Benjamin Tappan, Beset by Hard Luck, Fought Way Through Uncharted Wilderness To Become First Ravennan
The Record-Courier presents to its readers the first newspaper pictures of Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Tappan, first settlers and home-makers in Ravenna. Brave hearts, resolute purpose, invincible will and strong arms to hew their way alone enabled the pioneer couple to win.
Although the Tappans left for other fields a long time ago, the name is an heirloom and it is of more than passing interest to Ravenna people of today to know that three of the granddaughters are living in Steubenville where they have taught school for many years.
When Benjamin Tappan and his wife Nancy Wright Tappan, of staunch New England stock, moved into the log cabin he erected in the woods on what was afterward known as the Marcus Heath farm in east Ravenna, they established the first household shrine in the wilderness community, and one of the first in Portage County.
Built First Cabin
Tappan came into the wilds of Ravenna in 1799 and built the first cabin in the settlement on what is now the Edinburg road southeast of Ravenna. It was afterward, in early 1808, that he laid out the village of Ravenna, with Bowery street on the north, Oak street on the south, Walnut street on the east and Sycamore street on the west. The town, however, was not incorporated until 1853, forty-four years after the removal of its founder to Steubenville in 1809.
Tappan erected his second cabin in 1800, then returned to Connecticut where he married Miss Nancy Wright, member of a distinguished family, sister of Judge John C. Wright, and a young woman of superior mind and culture. Returning with her husband to his forest settlement, she gave Ravenna its name, after the historic city in Italy, and it was through her initiative that the town was selected as the county seat in competition with Franklin Mills, now Kent city.
Benjamin Tappan Jr. was born in Massachusetts in 1773 and came to Ravenna as agent of his father, principal proprietor of the township, owning 10,291 acres — more than two thirds of the total. He was an able lawyer and in 1803 was chosen to represent the Trumbull district in the Ohio Senate. Portage County was formed out of Trumbull County in 1807, and the act of erecting the county designated his house as the place of holding the first court. But according to unwritten history, the house was burned to the ground the night before the court was to convene.
It was Miss Sally Wright, sister of Mrs. Tappan, who taught the first school in the settlement on the Mahoning stream flowing through Ryedale, country home of Warner Riddle.
General's Aide In War
Following his removal to Steubenville in 1809, the Ravenna pioneer became aide-de-camp to General Wadsworth in the War of 1812, was judge of the fifth Ohio Circuit, United States District Judge for Ohio, and United States Senator from 1830 to 1845. He compiled Tappan's Law Reports and was a recognized legal authority. He died in Steubenville in 1857.
Boat Shattered
On his way from Massachusetts, Benjamin Tappan fell in with David Hudson who was on his way to found the well-known college town. They boated together as far as Boston, Summit County, where they separated. The travellers nearly capsized in the ice-filled waters of the Niagara River, and when in Lake Erie their boats were driven to land off the shores of Ashtabula County. Harmon's boat was shattered. Tappan and Hudson sailed along the shores of the lake to Cleveland where they entered the Cuyahoga River.
They landed and Tappan set out with Benjamin Bigsby to find his way through the uncharted wilds to Ravenna, fully twenty-five miles away. The death of one of his oxen left him in a vast forest without a team and with but a single dollar in money. He dispatched one of his men through the woods to Erie, Pa., a hundred miles away, for a loan of money, which was obtained from Captain Lyman, commander at the fort. Tappan himself went on to Youngstown where he bought an ox on credit, thus enabling him to get his belongings to Ravenna and begin his settlement.
From this epic of the woods it will be seen that wilderness home builders did not come into a life of easy doings and leisurely pleasure. And so it was with the man and woman who founded Ravenna and gave it name and prestige.