John Armoy Knox- Texan cowboy writer from Armoy

 by Alister J. McReynolds

Nowadays when we in Ulster think of the North Antrim village of Armoy we naturally think of its most famous son as being the late Joey Dunlop - motorcycling champion and 'King of the Road'.
Long before Joey's time, however, Armoy had another famous son - an Ulster-Scot who emigrated to the United States and who kept the name of the village to the forefront incorporated as it was within      Alister Reynolds                      his name - John Armoy Knox.

John Knox was born in Armoy on August 10, 1851, son of Thomas and Jane McBride Knox.  His father and uncle owned Armoy Flax and Grain mills plus land on the outskirts of the village at Park, Moyaver and Turnarobert.
Knox emigrated to the United States in 1871 for reasons of improving his health.  He settled in Austin, Texas working initially as a sewing machine agent before starting  work for a newspaper.  In 1875 he married Letitia McDonald and they had at least three children.
In May 1881, along with Alexander E Sweet, he founded, 'Texas Siftings' a humorous paper that had as its masthead - "Knox and Sweet, proprietors, editors and sifters".
In early 1884, perhaps somewhat incongruously, 'Texas Siftings' moved to New York as its base where Knox managed the business side of the operation whilst Sweet provided more of the literary' input.  This was a successful partnership and division of labour and from 1886-91 it became one of the most popular publications right across the United States with a circulation in the order of 150,000 copies. 
During this period it spread its wings sufficiently to have a branch office and a specific edition for London.  However, circulation started to decline some time after this and the paper was eventually sold off in 1895.
During this period Knox was once more 'on the move' including a spell when he edited and managed the Atlanta Herald from 1892-1894.  In 1896 he returned to New York where he continued to contribute articles to several newspapers and magazines.
Sitting alongside the journalism, Sweet and Knox also published a number of books - many copies of which still exist and which fetch high prices being much sought after in the booming sales of what is termed 'Americano' in the antiques trade. 
The titles of the works portray why this is the case - 'Sketches from Texas Siftings' was published in 1885 whilst the wonderfully entitled 'On a Mexican mustang through Texas from the Gulf to the Rio Grande', was published in 1883.  A number of books in similar vein were published during these years.
In 1883 Knox criticised D.B.Sheehan, a New York sculptor for his reflections on local Government in Texas whereupon the two gentlemen fought a duel in which, thankfully, neither of them was injured.  In 1900 Knox sought to enjoin actress Blanche Walsh from starring in a play called 'MARCEL' on the grounds that he had copyrighted a play of his own by that name.  He lost the lawsuit.
An interesting insight into Knox's character is given in one of his quotes where he wrote: "Be virtuous and Ð you will get left".
Ultimately, Knox's key contribution was to the creation of the myth of the cowboy and the old west.  One commentator put it succinctly - "the cowboy, as a subject  dominated Texas literature thereafter and entered the scene in the 1880s.   Alex E. Sweet and J. Armoy Knox treated cowboy lore in a humorous satirical fashion". 
Another writer noted that observations of Sweet and Knox offered, "a grotesque view of the manners and customs in Texas.  Some sober truths in the guise of fun".
As a young lad growing up in Armoy and playing Cowboys and Indians neither I nor my young pals had any idea that a local man, an Ulster-Scot from our own village had contributed so much to the making of the myths and stories of the Old West that we were seeing in black and white on our television screens and re-enacting in the playground of Armoy Primary School not a hundred yards away from the ruins of the Armoy flax and grain mills.