Seymour H. Knox I

Seymour H. Knox I
Seymour H. Knox I
Born	April 1861 Russell, New York
Died	May 17, 1915(1915-05-17) (aged 54) Buffalo, New York
Occupation	Businessman
Spouse(s)	Grace Millard Knox
Children	Seymour H. Knox II Marjorie Knox Campbell Dorothy Knox Rogers Gracia Knox (died in infancy)
Parent(s)	James Horace Knox and Jane E. McBrier

Seymour Horace Knox I (April 1861 – May 17, 1915), was a Buffalo, New York businessman who made his fortune in five-and-dime stores. He merged his more than 100 stores with those of his first cousins, Frank Winfield Woolworth and Charles Woolworth, to form the F. W. Woolworth Company. He went on to hold prominent positions in the merged company as well as Marine Trust Co. He was the father of Seymour H. Knox II and grandfather of Seymour H. Knox III and Northrup Knox, the co-founders of the Buffalo Sabres in the National Hockey League.

He was born in April 1861 in Russell, Saint Lawrence County, New York. His father was James Horace Knox, a farmer married to Jane E. McBrier. James' grandfather had fought in the American Revolution. William Knox, was the first of this line of Knoxes to come to Massachusetts from Belfast, Ireland, in 1737.

Seymour attended the Russell district school and at fifteen, though he had never gone to high school, began to teach in school himself.

At seventeen he moved to Hart, Michigan, where for a few years he worked as a salesclerk. Then he left for Reading, Pennsylvania, where he entered into a partnership with his first cousins. He later donated the Knox Memorial Central School Building (dedicated on July 30, 1913) that served the town until the Knox Memorial School and Edwards Central School merged. He initially became a partner with the Woolworths by jointly opening a Reading, Pennsylvania, Woolworth & Knox store with them on September 20, 1884, using his entire life savings. The Reading store's first several hours had no sales. However, after the partners took a lunchtime walk, they returned at 1:30 to find the local factory workers had been let out at 1:00—with their paychecks. Sales were brisk, and the partners never looked back. His second store, in Newark, New Jersey, was short lived, but his partnership thrived nonetheless. The third venture, in Erie, Pennsylvania, enabled them to buy out the Newark lease. He partnered with Frank to open the first Buffalo store, at 409 Main Street, on October 13, 1888.