Warren Knaus [sometimes spelled Kraus], newspaper editor and professional entomologist, was born in Jay County, Indiana, February 24, 1858, the youngest of several children to George and Isabel Knaus. At the age of twelve, he moved west with his parents to a farm near Roper, Wilson County, Kansas. He graduated from high school in 1876 and continued his education at the Kansas State Agricultural College (now Kansas State University), earning a bachelor of science degree in 1882 and a master of science degree in 1885. It was during his college career that Knaus was introduced to entomology by Professor Edwin A. Popenoe. He pursued his special interest in coleoptera throughout his life, eventually earning an honorary degree of Doctor of Science from Kansas State College and McPherson College in 1927.

Knaus was a member of the Kansas Academy of Science for 56 years and its president in 1929. He was also a founder of the Kansas Entomological Society in 1927 and its president in 1937.

Knaus began his newspaper career in the early 1880s, working for the Salina Herald while attending graduate school. In 1886, he founded the first democratic newspaper in McPherson County, The Democrat. Knaus consolidated The Democrat with another McPherson democratic paper, The Opinion, in 1912 to form the Democrat-Opinion, which he owned and published up to the time of his death.

Knaus was also engaged in the printing business with C. A. Shaw and served as post master of McPherson for a short time in the 1890s. He was a member of the Odd Fellows, Modern Woodmen of America, and an active promoter of the Democratic Party.

Warren Knaus married Jennie Coburn in 1891, with whom he had three children: Constance, Violet, and Isabel. Jennie died in 1917 and sometime before 1920 Warren married Rebecca Knaus. Warren Knaus died in McPherson, Kansas, on June 28, 1937.