MAPPA, Adam Gerard, soldier and pioneer type founder: b. Delft, Hol land, date unknown; d. Olden Barneveld, N. Y., April 1828. As a young man he entered the military service of his native country, gaining •marked distinction as a brave and enterprising officer.° About the time of his marriage (1780) he left the Dutch service and engaged in the business of type founding. This business was interrupted by political storms which disturbed the province of Holland in 1786-87. Colonel Mappa again took up the sword and became "one of the leaders of the Dutch Patriots, be ing commander of the armed citizens in the Province of Holland." "After keeping The Hague in a state of alarm with his small band of patriots alone, he was overwhelmed with numbers.° And on 9 Oct. 1787 he was obliged to disband his men. With 14 others he was banished forever from Delft.
At the request of his republican friends he went to the court of Versailles to solicit coun tenance and co-operation. But Louis XVI had troubles enough of his own, and as the pros pects of the civil liberty being established in his own country grew fainter, Colonel Mappa de cided to move with his family to America. On 1 Dec. 1789 they arrived in New York. The time between his expulsion from Holland and his landing in America was spent with other Dutch political refugees at the Chateau de Watte near Saint Omer.
While in Paris, Colonel Mappa became ac quainted with Thomas Jefferson, then American Ambassador to France, who advised him to take to America a type-founding plant, there being then no such industry on the western side of the Atlantic. Accordingly Colonel
Mappa brought with him a complete "letter foundry° embodying not only the "Western but Oriental languages° as well. The outfit was valued at something like L3,500 New York currency. Up to this time all printers had been obliged to purchase their type in England or Scotland. The following January (1790) Francis Adrian van der Kemp, a fellow refugee, wrote to his friend, John Adams, then a polit ical power and later President, suggesting that the Congress impose a tax on all foreign type to encourage and protect Mappa's infant in dustry.
Where he set up his type foundry at first it is perhaps impossible to say. A New York directory of 1792 makes mention of him as doing business at 22 Greenwich street. The in fant industry was not prosperous as letters from Mrs. Mappa to her friends plainly indi cate. So on 1 Feb. 1794 he advertised his "type manufactory for sale.° In the following summer, 1794, Colonel Mappa moved to Olden Barneveld, later Trenton, now Barneveld, and became the resident agent for the Holland Land Company, for more than 30 years until the time of his death. Here he built the stone mansion which still stands unharmed for the years and which in his day was often the gath ering place of noted pioneer families of central New York.