1860. 11 years after the Gold Rush, 12 years after the first commercial chewing gum and 9 years before the first chewing gum patent and 1 year before the country plunged into the Civil War was born Frank Henry Fleer, bubblegum’s biggest visionary, a man who, had he never existed, bubblegum today may never have existed and perhaps chewing gum as we know it may never have existed.