Benjamin Tappan

Infobox Officeholder
name = Benjamin Tappan


caption =
jr/sr = Junior Senator
state = Ohio
alongside =
term_start = March 4, 1839
term_end = March 3, 1845
predecessor = Thomas Morris
successor = Thomas Corwin
birth_date = Birth date|1773|5|25|mf=y
birth_place = Northampton, Massachusetts
death_date = Death date and age|1857|4|20|1773|5|25|mf=y
death_place = Steubenville, Ohio
constituency =
party = Democratic
spouse =
alma_mater =
religion =


footnotes =

Benjamin Tappan (May 25, 1773 - April 20, 1857) was an 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.cite book |title= History of Portage County Ohio|last= Brown|first= R.C |authorlink= |coauthors= Norris, J.E.|year= 1885, 1972 revision|publisher= Warner, Beers, and Company|location= Chicago, Illinois|isbn= |pages=pp. 521-522]

Tappan was born in Northampton, Massachusetts, the second child and oldest son of Benjamin Tappan and Sarah (Homes) Tappan, who was a grandniece of Benjamin Franklin. Two of his younger brothers were abolitionists Arthur and Lewis Tappan. He attended the public schools in Northampton and traveled to the West Indies in his youth. He apprenticed as a printer and engraver, also studying painting with Gilbert Stuart. Studying law, he was admitted to the bar in Hartford, Connecticut. He moved to the Connecticut Western Reserve in 1799 and founded what is now Ravenna, Ohio, laying out the original village in 1808.

He married, March 20, 1801, Nancy Wright, sister of John C. Wright, afterwards a Congressman from Ohio. They had one son, Benjamin, born in 1812.

Elected to the second Ohio State Senate, Tappan served from 1803-1804.

He moved to Steubenville, Jefferson County, in 1809 where he continued his law practice.

After serving in the War of 1812, Tappan held a number of local offices. He served as county judge, judge of the fifth Ohio Circuit Court of Common Pleas from 1816-1823, and United States district judge of Ohio in 1833. He was also a presidential elector on the Democratic ticket in 1832.

His first wife having died, Benjamin married second, in 1823, Mrs. Betsy (Lord) Frazer, widow of Eliphalet Frazer. They had one son, Eli Todd Tappan, later president of Kenyon College.

He was elected as a Democrat to the U.S. Senate in 1838, in which he served from 1839-1845. As senator he served on the Committee on the Library and was chairmain of the Committee to Audit and Control the Contingent Expenses. Tappan was censured on May 10, 1844 for disclosing the terms of a secret message from President John Tyler detailing the possible terms of the annexation of Texas to the "New York Evening Post".

Tappan died April 20, 1857 in Steubenville, and was interred in Union Cemetery.

References

ources

* Daniel Langdon Tappan. "Tappan-Toppan Genealogy", Arlington, Massachusetts, 1915, pp. 24-25.
* Brown, R. C. and Norris, J. E. "History of Portage County Ohio", Chicago, Illinois, 1885, 1972 rev., pp. 521-522.

U.S. Senator box
state=Ohio
class=1
before=Thomas Morris
after=Thomas Corwin
alongside=William Allen
years=1839–1845