Augustus Belknap

Augustus Belknap Jr. (March 19, 1841 – June 22, 1889) was an American civic leader of San Antonio, Civil War veteran, politician, president of the board of the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway, founder of the Belknap Rifles military company and the founder of the company that operated the only streetcar system in the city.

He was born in Newburgh, New York, as the son of Augustus Belknap, and moved to Texas in 1877. He founded and supported the Belknap Rifles military company, organized on October 14, 1884. It won more drill competitions than any other military company in the United States in its time.

Civil War service
He was educated in private military schools and worked in hardware before the Civil War from 1856 to 1861. He enlisted to the New York National Guard on April 19, 1861. After his terms of service expired, he enlisted in the U.S. Army and was in the 67th New York Infantry Regiment, seeing action in the Battle of Fair Oaks, in which he was wounded, and the Battle of Fredericksburg. He enlisted in the Army as a second lieutenant and was promoted to captain. In his obituary in the New York Herald it mentions that he served on the staff of General Alexander Shaler during the war.

Later life
Belknap became a member of the Old Guard Metropolitan Regiment in New York City after the war, and later became a junior partner in the hardware firm of William S. Dodge and Company. In March 1877, he was promoted from his rank of lieutenant colonel and ordinance officer in the New York National Guard.

He moved to Texas in 1877 and lived in San Antonio. On June 22, 1878, Belknap bought all the stock in the San Antonio Street Railway System, and led the first mule-drawn car from Alamo Plaza to San Pedro Springs Park. This route developed into the first streetcar line in the city. He became the founder and president of the company that operated the city's only streetcar system. He also was a director of the San Antonio Fair Association and president and director of the Opera House Company.

Belknap was elected to be an alderman from the second ward of San Antonio in 1883 and 1885. Belknap was a member of the first board of the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway when it was chartered on August 28, 1884. He founded the Belknap Rifles on October 14, 1884, financing the military company for twenty to thirty young men who were denied admission to the San Antonio Rifles. He was an alderman at-large in 1887. He resigned later in 1887 to run for the 10th congressional district. He ran for the seat in Texas's 10th congressional district in the 51st Congress as a Republican, against incumbent Joseph D. Sayers, losing to the congressman who would later on become the governor of Texas.

He died while on a trip to Santa Barbara, California, on June 22, 1889, of ulcerative colitis. He was buried in the Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.

Belknap Place, a thoroughfare in San Antonio's Monte Vista Historic District connecting the northern edge of San Antonio College, Temple Beth-El and Hildebrand Avenue, is named for him.