Benjamin Tappan

Benjamin Tappan (May 25, 1773 – April 20, 1857) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Ohio and a United States senator from Ohio. Education and career 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. He read law in 1799. He was admitted to the bar in Hartford, Connecticut and entered private practice in Ravenna, Northwest Territory (State of Ohio from March 1, 1803) from 1799 to 1803, located in what was the Connecticut Western Reserve until 1800. He was a member of the Ohio Senate from 1803 to 1804. He resumed private practice in Ravenna from 1804 to 1809. He continued private practice in Steubenville, Ohio from 1809 to 1812, and from 1814 to 1816. He was a United States Army major from 1812 to 1814, during the War of 1812. He was a Judge of the Ohio Court of Common Pleas for the Fifth Judicial District from 1816 to 1823. He resumed private practice in Steubenville from 1823 to 1838. He was a presidential elector on the Democratic ticket in 1832. In October 1838, he formed a law partnership with Edwin Stanton. Federal judicial service