May I, 1 90 1.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER \A^ORLD 



235 



SOME SUCCESSFUL MEN IN THE RUBBER TRADE. 



I. — THE LATE CHARLES M. CLAPP. 



CHARLES MARTIN CLAPP was born at Watertown, 

 New York, July 5, 1834, the son of Martin Gillett 

 Clapp, a successful merchant, who died on November 

 7 following at the age of 27 years. Mary Ann Gillett, 

 the mother of Mr. Clapp, died July 19, 1834. when he was two 

 weeks old. The infant Charles, together with a sister, two 

 years his senior, was taken in char£;e by an uncle, and shortly 

 thereafter removed to the home of their 

 maternal grandparents, Solomon and 

 Martha Gillett, at Colchester, Connec- 

 ticut. Few more honorable lives have 

 blessed their generation than Mr. 

 Clapp's grandparents, both of whom 

 lived to an advanced age^his grand- 

 father to 83 and his grandmother to 93 

 years. 



Charles M. Clapp received his educa- 

 tion in the schools of Colchester and 

 at Monson Academy. His first experi- 

 ence in business was with Arms & 

 Bardwell, leather merchants, of New 

 York city, at their manufactory at 

 South Deerfield, Massachusetts. He 

 went from there in the same employers' 

 interest to Boston, and continued with 

 them until he reached the age of 21, 

 soon after which he came into posses- 

 sion of his inheritance. He then spent 

 some months in travel in the western 

 United States. On returning to Boston 

 he lived at the Parker House, being 

 one of the first guests of that afterwards widely known hotel. 



In 1856, Mr. Clapp bought out a drygoods firm on Tremont 

 row, Boston, at that time one of the central streets in that line 

 of business. He associated himself with Edmund B. Parker, 

 who had some knowledge of the business, Mr. Clapp furnishing 

 the capital. They met financial difficulties in the following 

 year, known as the " panic year," 

 and in December, 1858, the firm 

 failed. Mr. Clapp not only had 

 lost all the money he had put 

 into the business, but became 

 burdened with the debts of the 

 firm, which he discharged fully a 

 few years later. 



Mr. Clapp soon afterward en- 

 gaged with Henry A. Hall, a rub- 

 ber merchant of Boston, as book- 

 keeper, remaining with him four 

 years, when he opened a store at 

 No. 37 Milk street, for the sale of 

 rubber goods. From the start he 

 was successful, and in a short 

 time he was able to cancel the 

 debts of the house of Parker, 

 Clapp & Co., and enter into the 

 rubber business in his own name. 

 Associated with him as a clerk 

 was Robert D. Evans — since pres- 



CHARLES M. CLAPP 



ident of the United States Rubber Co. — who in time was 

 given a percentage of the profits of the business. In 1865, 

 Mr. Clapp was appointed United States government inspector 

 of rubber blankets in the quartermaster's department, located 

 at Cincinnati, Ohio, and served until all the contracts for 

 blankets were completed. In the early years of his career in 

 the rubber business, he bought of Henry W. Burr and others, 

 land and factory buildings at Jamaica 

 Plain, Massachusetts, which had been 

 used for the manufacture of rubber 

 goods. He added new buildings and 

 plant, greatly enlarfjing the establish- 

 ment, which was known as the " /litna 

 Rubber Mills." This was always his 

 own individual property, paid f3r and 

 operated solely by himself. 



By 1870 the business had so increased 

 that it became necessary to remove the 

 store to a larger building, which was 

 secured at No. 28 Summer street, and 

 about that time Robert D. Evans and 

 Levi Ladd were taken into the firm, 

 under the style Clapp, Evans & Co. 

 This relation continued for about two 

 years, and in 1872 Mr. Clapp bought 

 out his partners' interest, it being more 

 to his mind to be free from the re- 

 straint which a partnership involved. 

 The partnership had been dissolved 

 and Mr. Clapp had filled the ware- 

 rooms on Summer street with a large 

 stock of new goods, when the great fire of November 9, 1872, 

 occurred, and his goods were consumed before his eyes. Mr. 

 Clapp had watched the progress of the fire from the time 

 it had attacked the Pearl street granite block of stores and 

 warehouses through the night, and from time to time he had 

 interviews with the chief engineer of the fire department, who 



THE /ETNA RUBBER MILLS. 



