Benjamin Tappan

Born on May 25, 1773, in Northampton, Province of Massachusetts Bay, British America, Tappan attended the public schools and was apprenticed as a printer and engraver. He traveled to the West Indies and studied painting with Gilbert Stuart. ==Federal judicial service==

Tappan received a recess appointment from President Andrew Jackson on October 12, 1833 to a seat on the United States District Court for the District of Ohio vacated by Judge John Wilson Campbell. He was nominated to the same position by President Jackson on January 20, 1834. His service terminated with the sine die adjournment of the first session of the 23rd United States Congress on June 30, 1834, after his nomination was rejected by the United States Senate on May 29, 1834. ==Congressional service==

Tappan was elected as a Democrat from Ohio to the United States Senate and served from March 4, 1839, to March 3, 1845. He was censured by the Senate in 1844 for breach of confidence for passing copies of a proposed treaty with Texas to the press. ==Later career and death==

Following his departure from Congress, Tappan resumed private practice in Steubenville from 1845 to 1857. He died on April 12, 1857, in Steubenville, Jefferson County, Ohio. He was interred in Union Cemetery in Steubenville. ==Settler and city founder==

Tappan 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. ==Family==

Tappan was 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 Tappan and Lewis Tappan. He married, March 20, 1801, Nancy Wright, sister of John C. Wright, afterwards a United States representative from Ohio. They had one son, Benjamin, born in 1812. His first wife having died, Benjamin was married a second time, in 1823, to Betsy (Lord) Frazer, the widow of Eliphalet Frazer. They had one son, Eli Todd Tappan, later president of Kenyon College. ==See also==