Clapp, Daniel

Born: 1816-XX-XX North Carolina

Flourished: Danville, Illinois

Daniel Clapp was a newspaper editor and publisher, printer, banker, police magistrate, and federal government official. In January 1841, he married Temperance F. Roney in Orange County, North Carolina. Clapp moved from North Carolina to Illinois, settling in Danville. In 1843, he established the Danville Patriot as a Whig Party organ supporting Henry Clay. In August 1847, Clapp became involved in a plan to establish a railroad from Lafayette, Indiana, through Danville and Decatur, to Springfield, Illinois. In June 1848, he entered into a partnership to publish the Temperance Journal and Sons' Companion. From July 1849 to March 1853, he was register of the U.S. General Land Office in Danville. In 1850, Clapp was living in Danville and listed his occupation as printer. He owned real property valued at $800. In 1855, Clapp sold the Patriot and entered into the banking business, taking control of the Security Stock Bank. Clapp possessed neither the capital nor the experience to sustain the bank, and it failed in 1856. In 1860, he was employed as a police magistrate and owned real property valued at $10,000 and had a personal estate of $300.

North Carolina County Marriage Indexes, 1 January 1841, Orange County, North Carolina State Archives, Raleigh, NC; Illinois Journal (Springfield), 9 September 1847, 2:3; 8 June 1848, 2:2; Arnold Ward, "Early Editors and Newspapers of Vermilion County," Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society 25 (January 1933), 263-64; Lottie E. Jones, History of Vermilion County Illinois (Chicago: Pioneer, 1911), 1:153-54, 306; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Danville, Vermilion County, IL, 304; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Danville, Vermilion County, IL, 29.