Samuel Knox was born amongst the granite hills of Pembroke, Merrimack County, New Hampshire on December 12, 1832. In 1855, at age 23 he made his way to Marquette County, Wisconsin, settling in Oxford, where he opened a country store to service the settlers of that area. A year later, his brother William joined him and while they added lumber during the winter months, the store just did not provide enough work for the two aggressive brothers. They finally sold that store in 1862 and Samuel erected a grist mill in Oxford.
At the same time, Samuel Knox was united in marriage to Miss Eliza Babcock, and soon the couple moved to Montana to seek their frontier fortune. With two new children, they stayed in Montana until 1867 when they returned to Wisconsin, settling at Crooked Ripp, where Knox Brothers built a saw mill to cut out a tract of lumber that required six years. They then moved on to Stevens Point in 1873 and built what was known as the Knox mill. In 1877 they sold that mill to Bosworth & Riley. In May 1877 a fire completely destroyed the Knox Brothers lumber yards.
Looking for another location, they ventured to Wausau, building a huge mill to manufacture lumber on a large scale for the next fifteen years. Although they owned vast tracts of land, it was eventually bare and Knox Brothers sold their mills and lumber yards.
Samuel Knox, pioneer instincts still intact, headed for the tall timber of the northwest, at that time a real wilderness. Mr. Knox quickly established Knox Lumber Company in 1893 in partnership with his son-in-law, William C. Winton, and built a town that he named Winton. He built their first mill at Fall Lake, Minnesota, near Ely, operating it for the next ten years, until he retired to Duluth, MN.
Samuel Knox passed away at age 89 at his home in Duluth on January 16, 1922. He is buried in Hillside Cemetery in Ripon, WI.