Moses Knight remembered- Noted artist from Rector at work on special portrait

Artist Paul Frets (left) recently visited the grave of Moses Knight, near Rector, with Rector High School Helping Hands Foundation board members Jim Marlar, George Barker, Sherland Hamilton, Bill Carter and Leland Blackshare. (Democrat photo/Ryan Rogers) [Click to enlarge]

Moses Knight, known fondly to most in Rector as "Uncle Mose," was, during the first half of the 20th century, a fixture in downtown Rector, where he often sat on a street corner playing his banjo or just visiting with folks who went by. He was especially loved by the children, and he eagerly returned their affection, often entertaining them with stories or songs.

"We all loved Mose and remember so well visiting with him as children," said Rector native Bill Carter, a television producer and author who now resides near Nashville. "Everybody loved him. So we decided to do something in his memory so old Mose will not be forgotten."

Moses Knight in June 1948 [Click to enlarge]

Carter and Rector native George Barker of New York, co-founders of the Rector High School Helping Hands Foundation, recently approached Rector native Paul Frets about painting a portrait of Moses, to be auctioned off as a fundraiser for the Foundation, which generously assists disadvantaged Rector students.

A noted artist and Professor Emeritus of art at Radford University in Virginia, Frets quickly agreed, happy to help the foundation, with which he is closely associated as a friend and former classmate of Carter, Barker and several other board members.

Frets is now at work on the painting, which, during Labor Day weekend 2008, will be displayed along with a wide range of his other works, at a Crockett Oil Company building which years ago served as the Crockett Motors showroom.

Several Helping Hands board members gathered recently to repaint the old showroom, and owner Sherland Hamilton, chairman of the Foundation board, has had a new ceiling installed. Carter planned and help construct a portable display to be placed in the center of the room to provide additional space for Frets' remarkable paintings to be shown.

The painting of Moses Knight will be auctioned off sometime during Labor Day weekend. "We will ask that whoever purchases the painting donate it to the Rector Community Museum," Carter said. "We think Mose is an important part of Rector history and want him always to be remembered."

The portrait will be based on a studio photograph of Knight taken in 1948 by Rector photographer Lexie Corkran, who died in 1979.

The Story of Moses

Moses was born in October 1867 only a few yards from the two-room log cabin in which he lived for much of his life.

His parents, Mark Knight and Jane Freeman Knight, had been slaves in Tennessee, thankfully under two kind families, whose sirnames they assumed.

When the families left that area at the close of the Civil War to make their home in Arkansas, Mark and Jane pleaded to follow them rather than stay in Tennessee as free people.

When Albert Mobley of this area married Judith Freeman Knight in 1868, Mark, Jane and Moses were brought to the then-deserted plantation home , located about a mile northwest of Scatterville, the first community carved out of the woods in Clay County.

There were other black families in the area at that time, but as they drifted away over the years, only Moses was left.

Having missed an opportunity to attend school in Jonesboro, he remained illiterate throughout his life, yet was known for his keen intellect and ability to converse on a wide range of subjects.

He was dedicated to the care of his mother after the death of his father in 1916 at age 100. Jane almost reached the century mark, dying in 1935 at age 99.

Moses' strong character earned him great respect among all, and he seemed always to feel comfortable as the only black in a community of whites.

In a college paper about Moses written by Bill Carter in 1958, he noted, "It was hard to believe that Moses could neither read nor write. Here was a man who was a fluent and graceful talker, as if he were an educated man."

"The young people of Rector knew 'Uncle Mose' quite well," Carter wrote, "To them he was a strange but friendly old man of a race they had never before seen. For years children followed along beside 'Uncle Mose' from the time he came near the outskirts of town until he reached Main Street. Mose was a kind and colorful old man who loved the children and often told them stories and cut up as if one of them.

"Moses seemed to live for times when a group of young kids would hike to his cabin to visit him," Carter continued. "He always greeted the children with smiles of hospitality. As they would gather in his cabin, Mose would bring out the old banjo and play and sing folk songs. His favorites were 'The Huntin'Houn,' 'On the Banks of the Wabash' and "Change a Nickel.' As he would go through his dance motions, the customary smile always seen on his face would never falter."

Carter wrote that although Moses had no church to attend, he always felt he was "on the right side."

"He had lived a clean and honest life and had faith in the hereafter," Carter wrote. "Mose Knight had never slipped throughout life. He had always managed to pay his debts and had been self-supporting all his life. He accepted very little charity, saying he had plenty in the good crops raised close by his cabin."

The greatest testament to Moses' character is in the loving memories all who knew him continue to share almost 60 years after his death. Many, no doubt, eagerly await the revealing of his portrait and feel very proud its creator is a Rector artist of such exceptional talent.

A story about the tremendously talented Paul Frets and his art career will follow in next week's issue.