So Now You Know

In 1876 the glass merchant Thomas Adams (1818-1905) and his two sons established the first chewing gum manufacturer, Adams Sons and Company. As a result of experiments in a warehouse on Front Street, Adams made chewing gum made with chicle, large quantities of which have been made available to him by General Antonio de Santa Ana of Mexico, who was in exile in Staten Island and at whose instigation Adams had tried to use the chicle to make rubber. Adams sold the gum with the slogan "Adams' New York Gum No. 1 - Snapping and Stretching." Working with flavor addition resulted in liquorice Adams' Black Jack - the oldest (1872) flavoured chewing gum on the market today. Adams brands introduced Beemans pepsin in the 1890's & Clove gum in the early 1930's.

The firm was the nation's most prosperous chewing gum company by the end of the 19th century: it built a monopoly in 1899 by merging with the six largest and best-known chewing gum manufacturers in the United States and Canada and achieved great success as the maker of Chiclets.