The branch of the Knowles category of important West emigrated from the island of Eleuthera in the Bahamas, by which it’s thought which they engaged in farming as well as fishing. Family members tradition maintains the Knowles’ had formerly lived at the American colonies in the 18th century, but stayed faithful to Britain through the American Revolution and were made to re locate to the Bahamas, where they acquired land grants in the British authorities as reimbursement to their loyalty for the crown, even when their lands in the us were seized.
Whilst the agricultural economy of this Bahamas declined in early 19th century, many Bahamians sought new opportunities in other components of the Caribbean. Key West was an attractive location on account of the island’s most lucrative marine exchange, fishing along with growing cigar manufacturing industry. This promise of a greater way of existence persuaded a few associates that the Knowles family members to depart Rock audio on Eleuthera and head to Key West where they understood they can easily fit to the recognized community of additional transplanted Bahamians living in Key West at the time. The ancient Knowles’ functioned in fishing, the cigar industry. By the next nineteenth century, both David Knowles and also his family were living at Knowles home. David appears to have already been chiefly a sponge fisherman along with his house looked out across the open drinking water which brightens up to the other of Eaton Street. In the next 1880’s, the shallows all over the road were crammed and also the existing row of Victorian houses were built from the 1890s, depriving the Knowles category of its own water view. David and his wife Rosa raised their 7 children in Knowles House. In 1909 David expired leaving his widow to raise their younger their children in the family homestead Key West Roofing.
For many years Rosa lived along with her child, Benjamin Rupert Knowles, who had been born from the house at 1896. Known as Rupert, this boy engaged in a wholesale firm working in tropical fruit. Back in 1928 he also met and wed a new Swiss girl, Rosalie Weisser, famous as Nancy. She had been working as a nanny for a rich Miami Family Members at the time that they met in the Casa Marina Resort in Key West. After his union they continued living at Knowles household, appearing following Rupert’s ageing mum, until her departure in 1929. Rupert and Nancy had 3 kiddies, Gene, Elizabeth Rose and Joan, all of whom had been created at the home. Throughout the Great Depression, Rupert’s tropical fruit business collapsed and the family experienced crisis as economical requirements at critical West worsened. When things looked bleakest, Rupert won the equivalent of 10,000 at the Cuban National Lottery at 1935.
This economic boon enabled him to take up a restaurant on Caroline road nearby the bustling sea port. He also used some of the money to enlarge your family homestead, that had seen little alteration because its own construction. The effect shifted Knowles property to its present look and provided necessary distance because of their own or her children. Although 1935 brought fortune to Rupert’s family members, in addition, it brought calamity to the Florida Keys at the kind of the disastrous Labour Day Hurricane of 1935. Even though thousands of people died in the center and top keys, Key West had been spared the worst of the storm, only undergoing torrential rains. Alas the storm happened with the renovation of Knowles House at a period when the roof was ripped off to add another narrative. The youngsters remember their mommy Nancy sweeping the rain water out front door because it appeared the same as a water fall down the staircase. Regardless of the setback, the remodeling of the household was successfully completed and your household enjoyed many joyful years in the previous homestead.