General Santa Anna of Mexico, as everyone knows, was the military leader who killed all 189 defenders at the Alamo in 1836 and who massacred more than 342 Texas prisoners three weeks later at Goliad. He was defeated about a month after that at the Battle of San Jacinto by Samuel Houston.
Fast forward to 1869. Santa Anna was living at Staten Island, New York. He needed money to raise another army in Mexico and, in order to do so, persuaded American inventor Thomas Adams (who was also his secretary) to purchase a ton of Mexican chicle (made from the sap of the sapodilla tree) from him. Adams intended to use the chicle to make a substitute for rubber (which was every expensive at the time), but he did not succeed.
Thomas and his son, Horatio, observed that Santa Anna liked to masticate balls of chicle--as did the ancient Mayans. The Adams family decided to see if chicle could be sold as a chewable product. Their initial test run of 200 balls sold out immediately at a drug store, and they established the first chewing gum company in 1871. They made delightful products such as Tutti-Frutti, Black Jack, and Chiclets and were the premier chewing gum outfit in the world until some guy named Wrigley came along.
Now, why was Santa Anna living in Staten Island? That is a story for a different day.
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