Benjamin Tappan, Senator from Ohio

1773 - 1857  (83 years)

• Name	Benjamin Tappan  [1, 2]
  Suffix	Senator from Ohio
  Birth	25 May 1773	Northampton, Hampshire, Massachusetts   [3, 4, 5]
  Gender	Male
  Death	20 Apr 1857	Steubenville, Jefferson, Ohio   [4, 5]
  Person ID	I20862	Ancestry of PNH, TNH, and others
  Last Modified	9 May 2021

  
  

  Father	Benjamin Tappan,   b. 21 Oct 1747, Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts d. 29 Jan 1831, Northampton, Hampshire, Massachusetts (Age 83 years)
  Mother	Sarah Holmes,   b. 2 Jan 1748, Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts d. 21 Mar 1826, Northampton, Hampshire, Massachusetts (Age 78 years)
  Marriage	22 Oct 1770	Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts   [6, 7, 8, 9, 10]
  Family ID	F12357	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Elizabeth "Betsy" Lord,   b. 16 Jul 1784, Lyme, New London, Connecticut d. 14 Jun 1840 (Age 55 years)
  Marriage	1823  [5]
  Children	+ 1. Eli Todd Tappan,   b. 30 Apr 1824, Steubenville, Jefferson, Ohio d. 23 Oct 1888, Columbus, Franklin, Ohio (Age 64 years)
  Family ID	F12398	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	25 Jan 2019

  
  

• Photos » Slide Show		Benjamin Tappan Portrait of Benjamin Tappan by Washington Blanchard (1808-1855), watercolor on ivory, circa 1839. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution.
  		Benjamin_Tappan_photo
  		Benjamin Tappan historical marker

  
  

• Notes

  "[A]n Ohio judge and Democratic politician who served in the Ohio State Senate and the United States Senate. He was an early settler of the Connecticut Western Reserve in northeastern Ohio and was one of the first settlers in Portage County and the founder of the city of Ravenna, Ohio." [Wikipedia] "TAPPAN, Benjamin, a Senator from Ohio; born in Northampton, Mass., May 25, 1773; attended the public schools; apprenticed as printer and engraver; traveled to the West Indies; studied painting with Gilbert Stuart; studied law; admitted to the bar in Hartford, Conn., and commenced practice in Ravenna, Ohio, in 1799; member, State senate 1803-1805; moved to Steubenville, Ohio, in 1809 and continued the practice of law; served in the War of 1812; held several local offices; county judge; judge of the fifth Ohio Circuit Court of Common Pleas 1816-1823; presidential elector on the Democratic ticket in 1832; United States district judge of Ohio 1833; elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate and served from March 4, 1839, to March 3, 1845; chairman, Committee to Audit and Control the Contingent Expenses (Twenty-seventh and Twenty-eighth Congresses), Committee on the Library (Twenty-seventh Congress); censured by the Senate in 1844 for breach of confidence for passing copies of a proposed treaty with Texas to the press; died in Steubenville, Jefferson County, Ohio, April 20, 1857; interment in Union Cemetery." [Biographical Dictionary of the United States Congress] An Ohio state historical marker placed in the year 2000 at Ravenna reads: "BENJAMIN TAPPAN, JR. (1773-1857) - The founder of Ravenna Township in 1799, Benjamin Tappan, Jr. led a distinguished life of public service. An aggressive force in local politics, he served in the Ohio Senate from 1803 to 1805, as judge of the fifth court of common pleas from 1816 to 1823, and as a Federal district judge from 1826 to 1833. Tappan served as aid-de-camp to Major General Elijah Wadsworth following the surrender of Detroit in the War of 1812, provisioning and arming local militia units defending the northwest frontier against a possible British invasion." After his retirement from electoral politics, in 1838 Benjamin Tappan formed a law partnership with Edwin M. Stanton, who would later be Secretary of War throughout the Civil War, under both Lincoln and Johnson. It was Johnson's attempt to fire Stanton that led to his impeachment. Tappan's son Benjamin Stanton, M.D. (1812-1884) married, as his first wife, in May 1838, Oella Stanton, sister of Edwin M. Stanton.

  
  

• Sources

  [S2492] The Ely Ancestry: Lineage of Richard Ely of Plymouth, England, Who Came to Boston, Mass., About 1655, & Settled at Lyme, Conn, in 1660 by Moses S. Beach and William Ely; ed. George B. Vanderpoel. New York: The Calumet Press, 1902. [S4303] Lineage of the Bowens of Woodstock, Connecticut by Edward Augustus Bowen. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Riverside Press, 1897. [S2651] Memoir of Mrs. Sarah Tappan: Taken in Part from the Home Missionary Magazine, of November, 1828, and Printed for Distribution Among Her Descendants by Sarah Homes Tappan. New York: West & Trow, 1834. [S2439] Biographical Dictionary of the United States Congress. [S2662] Tappan-Toppan Genealogy: Ancestors and Descendants of Abraham Toppan of Newbury, Massachusetts, 1606-1672 by Daniel Langdon Tappan. Arlington, Massachusetts, 1915. [S5174] Massachusetts, U.S., Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988, on ancestry.com. [S2651] Memoir of Mrs. Sarah Tappan: Taken in Part from the Home Missionary Magazine, of November, 1828, and Printed for Distribution Among Her Descendants by Sarah Homes Tappan. New York: West & Trow, 1834., year only. [S2657] Genealogy of the Family of George Marsh, Who Came from England in 1635 and Settled in Hingham, Mass. by E. J. Marsh. Leominster, Massachusetts: F. N. Boutwell, 1887., date only. [S2662] Tappan-Toppan Genealogy: Ancestors and Descendants of Abraham Toppan of Newbury, Massachusetts, 1606-1672 by Daniel Langdon Tappan. Arlington, Massachusetts, 1915., date only. [S4303] Lineage of the Bowens of Woodstock, Connecticut by Edward Augustus Bowen. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Riverside Press, 1897., date only.