Harry Knickerbocker married Minnie Kitchen when he was intoxicated. He had been courting Minnie's sister, Anna, but the girls made a switch at the altar (apparently looking alike) and Harry took the bait. Strangely, Anna lived with Minnie and Harry for more than 15 years, serving as housekeeper. She apparently broke up the marriage, for Minnie divorced Harry before 1920. Minnie reportedly married a younger man, Frank D. Wallin, and they moved to Houston, with the children.
Mae Jobe said that Harry (his nickname was Hal) carried on a romance with Anna until their deaths. Anna refused to marry him because he didn't make enough money, Mae said. In his later years, he was supported by his brother Hubert. Harry passed the bar in Louisiana, was a merchant and ran the Grunewald Hotel in New Orleans.
Harry was a heavy drinker. Often his wife and friends would send him to his mother in Baton Rouge to get him sobered up. Emma wrote in 1916 that she hoped he would start "sowing good seed." Hal then was in his mid-40's. Hal died of prostate cancer at 74. Ironically, he outlived all his brothers except Hubert who died 10 years later.
Hal was buried in Houston. His obituary read: "Surviving are two sons, Harry Jr. and Earl, both of Houston; sister, Mrs. B.M. Lambert of Crowley, LA, and brother, Rev. Hubert D. Knickerbocker, Dallas. He was buried in Forest Park Cemetery, Houston." Two sons preceded him in death: Byron R. at 41 and Malcolm at 46. It is believed that Minnie Kitchen Knickerbocker Wallin died between 1941 and 1944.