The Historical Society of Avon ParkAVON PARK, FL · EST. 1886
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Clark D. Knapp

Clark Darwin Knapp (1850–1902) was a pioneer Avon Park attorney, civic official, railroad promoter, and corporate executive who served as President of the Avon Park Transportation Company (1895) and succeeded town founder Oliver M. Crosby as President of the Florida Development Company following the Great Freeze of 1895.[fg-knapp][maxwell-1976]

Knapp established an active legal and notary practice in Avon Park during the early 1890s, listed in the 1895 Florida Railroad Gazetteer and State Business Directory as “Knapp C D, atty & notary.”[gaz-1895] In May 1897, when William E. and Emma B. Pabor advertised five town lots and five acres of fruit land for sale in the Pabor Lake Pineapple, they directed prospective buyers to “Clark D. Knapp, attorney at law, Avon Park, Fla.,” confirming his ongoing practice in the town during his term as mayor.[plp-1892-1897]

On 5 January 1895, at a formal organizational meeting held in Avon Park to construct a wooden-railed common-carrier railway connecting forty miles north to the Plant System at Haines City, Knapp was elected President of the Avon Park & Haines City Railroad (operating as the Avon Park Transportation Company).[plp-1892-1897] He served alongside Vice President Oliver M. Crosby, Secretary and Treasurer C. C. Chollar, and Superintendent John C. Burleigh. Knapp presided over company meetings and celebrations during the construction and trial runs of Burleigh’s twelve-ton Shay geared locomotive in 1895.[plp-1892-1897]

Corporate Reorganization and Municipal Governance

When the catastrophic freezes of December 1894 and February 1895 destroyed the district’s citrus and pineapple crops, the Florida Development Company faced insurmountable debt and creditor lawsuits. Following legal consultations in Tampa, Crosby resigned from the presidency, and Attorney Clark D. Knapp was elected President of the Florida Development Company on 6 January 1896 to oversee corporate restructuring and settler title matters.[maxwell-1976]

Knapp was Avon Park’s first mayor. In the first week of January 1897 the town incorporated under Florida’s general law and elected him to the office, with B. F. West, L. W. Mix, H. B. Todd, J. T. Hendricks and William King as councilmen, R. D. Hall as clerk and treasurer, and J. J. Dobbins as marshal, a slate printed in The Morning News of Savannah on 15 January 1897.[savannah-1897-01-15] He was still being termed Mayor in the 1898 Avon Park Idea, alongside E. L. Richardson.[maxwell-1976]

Civic and Religious Contributions

Knapp and his wife were founding members of the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer in 1894, joining William and Mary King, Benjamin F. West, Ellis R. West, and other pioneer families in establishing the congregation.[maxwell-1976]

He was also elected as an inaugural trustee of DeSoto County Special Tax School District No. 3 (encompassing Township 33 South, Range 28 East and east to the Kissimmee River), serving alongside Aaron Bassett and William A. King.[maxwell-1976]

Knapp died in 1902 and was interred in Bougainvillea Cemetery, the municipal burial ground originally platted by Crosby.[fg-knapp]

References

Where this comes from

Evidence
corroborated — More than one independent source agrees.
Review
unverified — Drafted from sources but not yet checked by a volunteer.
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society

Sources

  1. The Morning News (Savannah, Ga.), The Morning News, Savannah, Georgia, 15 January 1897, page 6, Florida column: the incorporation of Avon Park and the election of its officers (1897) · newspaper
  2. Leoma Bradshaw Maxwell, The First Hundred Years of Avon Park, Florida (references/the-first-hundred-years-of-avon-park_leoma-bradshaw-maxwell_1976.md) (1976)
  3. Belden Publishing Company, Florida Railroad Gazetteer and State Business Directory, 1895 (1895)
  4. William E. Pabor & Edgar A. Pabor, The Pabor Lake Pineapple (1892–1897) (references/pabor-lake-pineapple.md) (1897)
  5. Find a Grave contributors, Clark Darwin Knapp (1850 - 1902), Bougainvillea Cemetery, Find a Grave memorial 37221779 (2009)

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