JAMES H. KNAPP. It has been the privilege of James H. Knapp, president of
the Republic Banking Company, and a prominent farmer of Scipio Township,
Seneca County, to realize many of his worthy ambitions and through the
exercise of good judgement and business sagacity to wrest from his
opportunities financial and general success. Although now past eighty
years, when most men would be willing to retire on their laurels, his
active brain and bodily energy keep him a participating factor in the life
of the community, where he is widely known and highly respected.
Mr. Knapp was born July 12, 1842, in Putman County, New York, and is a son
of Gilbert and Cynthia (Chase) Knapp, and a grandson of Wright Knapp, also
a native of New York State. Gilbert Knapp was born in Putnam County January
7, 1820, and was reared on a farm. He carried on farming, lime burning and
brick making until 1848, when he came to Erie County, Ohio, and settled on
a farm on which he spent the remaining years of his life, dying in 1894. He
was a Quaker in his religious faith, and a republican in politics. Mrs.
Knapp, who was born in New York June 6, 1820, was a member of the Baptist
Church, in the faith of which she died in 1910. There were three sons in
the family of this worthy couple: James H., John T. and Cyrus C., the two
latter being deceased.
James H. Knapp was reared on farms in Putnam County, New York and Erie
County, Ohio, and secured his education in the district schools, this being
supplemented by attendance at Eastman's Commercial College. On May 2, 1864,
he enlisted in Company I, One Hundred and Forty-fifth Regiment, Ohio
Volunteer Infantry, with which he served until the close of the war. On his
return from military service Mr. Knapp located in Erie County, where he
worked on a farm for about five years, but in 1870 took up his permanent
residence in Aeneca County, where he is now the owner of a handsome
property known as Rock Run Ranch, a tract of 335 acres which includes all
the latest improvements and is highly productive. In 1906 Mr. Knapp
assisted in the organization of the Republic Banking Company, of which he
has since been the president, his associate officials being: R.D. Straub,
vice president; William M. Baker, secretary-treasurer; E.B. Straub,
cashier; and Ressie M. Robertson, assistant cashier. Mr. Knapp was a member
of the Farmers Bureau and of the executive committee of the Farmers
Insurance Commission in 1922-23. Fraternally he is a thirty-second degree
Mason in the Valley of Toledo. Politically he supports the principles of
the republican party, and despite the fact that Seneca County was heavily
democratic at the time, was elected a member of the board of county
commissioners for one term. Mr. Knapp is a broad minded man, thoroughly
progressive, well posted on current events, and entertaining sensible
opinions on questions of public interest.
On October 12, 1870, Mr. Knapp married Mrs. Joanna S. Crissel, of Seneca
County, who was born in New York and educated in the public schools and the
academy at Republic, and who at the time of her marriage was living on the
old Crissel homestead in Seneca County. She died August 13, 1914, the
mother of two sons, Daniel B. and Fred, both deceased. On April 22, 1915,
Mr.Knapp married Mrs. Helen M. Heath, who was born in Scipio Township,
Seneca County, August 31, 1846. She spent four years in New York, finishing
her education. On December 1, 1869, she married the late Edward E. Heath, a
tinner by trade, and for three years a Union soldier during the Civil war.
They had no children.
File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by
Gina Reasoner
GReasoner@prodigy.net
December 21, 1999
History of Ohio
The American Historical Society, Inc., 1925
Volume V, page 75-76