Philander Chase Knox (1853-1921)

He was born at Brownsville, Pennsylvania, and graduated from Mount Union College (1872). He was admitted to the bar in 1875 and practiced in Pittsburgh. He was Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania (1876-77) and was President of the Pennsylvania Bar Association in 1897. As Counsel for the Carnegie Steel Company he played a central role in its transition to becoming the U.S. Steel Corporation in 1901. He was U.S. Attorney-General in the cabinets of Presidents McKinley and Roosevelt (1901-1904); U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania (1904-09); an unsuccessful candidate for the Republican Presidential nomination in 1908; and U.S. Secretary of State in President Taft's cabinet (1909-13). He retired to Pittsburgh where he resumed his legal practice and was again the U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania from 1917 to 1921, dying in office. His portrait was painted by Alphonse Jongers. In 1880, he married Lillie, daughter of Andrew Darsie Smith, Steel Manufacturer and President of the La Belle Steel Company of Pittsburgh. They were the parents of four children (listed).