No name is more inseparably connected with the history of Miami County than that of the Knoop family, for its representatives have been identified with the growth and development of this section of the country. When the brothers Knoop immigrated to Miami County in 1797, they eventually renovated an old military fort into a stockade for the security of their families. It was called Dutch Station, and is where the village of Staunton is now located. It was the first permanent settlement made in Miami County. Footnote 1

The family lived there for three years before seeking their future home sites. In the interim they grew crops of corn and beans on the prairie across the river, known as Gahagan's Prairie where the community golf course is today. It became the stopping point for the new emigrants to this portion of the Miami Valley and here Jacob Knoop was born in 1798. He became the first known Caucasian child born within what is now Miami County and was the son of the eldest Knoop brother, John and his wife Barbara. Footnotes 2, 3

John and Barbara Knoop had come from Pennsylvania and raised seven children here. Three of the sons were unmarried and referred to as the bachelor Knoops. Jacob, John H. and George along with Mark K. Knoop's great grandfather William, the only son of John and Barbara to marry, established the Knoop Brothers Company. As pioneer entrepreneurs, they were involved in agriculture and used water power from Lost Creek to power their mill to produce corn meal and whiskey. Before the canal came through Troy in 1837, they hauled their produce, which included cured pork, to the Miami River where they built a flat boat and floated it to Cincinnati for sale.

One of John Knoop's daughters Nancy, who was a great, great aunt to Mark K. Knoop, married a neighbor Isaac Sheets in 1824. The Sheets family had built a mill around 1818 or 1820 which consisted of a flour and grist mill, a distillery and a sawmill operated by water power from Lost Creek. Both families worked together in this enterprise as well as in farming and mining stone from a quarry on the Knoop Farm for building foundations.

Mark K. Knoop's great aunt, Barbara Knoop Saunders received the old brick house at 2645 East State Route 41 from her father William, Mark K. Knoop's great grandfather, which she demolished in 1883 and built the present Victorian style house which has been the residence of Mark K. and Dorothy Knoop for 62 years.

Mark K. Knoop served as Director of Corn Belt Livestock Feeders, served on the Executive Committee of the Livestock and Meat Board, Executive Committee of the American National Livestock Association, and Director of the Beef Industry Council. He also traveled extensively to many large ranches and cattle feeding operations in the United States, Australia, and South America. His knowledge contributed to the continued success of the Knoop farming legacy.

The Knoop influence and involvement in Miami County is recorded down through the years and can be researched through the local library or the Troy Historical Society.

In 1997, Mark K. and Dorothy Knoop set-up a private trust to benefit the Miami County Park District. Now, nine years after the original trust was established, the Park District purchased the 173 acres, which is contiguous to the 239 acres still held in the Trust. This purcahse included the Knoop Homestead, the ancestral Knoop cemetery and several barns.

In purchasing this property from the family of Mark K. and Dorothy Knoop located at 2645 St. Rt. 41, the Park District has recognized the influence of the Knoop ancestors on the development of Miami County by naming the new park, Lost Creek Reserve and Knoop Agricultural Heritage Center. The original 239 acres, given in trust in 1997 was given to the Park District to be continued as "tillable land for agriculture as well as preserving for posterity some beautiful pastoral area that will never be built over with housing as commercial development has happened in so much of Ohio. This gift is also a legacy to my ancestors who developed this land." Mark K. Knoop 1997.

Footnotes: 1. John Knoop & Brothers, "Miami County, Ohio Genealogical Researchers"  2. Mark K. Knoop autobiographical notes, 1997.  3.  John Knoop & Brothers, "Miami County, Ohio Genealogical Researchers"

The remaining 239 acres of the Lost Creek  will be generously donated by the Mark Knoop family at an unknown time in the future.

• 412 acres total, including future Trust

• future working farm and Agricultural Heritage Center

Location: The Lost Creek Reserve and Knoop Agricultural Heritage Center is located at 2645 E. State Route 41,  Troy, OH 45373. 

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