John Jay Knox...at the Annual Convention of the American Bankers' Association at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, October 12, 1887. New York: Bankers' Publishing Association, 1887. Interview of John Jay Knox...Before the Committee on Coinage, Weights, and Measures of the House of Representatives upon the Coinage Act of 1873 and the Silver Question, Saturday, February 21, 1891. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1891. United States Notes: A History of the Various Issues of Paper Money by the Government of the United States. Revised Third Edition. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1892. History of Banking in the United States. By late John Jay Knox, assisted by Corps of Financial Writers, Revised and Brought Up to Date by Bradford Rhodes and Elmer H. Youngman, New York: Bradford Rhodes & Company, 1900.