Benjamin Tappan, Senator from Ohio

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.

Benjamin married Elizabeth "Betsy" Lord in 1823. Elizabeth (daughter of Abner Lord and Mary Selden) was born on 16 Jul 1784 in Lyme, New London, Connecticut; died on 14 Jun 1840. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

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"[A] American educator, mathematician, author, lawyer and newspaper editor who served as president of Kenyon College, among other public distinctions." [Wikipedia]

"He was educated in the schools of Steubenville, by private tutors, and at St. Mary's College, Baltimore, Md. He studied law with his father and his father's partner, Edwin M. Stanton, who was afterwards Secretary of War under Lincoln. Although admitted to the bar in 1846, Mr. Tappan turned his attention to journalism, publishing for two years a paper called the Ohio Press. He later practiced law in Steubenville, where he was mayor, 1844-5, and superintendent of schools, 1856-9. He was professor of mathematics in the University of Ohio, 1859-60 and 1865-8. He was president of Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio, 1869-75, and commissioner of the Public Schools of Ohio, from 1887 until the time of his death. He was the author of a number of textbooks on mathematics. He received the following degrees: A. M. from St. Mary's, 1860; LL.D., from Williams, 1873, from Washington and Jefferson, 1874, and from several other colleges." [Tappan-Toppan Genealogy, citation details below.]

Eli married Lydia Lucretia McDowell on 4 Feb 1851 in Steubenville, Jefferson, Ohio. Lydia (daughter of Alexander Johnston McDowell and Mary Sheldon) was born on 4 Jul 1825 in Steubenville, Jefferson, Ohio; died on 24 Dec 1904 in Cambridge, Middlesex, Massachusetts; was buried in Steubenville, Jefferson, Ohio. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

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"[A]n American novelist and short story writer best known for her acute characterizations and depictions of academic life." [Wikipedia]

Mary married John Henry Wright on 2 Apr 1879 in Gambier, Knox, Ohio. John (son of Rev. Austen Hazen Wright and Catherine Myers) was born on 4 Feb 1852 in Urumiah, Persia; died on 25 Nov 1908 in Cambridge, Middlesex, Massachusetts; was buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Middlesex, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Author of Islandia, a quasi-utopian novel published eleven years after his death, which has remained almost uninterruptedly in print.

Austin married Margaret Garrad Stone on 14 Nov 1912 in Cambridge, Middlesex, Massachusetts. Margaret (daughter of William Eben Stone and Katherine Maria Fay) was born on 19 Jul 1886 in Cambridge, Middlesex, Massachusetts; died on 1 Sep 1937 in London, England; was buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Middlesex, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

As a San Francisco newspaper columnist, she coined the word "mondegreen."

"Sylvia Wright, a Writer and Harpers Ex-Editor," in The New York Times, 13 May 1981:

Sylvia Wright, a freelance writer who frequently and humorously commented in national magazines on trends in modern living, died of cancer Saturday at her home in Cambridge, Mass. She was 64 years old.

Miss Wright was also a former editor of Harpers Bazaar. A collection of her magazine articles, ''Get Away From Me With Those Christmas Gifts,'' was published by McGraw-Hill in 1957. She was also the author of a novel, ''A Shark Infested Rice Pudding.''

After her graduation from Bryn Mawr College, Miss Wright edited and prepared for publication ''Islandia,'' a Utopian novel about an imaginary country written by her father, the late Austin Tappen [sic] Wright, who was a professor of law at the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Pennsylvania. The novel, which has been a steady seller, was published in 1942, reissued in 1958. It is currently published by Arno Press Inc. and the New American Library.

At her death, Miss Wright was writing a biography of her great-aunt, Melusina Fay Peirce, an early feminist and first wife of the American physicist, mathematician and philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce.

Miss Wright is survived by her husband, Paul J. Mitarachi; a son, John; a sister, Phyllis King of Manhattan; and two brothers, Benjamin and William Wright.

Notes:

Phyllis Wright and Lowell King were seventh cousins once removed, her being a 6XG-granddaughter of the Rev. James Fitch (1622-1702) and Priscilla Mason (1641-1714), and he being a 7XG-grandson of the same couple.

Phyllis married Lowell King on 27 Sep 1941 in New York, New York. Lowell (son of Clarence Baker King and Alice Darracott Seabrook) was born on 2 May 1920 in New Canaan, Farfield, Connecticut; died on 27 Aug 1969 in New York, New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Tappan married Beth Ann Meacham on 13 Oct 1978 in New York City. Beth (daughter of Richard Allen Meacham and Marion Ann Gaunder) was born on 14 Nov 1951 in Newark, Licking, Ohio. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]