Inscription: "Elijah Clapp, died March 30, 1888, age 86yrs, 6mos."

(Contributed by CLAPP Family Member and FAG Contributor, sleuth2:

ELIJAH CLAPP, b.1801, Greenbush, MA, d.1888, Greenbush, MA, a son of Capt. Thomas Clapp and Mercy "Marcy" (Bailey) of Greenbush, MA, and husband of HARRIET (FORD), whom he married in Greenbush on 11/24/1825. (NOTE: Burial locations for Thomas and Mercy (Bailey) Clapp are undiscovered).

Elijah purchased the Calvin Jenkins homestead in which for them to reside, located in Greenbush at the foot of Stockbridge Road and Country Way, and birthplace of Charles Turner Torrey, the anti-slavery reformer. Meanwhile, he built for his family the double-gabled Cape on the corner of Old Oaken Bucket Road and Rte. 3A, across from Harriet's family homestead, overlooking the pond and Elijah's farmlands which surrounded it. They resided there until their deaths; the homestead is still there as of 2024.

Elijah worked and managed the grist and shingle mills in Greenbush for the Stockbridge family in the 1820s, as his father and grandfather had done so before him. His cousin, Thomas Clapp, purchased the mills from the Stockbridge Estate in 1830, and Elijah continued on as miller and manager of the mills. He inherited the nearby blacksmith shop and lands from his father. Between the late 1860s and the late 1880s, all three generations of these Clapps, known as "the three Elijah's" were living, and millers at the Greenbush mills. His son, Elijah Thomas Clapp, purchased the grist mill from cousin Thomas Clapp when he married Thomas' daughter, Ann Rosini (Clapp), his fourth cousin.

Children of Elijah Clapp and Harriet (Ford):

--Elijah Thomas Clapp, b.1826

--Howard Clapp, b.1829

--Harriet Augusta Clapp, b.1832

--Peleg Ford Clapp, b.1835

--Mercy Ford Clapp, b.1837

--Julia Clapp, b.1843

(NOTE: Elijah did not have a middle name. His parents, Capt. Thomas Clapp (1775-1850) and Mercy "Marcy" (Bailey), had 12 children. They resided in the large Cape at the corner of Ford Place and Country Way, which is still there as of 2014. Capt. Thomas Clapp first married Emily (Stockbridge) in 1794, who died shortly after their marriage. Capt. Thomas Clapp ran the mills in Greenbush for her family until about 1828 when sons Elijah, Franklin and Harvey assumed the role as millers.)

(Photos from the Clapp/Langley family collection. Please follow FindAGrave guidelines for permission to use content and photos).