Jeremiah Watkins Clapp

Background

Jeremiah Watkins Clapp was born on September 24, 1814, in Abingdon, Virginia. He was the son of Doctor Earl Bourne Clapp, a surgeon from Virginia, and Elizabeth Craig, the daughter of Captain Robert Craig.

Education

Educated at Abingdon Male Academy, Jeremiah graduated from Hampden-Sydney College in 1835.

Career

Jeremiah Watkins Clappe owned cotton plantations in Mississippi and Arkansas, and he served as a judge in the Mississippi House of Representatives from 1856 to 1858. At the outset of the Civil War, he attended the Mississippi Secession Convention in favor of the Confederate States of America.

He represented the state of Mississippi in the First Confederate Congress from 1862 to 1864. To assist the Confederate States Army Clapp was asked by Christopher Memminger, the Confederate Secretary of the Treasury, to oversee cotton production in Mississippi as well as parts of Alabama and Louisiana. He ensured that cotton was turned into Confederate uniforms and was sent to Richmond, Virginia, where General Richard Taylor distributed them. Clapp served in this capacity until Union General Edward Canby forced him to hand over the cotton in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Meanwhile, Clapp turned down Canby's offer to serve in the same capacity for the Union Army. He moved his legal practice to Memphis, Tennessee in 1866.

During the 1876 presidential election, Jeremiah Clapp was an elector for Samuel J. Tilden. From 1878 to 1880, he served in the Mississippi State Senate.

Achievements

• An advocate of the Confederate States of America, Jeremiah Watkins Clapp is known for his service in the First Confederate Congress. During the American Civil War, he was in charge of Confederate cotton in Mississippi as well as sections of Alabama and Louisiana.

Religion

Clapp was a Master Mason in Abingdon, Virginia. He attended the Presbyterian Church in Holly Springs and the Second Presbyterian Church in Memphis.

Politics

Clapp was a Whig who joined the Union and States' Rights party of Mississippi in 1850. He became a Democrat and voted for secession at his state's convention in 1861.

Connections

Jeremiah Clapp had eight children by his marriage in May 1843 to Evalina Donoho Lucas.

Father:

Earl Bourne Clapp

1772-1854

Mother:

Elizabeth Craig Clapp

1775-1831

Brother:

Theophilus Parsons Clapp

1807-1881

Wife:

Evalina Donoho Lucas Clapp

1824-1907

Daughter:

Climmie Lucas Clapp McCrosky

1844-1904

Son:

Walker Lucas Clapp

1850-1901

Son:

Jeremiah Watkins Clapp

1852-1923

Daughter:

Eva Walton Clapp West

1854-1936

Daughter:

Leura Clapp Taylor

1858-1924

Daughter:

Olie Bourne Clapp Steele

1867-1955

References

• The Pelican Guide to Old Homes of Mississippi: Columbus and the North by Helen Kerr Kempe
  1977
• Crisis and Commission Government in Memphis: Elite Rule in a Gilded Age City
  1998