I always thought plows were boring. Then my grandfather and great-grandfather returned to life in a photograph of Knapp’s Plow Works in San Jose.
The photo is from 1914 but I did not discover it until last week. My appreciation of plow history completely changed.
I never knew my mom’s father, James Edmund Compton (1897-1974), the one on the right. When he was a teenager, he helped out the blacksmiths at Knapp’s legendary shop at 1022 S. First St. His father, my great-grandfather, Andrew James Compton, was employed at the shop. He’s the one on the left.
I didn’t learn any of this until recently. I didn’t have to scour the globe in search of a long lost ancestor. He was just a few blocks away.
Here’s where the reader can follow along, in real time, when the columnist realizes what a complete idiot he was, when saying things like, “I don’t care about all the damn photos of plows. So what? Who cares?”
You see, the Knapp plow business was known worldwide, in particular for inventing a type of reversible plow that helped farmers tackle the hillsides from any direction. After starting the business in Half Moon Bay, R.I. Knapp patented his plow in 1875 and again in 1882. The machines were so successful, they won 14 awards at county and state fairs, as well as at the World’s Exposition in New Orleans. Knapp’s innovative plows then helped power the agricultural industry in Santa Clara Valley as the 20th century began. Knapp eventually brought on his son, Horace G. Knapp, as a partner.
After the elder Knapp expired in 1904, it was Horace along with his own son who then evolved the operation and brought it to San Jose in 1907. “H.G. Knapp & Son” is what you’ll see in photos or documents. For example, there exists a famous photo of the late San Jose historian Clyde Arbuckle standing next to a restored Knapp plow at History San Jose in the ’50s. Nostalgic ag-town geeks have pushed that photo for as long as I can remember, not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Indeed, the Knapp clan contributed vast amounts of ingenuity, eventually diversifying its product line to include numerous types of agricultural implements: orchard, subsoil, ditching and gopher plows. After the business ended in 1924, Horace and his family continued to live in San Jose, at 305 S. 11th St., presumably in the same house that still stands at that address.
Horace died in 1938, back in the good ol’ days when Mercury-News obituaries included the person’s home address. His widow Louise later passed away in 1957. According to the obituary, she was still living in that same house.
One of their offspring, Norman E. Knapp, kept the history alive. His interest in plow manufacturing never subsided. He built exact duplicates of the early Knapp Reversible Plow, one of which was donated to the Smithsonian in Washington, D. C. in 1970.
Norman was also an inventor and created the Stabilizer which kept the shares of plows deep in the soil. He supplied much of the related materials now stored at History San Jose: business records, correspondence, drawings, blueprints, ephemera, newspaper clippings, photographs and other documentation. If you want operating instructions for the 2-Bottom Offset Disc plow or a 1947 price list for the Knapp Reversible Plow, it’s all there.
In terms of street addresses, 305 S. 11th, at the corner of San Carlos, is now the Salas O’Brien offices, oddly enough. The H.G. Knapp & Son Plow Works building at 1022 S. First is long gone but it was located right where Willow ends, that is, right where the offices of Garden City Construction are now located.
All of which makes me jump for joy. That means I can claim my grandfather and great-grandfather forged iron rods and bashed on stuff right where Jim Salata now carries on, and they worked for a boss who lived right where the company Carl Salas founded now carries on. That’s some pretty solid San Jose material, if I can say so myself. My ancestors will continue to haunt those buildings forever, if I can help it.
Man, plows are a lot more interesting than I thought.
