 George Bunton Knapp
 Edna Eugene (DeWolfe) Knapp
Virginia Knapp
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GEORGE BRUNTON KNAPP was born on May 4, 1880, in Marion, Ohio. He was the eldest son of Rosetta Tavenner an James A. Knapp. He represents a very old and influential family of Marion County, and is himself actively engaged in the real estate business in the City of Marion. His great-grandfather, William Knapp, who was born at Warsaw, New York, in 1752 and died in 1800, was a private in the New York militia and a minute man during the Saratoga campaign in the Revolutionary war. The grandfather of George B. Knapp was John R. Knapp, who was born in New York State in 1787, was a soldier in the War of 1812, and a early settler at Marion. He served as mayor of the town in 1851, and in 1853 was appointed postmaster. His name is identified with the old Marion Mirror as its editor. He died in 1864.
James Andrew Knapp, father of George B., was born at Marion, January 20, 1853, and for a number of years was in the insurance business. The past twenty years he has devoted entirely to the affaires of Masonry, being secretary of Marion Lodge, Marion Chapter, Marion Council, and Marion Commandery, Knights Templar, at Marion, a member of the Scottish Bite Consistory, and was elected to the thirty-third degree in 1924. He is a republican and a Methodist. James A. Knapp married Rose Tavenner, who was born in Virginia, March 12, 1853, and died September 9, 1903.
George Brunton Knapp after graduating from the Marion High School in 1898, became a reporter for the Marion Tribune. From 1901 to 1908 he was publisher of the Marion Republican, a weekly republican paper. In 1908 and 1910 he was chairman of the Republican County Central Committee, and from 1908 to 1912 was president of the Monarch Republican Company, printers, binders and dealers in office supplies. In 1912 he left Marion and became general manager of the Hopley Printing Company at Bucyrus, Ohio, publishers of the Bucyrus Evening Telegraph and the Bucyrus Journal. Mr. Knapp returned to Marion in 1916, and with his brother Frank M. established the firm of J.A. Knapp & Sons, general insurance and real estate.
He left this business soon after America declared war against Germany.
On May 12, 1917 George B. Knapp entered the First Officers’ Training Camp at Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indianapolis. He was commissioned a captain of infantry, and on August 31, 1917, was assigned as commanding officer of Company A of the 330th Infantry, 83rd Division, later serving as battalion commander and regimental commander. On December 31, 1917, he was promoted to major. During that time he was with his regiment at Camp Sherman, Ohio, but on May 29, 1918, was ordered for overseas service. From June 12 to June 24 he was on board the U.S.S. Plattsburg, as commanding officer of the troops. He served with the 83rd Division in France from June, 1918, until January, 1919, returning to the United States on board the U.S.S. Frederick, and on February 4 returned to Camp Sherman, where he served as regimental commander of the 330th Infantry until the final discharge of the regiment on March 31, 1919.
After the war Major Knapp engaged in the real estate business individually, and in addition is secretary of the Vernon Heights Realty Company, which was organized in 1920 and has promoted and marketed Vernon Heights, the finest residential section of Marion. Major Knapp was the second president of the Marion Real Estate Board, is a member of the Board of Governors of the Ohio Realtors, and a member of the National Real Estate Board.
He belongs to Bird McGinnis Post No. 162 of the American Legion, is a member of the Sons of the American Revolution, a republican, a Presbyterian, a member of the Marion Country Club and Marion Club, and in Masonry is affiliated with the Lodge, Chapter, Council and Knights Templar Commandery and the Scottish Rite Consistory.
George Brunton Knapp married on May 4, 1907, Miss Edna DeWolfe, of Marion, daughter of the late Simon De Wolfe, who for over fifty years was in the grain and elevator business, operating the Marion Elevator from 1854 to 1904. Edna and George had one daughter, Virginia Knapp, born on February 21, 1908, in Marion, Ohio, they reside at 512 Vernon Heights Boulevard. |
