Elijah Boardman | |
|---|---|
 Elijah Boardman, painted byRalph Earl in 1789, on display at theMetropolitan Museum of Art | |
| United States Senator fromConnecticut | |
| In office March 4, 1821 – August 18, 1823 | |
| Preceded by | Samuel W. Dana |
| Succeeded by | Henry W. Edwards |
| Personal details | |
| Born | March 7, 1760 |
| Died | August 18, 1823(1823-08-18) (aged 63) Boardman, Ohio, U.S. |
| Resting place | New Milford, Connecticut |
| Nationality | American |
| Political party | Democratic Republican |
| Children | William Whiting Boardman |
| Residence | Litchfield, Connecticut |
| Alma mater | Home tutored |
| Occupation | Dry goods merchant |
Elijah Boardman (March 7, 1760 – August 18, 1823) was an American politician who served as asenator from Connecticut. Born to a noted and politically connected Connecticut family, he served in theConnecticut militia before becoming a noted merchant and businessman. Becoming involved in property and land ownership in Connecticut andOhio, he founded the towns ofBoardman andMedina in Ohio. His involvement in politics also increased, and he gradually rose through the ranks of the local, and then national government, being elected by the Connecticut legislature to theUnited States Senate. He served as Senator from Connecticut until his death inOhio.
Boardman, was born inNew Milford in Connecticut, the third of four children forDeacon Sherman Boardman (1728–1814) and Sarah Bostwick Boardman (1730–1818).[1][2] His father, son of the first minister of theCongregational Church,[3] was a "prosperous farmer", well educated and well versed in local politics – he was 21 times elected as a member of the General Assembly of Connecticut – and was familiar with "civil and military concerns of the town."[1] The Boardman family were the town's founding family, and lived on a "substantial farm" on theHousatonic River.[2]
A biographer of his later wife wrote of Elijah Boardman: "Inheriting many of the good qualities of his father and his grandfather, he combined, with those good qualities, the energy and intrepidity of his mother and of his grandmother, respecting both of whom there are preserved family traditions of much historical and domestic interest." The biographer also noted Boardman to be "dignified" in personal appearance, and handsome. His brother,David Sherman Boardman, remarked that he was "inclined" to hilarity.[1] Elijah Boardman was educated by private tutors – including tutoring inLatin by the Reverend Nathaniel Taylor and other matters by his own mother – at home before enlisting in theConnecticut militia to serve in theAmerican Revolutionary War as a "common soldier", in March 1776 aged 16.[1][2]
Under Captain Isaac Bostwick, Boardman served in one of the first sixteen regiments raised by theContinental Congress under the command of ColonelCharles Webb. Boardman was directed toBoston, and diverted toNew London andNew York City, where he took part inBattle of Long Island, however after defeat there and American evacuation to Washington, he was confined to a sick bed having exacerbated childhood medical difficulties and fever.[1] After six months, having achieved an ultimate rank of sergeant,[4] he obtained passage on a wagon back to New York, where he was discovered in poor health by a friend of his father, who sent word home for Boardman to be collected. Meanwhile, Boardman obtained a discharge from the army.[1]
In the summer of 1777,Sir Henry Clinton led British forces throughFort Montgomery and prompted a call-up of Connecticut militia, which Boardman joined until the danger passed following the surrender ofGeneral Burgoyne, whereupon the militia was disbanded.[1] Now detached from the army, Boardman resumed his tutorship under John Hickling, a family tutor employed by Boardman's father.[1]
In 1781, Boardman took work as a clerk and as a merchant. He spent time employed inNew Haven, training as a shopkeeper in the store of Elijah and Archibald Austin,[2] before setting up his own company in his home town of New Milford later that same year.[1][2] This business, a dry-goods store, was operated in conjunction with his two brothers,David and Daniel. As part of his travels, he visited Ohio, where he founded the town ofBoardman.[5] In 1789, he was the subject of a portrait byRalph Earl, which "portrayed the richly dressed dry goods merchant... in his store in New Milford... through the open door, bolts of textiles tell the viewer how Boardman earned a living."[6] Earl's most "accomplished" and successful series of paintings were of the Boardman family.[2] Boardman then married Mary Anna Whiting on September 25, 1792,[1] for whom he would build 'Boardman House', which still stands in New Milford.[5] By this time, he had also opened a second shop outside of any partnership with his brothers, which was situated inLitchfield County and was designed by architectWilliam Sprats, and on October 10, 1794, his first son,William Whiting Boardman, was born.[2]
In September 1795, Boardman became a member of theConnecticut Land Company, and a purchaser of theConnecticut Western Reserve – now part of northern Ohio – which entitled Boardman and his associates to two townships located there, one of which beingMedina.[1] The 227-acre (0.92 km2) site set aside to create a county seat was originally named Mecca, until it was realised that anearby town was named the same. Boardman's land agent, Rufus Ferris Sr., became the first resident of Medina,[7] Together with his brothers, Boardman had thus became the owner of a "considerable" amount of real estate, among the post-Revolutionary Warlanded gentry "among the town's highest taxpayers."[2] Boardman also owned aslave named Isabella.[8]
Boardman's initial ventures into politics are recorded in a letter to then-PresidentThomas Jefferson on June 18, 1801. He included a sermon of the Rev. Stanley Griswold, of the New Milford church, which discussed the new president as "an example of how evil could be overcome by good." Jefferson subsequently replied with a detailed critique of the sermon.[9]
Boardman became a member of the State House of Representatives for the period 1803–05 and again in 1816, before becoming a member of the State'supper house between 1817 and 1819, and a member of the State Senate between 1819 and 1821.[10] On March 4, 1821, he was elected to the US Senate while living inLitchfield, Connecticut. He is listed by theAbridgment of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856 as having been present at Senate proceedings on December 3, 1821, inWashington DC in the company of Class-3 Connecticut senatorJames Lanman.[11]
Boardman served in the Senate until his death during a visit to his son,[1] whereupon he was succeeded byHenry W. Edwards. His cause of death is a subject of speculation, however biographer and son-in-law John Frederick Schroeder (m. Caroline Maria Boardman) related it while writing in 1849 to several bouts ofcholera andfever Boardman had suffered throughout his life, particularly during a tour ofRhode Island in 1780, as well as other attacks inVermont andNew Hampshire throughout his life.[1] SenatorJames Lanman proposed on December 5, 1823, a motion for the members of the Senate to wear "the usual mourning" for thirty days to commemorate his death.[11] Boardman's body was returned home and interred in New Milford. He was survived by his first son, later politician William,[10] and his second, Henry Mason Boardman.[1]Mabel Thorp Boardman, Americanphilanthropist, was his great-granddaughter.[12]
| Party political offices | ||
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| Vacant Title last held by Asa Spaulding | Democratic-Republican nominee forGovernor of Connecticut 1812,1813,1814,1815 | Succeeded by |
| U.S. Senate | ||
| Preceded by | U.S. Senator from Connecticut (class 1) March 4, 1821 – August 18, 1823 | Succeeded by |
| Class 1 |  | |
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| Class 3 | ||
| International | |
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| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
