This is a transcription of the Mrs. William D. Knapp biography from New Hampshire Women: A Collection of Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Daughters and Residents of the Granite State, Who are Worthy Representatives of their Sex in the Various Walks and Conditions of Life, The New Hampshire Publishing Co., Concord, NH, 1895, page 147.
Mrs. William D. Knapp
The fine farms of Barrington have given to the advancement of the world some very bright men and women, and a notable one of the latter is a daughter of Dea. Thomas and Mrs. Susan (Hale) Hussey. Her studies in the country schools were supplemented by terms at the New Hampshire Conference Seminary and Gilmanton Academy in the spring and autumn, the alternating seasons being occupied by teaching. In 1854 Miss Hussey entered the State Normal school at Framingham, Mass., from which she graduated in July 1855. Following a season of teaching in her native town, she became an assistant in the Great Falls high school, but resigned her position in 1858, for one more lucrative in Stoneham, Mass., whence she was called in 1861 to become the first assistant in the high school named, where she taught with marked success until 1865. After teaching a select school in her own town, she married in 1866 the Hon. William D. Knapp, a distinguished lawyer of Somersworth, where she has since resided. Mrs. Knapp, a member of the Pascataqua Congregational Club, and trained to good deeds from her childhood, has been prominent in religious work, and in the many avenues by which women of like mind and culture may aid in the progress of civilization. The love and admiration of everyone associated with her have been deservedly hers. From 1885 to 1893-94, she was president of the Strafford Conference of the New Hampshire Branch of the Woman’s Board of Missions, and her resignation of the office was received with the strongest reluctance on the part of the conference. She has been a frequent contributor of poems and sketches to both secular and religious papers and magazines, and has delighted readers of her home publication by “Old Time Stories,” and by reminiscences of the high school. A history in rhyme, written for the first reunion of alumni of the school in 1877, was published later in book form. Her literary work is most refined and charming, in keeping with her whole life and character.