Margaret E. Knight was born in York, Maine back in 1838 to James and Hannah. After her father’s passing she moved to Manchester, New Hampshire to live with her mother. As a child she wasn’t interested in dolls but all she wanted was a jack knife and pieces of wood. Her formal education was limited to secondary school.
She worked at the cotton mills throughout her 20’s and 30’s. in 1867, she started working for the Columbia Paper Bag Company in Springfield, Massachusetts. She died in 1914 in Framingham, Massachusetts, she was 76.
What you may not know about Margaret is that she was also an inventor. Throughout her lifetime she was awarded 87 patents, 27 of them are well known, while I won’t list them all, here are a few examples. She invented the first flat-bottom paper bag, lid removing pliers, a numbering machine, a window frame and sash, and several devices relating to rotary engines. She was inducted into the National Inventor Hall of Fame in 2006.
NW Arkansas, come for a visit, stay for a lifetime.
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