Jeremiah Watkins Clapp

Judge Jeremiah Watkins Clapp (September 24, 1814 – September 5, 1898) was a slave-owning American lawyer, planter and politician. He owned cotton plantations in Mississippi and Arkansas, and he served in the Mississippi legislature from 1856 to 1858. An advocate of the Confederate States of America, he served in the First Confederate Congress from 1862 to 1864. During the American Civil War, he was in charge of Confederate cotton in Mississippi as well as sections of Alabama and Louisiana. After the war, he moved to Memphis, Tennessee, and he served in the Mississippi State Senate from 1878 to 1880.

Early life Jeremiah Watkins Clapp was born on September 24, 1814, in Abingdon, Virginia. His father, Dr Earl B. Clapp, was a surgeon from Virginia.

Clapp was a Whig until 1850, when he joined the States' Rights Party. During the 1860 presidential campaign, he was an elector for John C. Breckinridge's campaign.

To assist the Confederate States Army, Clapp was asked by Christopher Memminger, the Confederate Secretary of the Treasury, to oversee cotton production in Mississippi as well as parts of Alabama and Louisiana.

Clapp became a Master Mason in Abingdon, Virginia in 1836. He attended the Presbyterian church in Holly Springs, and the Second Presbyterian Church in Memphis.

Death Clapp died on September 5, 1898, in Memphis, Tennessee. He was buried at the Elmwood Cemetery.