The above ad in 1886 is the first that I know of for Chris’s masonry work.  The last such mention I can find was for plastering and chimney work in June 1895 in the Dawson (Minnesota) Sentinel.  Chris’s — now Chris Knutsen — uncle/father-in-law, Anton Cammen, died in Dawson that same month and Chris and his family returned to Port Townsend, Washington, where they had lived at the end of the 1880's.  In July 1896 Chris filed his first patent for his “Celebrated One-Arm Harp Guitar” (see Patents).

Chris’s woodworking skills can only be established by inference.  His father, Ole Ferdinand, two uncles, Anton and Hans, one great-uncle, Aslak Lie, and two brothers, Frank and Eddie, had carpentry skills.  In fact, Chris’s father and Uncle Anton were identified as “snikkars” (cabinet-makers – very high quality carpenters) in Norwegian records.

Even younger brother Eddie gave carpentry a try.  In 1901 he worked as a boat builder for Andrew and Thea Foss, founders of the Foss Launch and Tug Company in Tacoma.  Either Tacoma or carpentry was not to his liking; by 1902 he was back in the Midwest, living in Minneapolis and working as a salesman.

Chris not only had the opportunity to learn from his father, he learned from Anton as well.  After his marriage to Anna, the couple lived next door to Anton and Edwardina in Port Townsend and close to them in Dawson after their return to Minnesota in the 1890’s.  If Chris wanted to learn fine carpentry, he would surely have used Anton’s expertise.^[3]

Port Townsend offered another mentor after the Knutsen family returned in 1895.  Otto Anderson, an accomplished cabinet-maker, no doubt worked closely with Chris while building “200 instruments” for him (see Otto Anderson) and probably helped refine his woodworking skills in the process of consultation on the designs.

In addition, a great-uncle by marriage,^[4] Aslak Lie, was a famous cabinet-maker and woodcarver, both in Norway and in America.^[5] Even if Chris didn’t work with him directly, his reputation in the family would have been an inspiration.

There is a secure tradition, then, of woodworking skills in the family, and Chris would have been exposed to quality work.  It is curious then, that Chris sometimes did not do the highest quality work himself.  In their book on Chris^[6], Noe and Most remark that Knutsen’s instruments sometimes had “an odd or crude appearance” because he often used materials at hand and cite these examples: “the use of lots of screws, brackets, wing nuts, sheared-off tuning machine plates, dressmaker’s seam tape rather than wood strips to reinforce ribs and butt-fitted back plates, wire frets for the first twelve with the remaining ones being inlaid wood, fret-wire saddles, and odd-shaped nuts.”  They do not excuse this, but point out that perhaps he needed to take shortcuts in order to keep up the volume of production.  I would like to add that some of these uses seem rather ingenious.  Seam tape would not make good bracing, but it would provide extremely light-weight reinforcement for a join.

I have wondered about Chris’s education with respect to his ability to run a business as well as how he acquired his musical talent.  Chris did attend school as recorded in the 1870 Federal Census.  But for how long?  The 1875 Minnesota State Census and 1880 Federal Census are silent on this issue.  When Chris was sent to prison in 1882 at age 20, his file noted that he could not read or write.  Though prison clerks may not be the most reliable of bureaucrats, in this era it was not uncommon for children’s education to be incomplete in that their help was needed at home (my grandfather Cammon, born in 1872, did not go beyond third grade).  If Chris did not become literate until he was 20, the most likely place to have learned, then, was in prison where night school was offered eight months of the year, and prisoners were encouraged to attend.  Even if he was literate, he would be urged to continue and improve the skills he already had.  I think this must be what he did.

I have assumed Chris wrote his own advertising copy – whether his ad for masonry in the Sargent County Teller, or his broadsheet extolling the virtues of the “One Arm Guitar,” in 1900, though he could have dictated copy to the printer.  On the other hand, the 1900 census specifically asked if each person in the family could read and write.  “Yes” to both questions is recorded for Chris, his wife Anna, and their children, Bertha, and Evaulda (only Edwardina, Anna’s mother, said “No” to each).  And it seems unlikely to me that Chris would have applied for a patent if he could not read and write.

In writing this, I realized I had seen transcriptions of Chris’s signature but not his actual handwriting.  He was not making an “X,” so that suggests some degree of literacy.  I asked Tom Noe if he thought Chris could read and write, and he replied, “I guess it never occurred to me that Chris Knutsen might have been illiterate.  So much of what he did in his business life required that he have the ability to read and write to some degree.  For one thing, he signed labels and even had his signature notarized on labels around 1900 that went into Dyer harp guitars.  One such signature is at page 40 of the Knutsen book, although he signed it in red ink and it can be barely made out.  I have seen pictures of other Dyer labels that had the same signature.  It isn’t clear to me that he signed either of his design patents–the attorney may have written in his name.”^[7]

The preponderance of evidence is clear that by 1900 Chris was sufficiently able to read, write, and run a business on his own.

In considering Chris’s evolution from mason to musician, it has become clear that by 1902 Chris could indeed play the harp guitar and not just pose with his instruments.  There is evidence aplenty as recounted by Gregg Miner in Chris Knutsen: Harp Guitar “Triple Threat”.  I was utterly amazed, however, to learn his first instrument was most probably a violin (see Otto Anderson).  How unfortunate there is as yet no incontrovertible evidence from the 1870’s, ‘80’s, or even the ‘90’s that Chris participated in a musical group or that he sang or played a solo instrument.  Until 1902 when we have Chris and Anna in the picture of Payne’s Mandolin and Guitar School and the review in the Spokane Spokesman-Review, the evidence for Chris’s musicality is all circumstantial.

Participation in band or orchestra was available to Chris during the months in 1882 that he spent at Minnesota State Prison.^[8]  Lead by an experienced citizen, the orchestra played for chapel and for entertainments while the band played concerts on Sundays and holidays.  We can only guess if Chris played and if so, was his instrument the violin?

Before this, Chris’s school-age years were spent in Northfield, Minnesota, and I have read the Northfield papers for 1868-1875, but I found no Cammons mentioned, even on school attendance and deportment lists, in fact no Cammons on any topic whatsoever.  The papers did not generally report names of participants in the various entertainments offered to the community – there was a band, for instance, but not even the leader was named.

In Milnor, it was a different story.  During their school years in the 1890’s, Chris’s siblings Eddie and Marie were named frequently whenever the Teller had a story about an entertainment.  Marie played piano.  Eddie debated, acted (the lead) in local productions, sang, and possibly played an instrument.  Northfield and Milnor, as well as many other towns had bands–as long as they could find someone who would volunteer to lead–and Milnor even had a mandolin and guitar club.  Chris’s next youngest sister, Hansine (called Winnie), whose growing up years were also spent in Northfield, was “an actress and light opera singer.”^[9]  She is the only one in the family, besides Chris, with professional music credentials.

Based on what is available about Chris’s siblings, the Cammon children who were interested in music were encouraged to learn and to learn well enough to perform publicly.  Certainly for Chris, the support and opportunity were there.^[10]

Chris’s life stands as its own evidence.  Masonry seems far removed from woodworking, but it is only one aspect of carpentry and a skill that he could use to support himself while he learned to do what he obviously wanted to do – learn woodworking well enough to become a luthier.  He had to be literate in order to communicate, write advertising, and understand his contracts.  He had to have had some musical training – could one make a stringed instrument without having an ear for pitch?   In addition, Chris appears to have had great tenacity, focus, talent, creativity, and even some degree of genius.
 

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