William White

William J. White
Back in the 1890s, the Edgewater neighborhood was home to royalty, of a sort, for William John
White, who resided in an ornate and well-appointed 52-room mansion on a Lake Avenue estate
known as Thornwood, was styled the “Chewing Gum King.” He was certainly one of the most
colorful characters to have ever resided in the neighborhood, as his story will tell.
William J. White was born on October 7, 1850, in Rice Lake, Ontario, Canada. He came to
Cleveland with his parents, John and Laura White, when he was six years old. After receiving
the benefit of an education in district schools, he went to work for Orange Mansfield, the owner
of a well-digging company. The advantages of working for Mr. Mansfield were singular:
William met Mr. Mansfield’s daughter Ellen Marie, whom he married on April 23, 1873.
William and Ellen Marie had seven children: William Benjamin, Harrie Walter, Gloria Marie,
Pearl Marietta, Miles Arthur, Adah Melora, and Ralph Royden.
Shortly after his marriage in 1873, Mansfield’s well-digging business closed down and White
sought employment in a confectionary store. At the confectionary store, White began
experimenting with paraffin wax (a petroleum by-product), which had been used as a base for
chewing gum since about 1850. It should be understood that chewing gum at this time was a
rather tasteless affair as long-lasting flavored chewing gum had not yet been contrived.
Confectionary Alchemy
In 1876, White went into the confectionary business for himself after purchasing at auction the
equipment of a little manufacturer of confectionary that had gone out of business. The
equipment he obtained included a marble slab and a soot-covered pot – candy was boiled in the
pot and cooled on the slab. White set the equipment up in the kitchen of his Lorain Avenue
home and continued his confectionary experiments. He eventually began selling a paraffin wax
chewing gum known as “The Diamond” in the streets from a one-horse wagon to grocers and
small stores with the assistance of his wife and, as soon as they were able, his sons.
Though sales of “The Diamond” chewing gum were modestly successfully, White continued to
practice confectionary alchemy in his kitchen, always seeking to turn his confectionary product
into gold. In 1880, White happened upon a barrel of chicle (a natural gum tapped from certain
Mesoamerican trees) – some reports state that a local grocer gave him the barrel after mistakenly
receiving it in inventory – and found through his kitchen-based experimentation that mixing corn
syrup and sugar with chicle latex allowed the chicle to absorb and hold flavors. White
experimented with various flavors and ultimately determined that peppermint extract was the
longest lasting. He thereupon developed and marketed a peppermint flavored chewing gum
called "Yucatan," named after the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico, from whence his chicle had
originated. He cut his gum into sticks, packaged them in pink paper, and soon found that he was
a very wealthy man – for he was none other than the Chewing Gum King, the inventor of
modern, flavored chewing gum.
White was also a marketing genius, for he knew how to target consumers, as evidenced by the
introduction of another chewing gum he branded “Red Robin.” “Red Robin” was popular with

young boys because White brilliantly affixed to every wrapper a “Boy’s Fortune,” not dissimilar
to the fortune we encounter inside Chinese fortune cookies. One such wrapper which has
survived records the following rather perplexing and unfortunate prognostication:
You are a very good boy, only when Jake Riger and Bob Spoots get you to go on with
them to steal watermelons and peaches from old Daddy Boker. Then you always take the
lead in deviltry. You will try to get his Bartlett pears and will get fast on a wire fence, and
his dog Bose will tear the whole back part of your pants off before you get out, and when
you go home your best girl will be there and you will be so afraid that she will see you,
that you will sleep in the barn all night. But you finally become a minister and marry a
widow with three very bad sons.
By 1884, no longer able to meet demand for his confectionary gold from his kitchen, White was
manufacturing his chewing gum at a plant located at 57 South Water Street (West 9th St.). By
1888, demand was such that White was able to build a new factory at 1675 Detroit Avenue to
manufacture both his Yucatan and Red Robin chewing gums. The Detroit factory still stands,
now converted into residential units and known as the Chicle Building (10307 Detroit Avenue),
and is a listed National Historical Landmark.
In 1890, White founded the American Chicle Co., which operated two plants in Cleveland,
employing hundreds. By this time, White was recognized as the largest chewing gum
manufacturer in the world, having sold well over 150 million sticks of chewing gum. By 1906,
White was reportedly earning over $500,000 a year from his confectionary interests alone.
When White was asked by journalist James Morrow if he thought that the gum business might
fade away, White responded, “The gum business will not play out. Americans are so nervous
that they must bite on something. Farmers use hay, other men use tobacco.”
A Move to Edgewater
White had mastered confectionary alchemy and successfully turned base chicle into monetary
gold. Having done so, he spent no time in spending that gold.
In 1889, White purchased a large estate on Lake Avenue, which he called Thornwood. On that
estate, he built a fifty-two room mansion, which he generously bedecked with oriental carpets,
antique furniture, fine paintings, and luxurious tapestries. He also purchased a 500 acre farm
located about eight miles from Cleveland Public Square, called “Two Minute Stock Farm,”
where he raised and bred 125 thoroughbred horses, several of which were world record holders
at the time. For recreation, he indulged in yachting on Lake Erie. Of particular note, he
purchased the steam yacht “Say When” in 1890, which he sailed from Chicago to Cleveland in
forty-five hours and thirty-five minutes during the Columbian Exposition in 1893. He also sailed
his yacht to England, where he purportedly presented his wife and his gum to King Edward VII.
White also used his new found wealth to purchase substantial business and maritime interests.
He was a substantial stockholder in the Cleveland and Buffalo Transit Company, the Owen
Transportation Company, the First National Bank, the Columbia Savings and Loan Company,
and the West Cleveland Banking Company (of which he was also president). He also owned

real estate throughout the United States, including business blocks and apartment houses in
Chicago, Cleveland, Lorain and other cities, as well as a large farm in Canada. His maritime
interests included several steamers, including the Britannic and Ballentine. In 1901, he built the
New Amsterdam Hotel, a seven-story brick and stone residential hotel, which stood on the
southwest corner of Euclid Avenue and East 22nd Street until being razed in 1969.
Electoral Politics
For additional diversion, White engaged in electoral politics. In 1889, after moving to Lake
Avenue, he was elected mayor of the Village of West Cleveland – scurrilous rumor claiming he
secured his electoral victory, in part, by distributing free chewing gum to the electorate. White
served one two-year term as mayor. As background, for those unfamiliar with the story of the
Village of West Cleveland, the Village was created in 1871 and consisted of 1,500 acres of land.
It was bounded on the north by Lake Erie, on the east by the Cleveland corporation line near
Gordon Avenue (West 65th Street), on the west by Highland Avenue (West 117th Street), and on
the south by Lorain Street. Prior to 1871, the area was part of Brooklyn Township. In 1893, the
electorate of the Village of West Cleveland voted to annex to the City of Cleveland and, the
following year, the Village and the City agreed upon the terms of the annexation.
After his term as mayor, he decided to run for the U.S. House of Representatives. He was
elected as a Republican to the Fifty-third Congress (March 4, 1893-March 3, 1895) but declined
to be a candidate for re-nomination in 1894. During his term in Congress, he introduced and
piloted to successful passage the law known as the "White Bill," an Act which regulated
navigation on the Great Lakes and their connecting and contributary waters. Ever the salesman,
it is reported that White gave a box of his Yucatan chewing gum to every U.S. congressman
while he served in Congress.
Conclusion
Perhaps it is not surprising that a gentleman as frenetic as White appears to have been would find
settled domestic life less than satisfying. Newspaper headlines reported that at one point the
married White gave Anna Held, an internationally renown stage performer and singer, most
often associated with impresario Florenze Ziegfeld, a $120,000 neckless. They also record that
White divorced his first wife, Ellen, in 1906 and married the very next day the wealthy divorcee
Helen Sheldon. He and Helen moved to New York.
Probably in 1916, White became penniless after business difficulties and was removed as
president of American Chicle Co. By 1920, White had founded Wm. J. White Chicle Co. in
Niagara Falls, where he reported made and lost another fortune. He returned to Cleveland in
1922, penniless; however, always resourceful, he built a new factory determined to achieve
success yet again. But, alas, before success came, in January 1923, White slipped on a sidewalk
and died a few weeks later. He is buried in Lake View Cemetery.