Santa Anna was drawn to New York by a Cuban who was running a con, claiming that if Anna could up the money, he could get Cuba to back him regaining the Mexican Presidency.  Anna had no money, but he DID have a warehouse full of Sapodilla Sap and figured that it might be the key to making a rubber substitute and making a fortune in the burgeoning industrial revolution, that would bankroll his political revolution.  instead he lost his shirt, skipped town to avoid debt, and left one Thomas Adams, his inventor/collaborator, with a big bunch of the Sapodilla sap.

    Now Adams had seen that, like many Mexican gentlemen of his era, Mr. Santa Anna  chewed that sap in a mixture called chicle, and decided the easiest way to dispose of it was to make up a bunch of chicle balls and sell them to the local druggist.  they did OK, but the druggist seems to have offered 55 bucks to make some improvements including flavorings.  Blackjack gum was born.  pretty soon Adams was selling gum as far away as St. Louis, and being copied by Beeman's, among others.  And within a decade the main outlines of modern chewing gum were born.  By the end of the civil war it's audience was no longer the gentleman seeking a parlor and girl friendly smoking substitute, but children seeking sugary bubble fun, and so, From Grant's day until the 1970s Chicle chewing was an American Childhood pass time and bane of mother's and schoolmarms everywhere.   Of course, it's popularity was only enhanced when the US Army decided it was a perfect substitute for smoking on bombers, in tanks, and in submarines, and also useful to quench thirst on long marches.  And it's child friendliness made for good press to reassure the Moms and Dads at home that their kids weren't picking up bad habits like smoking, whoring, or drugging, while overseas, while being a wholesome morale boosting cheap reminder of home.   Of course Sapodilla sap became increasingly expensive and was replaced with Polyvinyl Acetate and other artificial polymers in nearly all American chewing gum in the decades surrounding the turn of this century, but natural chicle is starting to make a small comeback.  More power to it!

Oh, and Polyvinyl Acetate?  that's PVA, aka: White *Elmers* Glue.