Hiram Knowles was born in Hamden, Maine, in 1834, the son of Freeman Knowles, a ship's captain and medical doctor. When he was four years old the family moved to Illinois and two years later to Keokuk, Lee County, Iowa. In 1850, young Knowles accompanied his father west to California to search for gold, staying there a year. He was educated at Denmark Academy, Antioch College, and Harvard Law School. In 1862, Knowles returned west, this time to Nevada, where he practiced law for four years, serving also as district attorney and probate judge for Humboldt County. In 1865, he moved to Idaho, and a year later to Montana. During his first years in Montana, Knowles combined a law practice with prospecting and mining. In 1868, President Andrew Johnson appointed him Associate Justice of the territorial supreme court. He was re-appointed to this position, successively, in 1872 and 1876. He found the court records in a chaotic condition and during the course of his three terms organized them. In 1879, Knowles resigned from the bench to return to the private practice of law. In 1884, in his one excursion into politics, Knowles ran unsuccessfully for territorial delegate to Congress. In 1890, President Benjamin Harrison appointed Knowles federal district judge for the Montana district. He served in that position until his retirement in 1904. Judge Hiram Knowles died April 6, 1911.