He was appointed by the state in 1816 to make and report on a map of Washington County, Pennsylvania.

In 1828 he entered the service of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) to help create an engineering staff for the new company.

He worked with Dr. William Howard, Lt. Col Stephen H. Long[4] and led the design work of the B&O Main Line from Baltimore, Maryland to Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, the oldest common carrier rail line in the United States.

[2] Knight was elected as an Opposition Party candidate to the Thirty-fourth Congress.

He resumed agricultural pursuits near East Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and died there in 1858.