Knerr, Morgan W., 1864-1936.

Morgan W. Knerr was born February 1, 1864, in Upper Macungie Township, in central Pennsylvania, to Wilson (b. 1833) and Angelina (Scharadin) Knerr (1840-1904). Morgan was the only male son born to the couple and the only child to survive past his twentieth birthday. Wilson Knerr was a shoemaker and prominent member of the Jordan Lutheran Church.

Knerr attended the Keystone State Normal School and later New York City's Bellevue Hospital Medical College (now known as the New York University School of Medicine), from which he graduated in 1891. The Bellevue Hospital Medical College, established in 1861, pioneered many of the nation's firsts, including the first hospital-based ambulance service, the first children's clinic, the first emergency pavilion, the first in-hospital appendectomy, and the first laboratory for research and teaching in pathology and bacteriology.

From 1893 to 1894 Knerr was enrolled at the Medico-Chirurgical College of Philadelphia as a "special student." The college was established in 1850 and while Knerr was attending, it was located at 18th and Cherry Streets and shared its space with the Philadelphia Dental College. In the 1890s the Medico-Chirurgical College underwent extensive renovation to its physical location and expanded its facilities through the addition of an amphitheater.

Knerr held his first private practice in Breinigsville in central Pennsylvania from 1891 until 1898. He later moved to eastern Pennsylvania and settled in Coplay where he gained repute as an expert in diseases of the lungs. He was a physician for the Coplay Board of Health and also an examining physician for several insurance companies. Knerr also took an active part in his community, having served as borough school director and held memberships in the Knights of the Golden Eagle and the Modern Woodmen of America.

In 1893, Knerr married Jennie E. Dubbs, daughter of Charles and Ellen (Stephen) Dubbs, of East Texas, Pennsylvania. They had three children: Myrtle and Mabel, both of whom attended the Allentown College for Women, and Maggie, who died in infancy. Knerr died on January 13, 1936.