Cleaves Earl Clapp (1889-1959)

From the Kennebec Journal, January 1, 1941.

   Another curiously named member of the Maine legislative session of 1941-43, Cleaves Earl Clapp served alongside Neota Fowles Grady during that session, and, all told, represented West Brooklin for four non-consecutive terms in the state house. Clapp was a lifelong Maine resident and was born in Brooklin, Hancock County, on May 18, 1889, the son of Rodney David and Laura Carter Clapp.

  A student in schools local to Brooklin, Cleaves Clapp married Kate Jones (1891-1964) in 1910 and later had two sons, Cecil Earl (1910-1988) and Waldo Arland (1912-1989). Despite serving four terms in his state's legislature little information could be found on Clapp's life, except notice of his being an automobile salesman, a member of the West Brooklin school board, and a deputy sheriff for Hancock County. Clapp's 1959 obituary also denotes his being a master mason in the Naskeag Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons in Brooklin.

  Elected to the Maine state legislature in late 1940, Clapp took his seat in January 1941 and was named to the committees on the State Prison, and Sea and Shore Fisheries. He would win reelection in 1942, and during the 1943-45 was named to the Pension committee.

From the Bangor Daily News, February 12, 1941.

  In 1948 Clapp was returned to the house for a third term, and during the 1949-51 term was a member of the committees on Aeronautics and Salaries and Fees. He began his fourth house term in 1951 and again sat on the Sea and Shore Fisheries committee. Little is known of Clapp's life after his final term, except notice of a "long illness" that claimed his life on May 20, 1959, two days after his 70th birthday. He was survived by his wife Kate, and both were interred at the Rural Cemetery in Sedgwick, Maine.

From the Bangor Daily News, May 21, 1959.