Thomas Allen Clapp

Thomas A. Clapp Is Taken By Death; Had Lived Here 42 Years

Thomas A. Clapp, 80, passed away at his home in East McCook early this morning. He had been a resident of McCook since 1902, coming here with his family from DeWitt, Neb.

He was born in Booneville, Ill. When a small child he came to Nebraska with his parents to live on a farm near Lincoln. In 1894 he was married to Fidella Mapes at DeWitt.

He is survived by his wife, three sons, Charles, George and John and one daughter, Mrs. Esther Harris, all living in McCook. Other survivors include 25 grandchildren.

Funeral services will be conducted by Rev. C.M. Smitley at the Herrmann Funeral Home, Tuesday afternoon at 2:30. Burial will be in Riverview Cemetery.

he Clapp Family Ancestral Ties 1996 page 3 September issue, Bob Keller telephone conversation April 1996 Clifford Clapp of McCook NE:

My grandfather [Thomas Allen Clapp] came through from Springfield, Missouri. He was driving a wagon with a level box load of apples he had picked up from somewhere. He traded some of them here in McCook for some wheel bearing grease. They then went on up to Keystone. I guess they didn’t find much work up there so they came back to McCook. That was in 1905.

My father [Charles Allen Clapp] was born in 1895, so he was five years old when he came through here. There is a lot of hay country north of here around Keystone and North Platte but he didn’t find that much work. He did do a lot of digging under houses, putting basements in. He had a small set of work ponies that were harnessed to a scraper. He and a couple other guys would get the hole under the house started and they would fill the scraper, then they would lead the little ponies out to where it was to be dumped and after that the little ponies would do it all by themselves. He would back the scraper in and after it was filled he would then go dump the load. I was just old enough to remember grandpa before he died. I was about 5 years old. There used to be a Hiram C. Clapp here that ran a women’s apparel shop. Dad and him would get together but they could never trace any relative. The name is spelt the same way.

corr Aug 2000 Beverly Barnt bjbm@omniglobal.net re George Amer Clapp families

-----------Ruth Clapp:  Tom Clapp lived for a time with my parents after my two oldest sisters were old enough to remember.  They were small but remembered the wedding after that of Tom to a neighbor girl Della Mapes. [witness to the marriage was her father, George Clapp of Dwight]

Marian Fairbairn: Tom appears 1870 census Seward Co NE Oak Grove pct, 1885 census living with mother in Butler Co NE Richardson pct,

All children did live in East McCook, NE (Flora and Erma)