Taylor-Knapp Company records, 1936-2001, bulk 1945-1968

The Taylor-Knapp Company was formed as a partnership between Alvin V. Taylor and Sanford R. Knapp in 1932. It was incorporated on April 29, 1937, as Taylor, Nelson & Knapp Inc., a Delaware-based general mining company. The official incorporators were H. C. Blackiston, Kenneth E. Ryan, and John D. Garrison, all of New York City, but Sanford R. Knapp and Alvin V. Taylor quickly took over as President and Secretary respectively. Robert H. Nelson dropped out of the business in 1938. The corporate offices were located in Butte, Montana. During the next few years, the company invested in a number of Montana mining properties, including Victoria Mines Inc. of East Helena, the Buckeye Mine and the Broadway Mine, both in Madison County, and the Two Percent Mine in Philipsburg. The company was forced to shut down during World War II, due to the moratorium on production of non-strategic minerals.

In the fall of 1945, the company purchased the entire property of the Moorlight Mining Company of Philipsburg and took over the manganese operations of numerous claims in the Philipsburg area. Their main product was manganese-dioxide concentrates shipped across the country and into British Columbia, predominantly for use in batteries. At the height of its operations between 1959 to 1962, Taylor-Knapp was the only producer of battery-grade manganese dioxide in the U. S. and Canada. During the later years the company produced some zinc, lead, and silver for treatment by the Trout Mining Co., the Anaconda Co., and the Bunker Hill Mining Co. in Idaho. The company suspended operations in 1968 and closed in 1971. They continued to do annual representation work until 2001.

Beginning in 1950, the Taylor-Knapp Co. began exploration of the Ladd Mine, an abandoned manganese mine south of Tracy, California. On June 29, 1951, this operation was reorganized as Teekay Mines Inc., a subsidiary of the Taylor-Knapp Company. The operations in Tracy were managed by Charles P. "Chid" Knaebel. The company produced manganese-dioxide until shutting down in January 1955. It was then merged back into the Taylor-Knapp Co. for purposes of liquidating the property's assets. This process continued into the early 1960s.

Alvin V. Taylor Jr. was born in Baraboo, Wisconsin, on January 5, 1901, the son of Alvin V. and Blanche (Powers) Taylor. He grew up in Salt Lake County, Utah. After graduating from high school he attended Cornell University and later the School of Earth Sciences at Stanford. He worked for the Miami Copper Co. in Arizona for two years before moving to Butte, Montana, in 1925 to work as a geologist for the Anaconda Copper Mining Company. Between 1930 and 1933 he worked for the company's mines in Chile. He then returned to Butte, where he was living when he formed the Taylor-Knapp Company. The mines the company invested in were shut down during World War II and Taylor worked as a geologist for U. S. Smelting, Refining and Mining Co. in Salt Lake City. When the Taylor-Knapp Co. bought the Moorlight Mining Co. in the fall of 1945, Taylor ran the operation in Philipsburg. In 1950, he moved to California to manage the company's Teekay Mines subsidiary. He died in Menlo Park, California, on September 11, 1964.

Sanford R. Knapp was born in Yonkers, New York, on August 2, 1904, the son of William W. and Julia P. Knapp. He grew up in Yonkers and in Onondaga County, New York. After finishing high school he attended Princeton University and then worked in Butte, Montana, for two years as an ore sampler for the Anaconda Copper Mining Company's Stewart Mine. That is likely when he met Alvin V. Taylor. He then returned east to work for the Aluminum Co. of America for ten years. During World War II, he served with the British Purchasing Commission and was made a member of the Order of the British Empire in recognition of that service. He served as president of the Taylor-Knapp Company from its founding until his death. He married Lucille Gale in 1932. She succeeded him as president of the Taylor-Knapp Co. after his death in Mount Kisco, New York, in March 1971.