J. Armoy (John Armoy) Knox

Born in Armoy, County Antrim, Ireland, on August 10, 1851, John Armoy Knox later emigrated to the United States and made his name in Texas journalism. Reliable Texas reference sources describe him as a journalist and writer closely associated with the rise of Texas Siftings, a comic paper that became widely known for its frontier wit and satire.

Knox wrote in several popular forms, from newspaper humor to travel and adventure books. He is credited as joint author of On a Mexican Mustang, Through Texas, from the Gulf to the Rio Grande (1883) with Alexander Edwin Sweet, and later co-authored All About the Klondike Gold Mines (1897) with J. G. Pratt. These works suggest a writer interested both in entertaining readers and in capturing places and events that fascinated the public of his time.

He died in New York on December 18, 1906. Though not widely remembered today, Knox remains an appealing figure for readers interested in early Texas letters, newspaper humor, and the brisk, colorful nonfiction of the American 1800s.