George Knight retired as Soo Line freight agent on October 18, 1960. He came to Bemidji when it was a thriving lumbering center in 1915 just a few years after the Soo Line had completed its Moose Lake-Plummer extension.
Knight was born and raised in Edgerton, Ohio, where he spent his youth. At the age of 18, he made his first journey into the North Country, working for the Duluth Mesabi and Northern railroad out of Duluth as operator and cashier. He received his Bemidji assignment with the Soo Line in July 1915.
George S. Knight married Mary Lynch in Mille Lacs county on July 4, 1915. During the 1920’s, they lived at 1111 Lake Boulevard Ave, then rented a house at 1304 Beltrami Avenue, and by 1935, they lived at 1122 Bemidji Avenue. They raised two sons, Jim and George, and a daughter Patricia. Mrs. Mary Knight died in 1956.
Knight recalled that across from the Soo Line depot was a frog pond covered with water two feet deep. The Bemidji Hotel occupied the spot in the 1960s. Much of the town in the early days was located south of the tracks between the depot and Lake Irving.
George Knight was part of a class of potential members of the Bemidji lodge of Elks in May 1917. Other members the class were: Chief of Police Frank Ripple, Albert Halverson. Walter Marcum, F. A. Shavitch, A Palmer. V. A. Stewart, Lester Geer, L. J. Stundlund, W. A. Rice, Greg Malone, Henry Miller, and Al Harris.
Mr. Knight married Helen Thunder in 1959. Mrs. Helen Knight was honored by her fellow employees at the telephone office when she retired after 45 years of service on June 18, 1960.
George Knight died in Bemidji in 1987 and is buried in Greenwood Cemetery. Mrs. Helen Knight died in 1990.