WW1 Honorable Discharge Papers
Maj. George B. Knapp - Commanding Officer, 330th Infantry Regiment
These are the original Discharge Papers of Major George Knapp of Marion, Ohio. Also included is an original paper with the Records of service to Officer George Knapp who served from May, 1917 to March 1919. Although George Brunton Knapp attained the rank of Major during World War 1 and served overseas, he did not fight in any battles. He is the Grandson of William Knapp, a Revolutionary War Minute Man from Albany New York.
Major George Brunton Knapp
Major
George Brunton Knapp
Major George Brunton Knapp
George B. Knapp was born on May 4, 1880, in Marion, Ohio as the eldest son of James Knapp and Rosetta Tavenner Knapp. He represented a very old and influential family of Marion County, and was himself actively engaged in the real estate business in the City of Marion. His great-grandfather, William Knapp, 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, was a soldier in the War of 1812.
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. 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. 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 as 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, a member of the Board of Governors of the Ohio Realtors, and a member of the National Real Estate Board.
George Brunton Knapp married Edna DeWolfe on May 4, 1907 Edna and George had one daughter, Virginia Knapp, born on February 21, 1908, in Marion, Ohio. George B. Knapp died on February 28, 1929, in his hometown at the age of 48, and was buried there.
