In the early 1850's two men, a Mexican and a New Yorker, became acquainted. It was a meeting that would have a profound effect on today's giant chewing gum industry. One of the men was Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, conqueror of the Alamo and several times president of Mexico. The other was a young photographer, Thomas Adams.

During the 1860's, when Adams switched from photography to a number of trades that brought him little money but served as an outlet for his inventive streak, Santa Anna went into exile from Mexico and boarded with Adams on Staten Island. One day Santa Anna mentioned a subject that he thought might make Adams a wealthy man. The subject was chicle, the same gummy substance that people in his native Mexico had been extracting from tall sapota trees and munching on for thousands of years.

Santa Anna said he thought the inventive Adams might be able to blend the chicle with rubber and come up with a considerably cheaper combination product for carriage tires. Santa Anna's friends in Mexico sent Adams a ton of chicle, and Adams, assisted by the oldest of his four sons, Thomas Jr., began his experiments.

What happened next was told in 1944 by Thomas Jr.'s son Horatio to American Chicle Company managers attending a banquet:

"After about a year's work in blending with rubber, the experiments were adjudged a failure. The gum chicle was in a warehouse on Front Street in New York City. Mr. Adams had about made up his mind to throw the whole lot into the East River as it had no value for any purpose known at that time.

"But it so happened that before this was done, Thomas Adams Sr. went into a drugstore on the corner of Chambers Street and Broadway to purchase something. While there, a little girl came in and asked for a penny's worth of chewing gum. It was known to Mr. Adams that chicle had been used as a chewing gum by the natives of Mexico for many years; Adams and his son had been chewing it while experimenting with the rubber blending scheme. The idea struck him that perhaps they might able to make chewing gum out of chicle and so salvage the lot in storage.

"After the child left the store, Mr. Adams asked the clerk what kind of chewing gum the little girl bought. He was told that it was made of paraffin wax and called White Mountain.

"When Mr. Adams arrived home that night, he spoke to his son, Tom Jr., my father, about his idea. Junior was very much impressed, and suggested that they make up a few boxes of chicle chewing gum and give it a name and a label. He offered to take it out on one of his trips (he was a salesman in wholesale tailors' trimmings and traveled as far west as the Mississippi). They decided on the name of Adams New York No. 1. It was made of pure chicle gum without any flavor. It was made in little penny sticks and wrapped in various colored tissue papers. The retail value of the box, I believe, was one dollar. On the cover of the box was a picture of City Hall, New York, in color.

"Mr. Adams started on his regular trip through the West with about 25 boxes of the gum. He did not succeed in selling a single box to the drugtrade, which he saw each day after visiting his regular customers in the tailors' trimming business. On returning home, of course, he had to report that he had been unsuccessful, but he was certainly not discouraged and he was determined to take it out again on his next trip. He said at that time if he could not sell any of it, he wouldn't bring it home. He would give it to the druggists if they would promise to display it on the counters. This time he succeeded, and left on consignment all the boxes of gum that he took out. Before his return to New York, reorders for chewing gum were coming in to his father in New York to the amount of about 300 boxes in total.

"This was very encouraging to both of them, and Mr. Adams Jr. decided to leave his job and devote himself to building up a business in chewing gum. His employer advised him not to do anything of the kind but told him that if he felt that way and insisted upon it, all right, to go ahead, but he said, 'Remember, if you fail, which I think you will, you may have your job back with me.'

"Of course, he did not fail and the business grew very rapidly. A small building in Jersey City was rented. Twenty-five or thirty girls were hired to wrap the gum by hand. Later other brand names were brought out, such as Adams New York No. 2. This was a larger package. There also was Adams Sapota and two or three other brands."

In 1899, the leading gum manufacturers organized themselves into the American Chicle Company. Thomas Adams Jr. was chairman of the board of directors. Thomas Adams Sr. died in 1905, leaving behind a legacy - and a product - that will always have a special place in American history.