Margaret A. Drips (maiden name: Jacobs) was born around 1829 in Pennsylvania to Alexander Jacobs. Her father was a carpenter. She married Andrew W. Drips in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, on March 21, 1850, and their daughter Blanche was born around 1852. Her husband worked as an editor, and by 1850, they owned $1,600 of real estate. They moved to South Fork, Iowa, sometime in the 1850s, and by 1860, they owned $300 of real estate and $50 of personal property. Her husband enlisted in the Union army in September 1861, and he died in the Battle of Pea Ridge on March 7, 1862. In May 1862, she became postmaster of Maquoketa, Iowa, “in place of her husband.”

 

She married Cornelius J. Knight in Clayton, Iowa, on October 17, 1864. He worked as a marble manufacturer in Clayton, and in 1870, they owned $1,500 of real estate and $125 of personal property. Cornelius died in February 1898, and she died a few days later.

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