Tappan, Mason W. (1817-1886)

Name:

Tappan, Mason W. (1817-1886)

Title:

Member, New Hampshire House of Representatives, 1853-1855
Member, United States House of Representatives, 1855-1861
Colonel, 1st Regiment New Hampshire Volunteers, 1861
Attorney General, State of New Hampshire, 1876-1886

Other Names:

Tappan, Mason Weare

Born:

10/20/1817

Birthplace:

Newport, NH

Died:

10/24/1886

Death Location:

Bradford, NH

Residence:

Newport, NH 1817-1819
Bradford, NH 1819-1886

Nationality:

American

Occupation:

Lawyer
Union Officer (1861)

Father:

Tappan, Weare (1790-1868)

Mother:

Atkins, Lucinda (1792-1866)

Relations:

Sibling: Caroline Lucinda Tappan (b. 1819), m. Daniel Carr
Lifelong friend: Horace Greeley

Spouse:

(1) Worth, Emeline, 1848
(2) Jenkins, Mary E., 1872
(3) Atwood, Imogene

Children:

Frank Mason (b. 02/01/1850)
Helen Lucinda (b. 02/03/1884); m. Harold Dustin Goodenough, 06/16/1904

Notes:

From Edited Appletons Encyclopedia: "TAPPAN, Mason Weare, lawyer, born in Newport, New Hampshire, 20 October, 1817 ; died in Bradford, New Hampshire, 24 October, 1886. His father, a well-known lawyer, settled in Bradford in 1818, and was a pioneer in the anti-slavery movement. The son was educated at Kimball Union Academy, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1841, and acquired a large practice. He was early identified with the Whig party, and afterward was a Free-soiler and served in the legislature in 1853-'5. He was elected to congress as a Free-soiler, by a combination of the Whigs, Free-soilers, Independent Democrats, and Americans, at the time of the breaking up of the two great parties, Whigs and Democrats. He served from 3 December, 1855, till 3 March, 1861, and was a member of the special committee of thirty-three on the rebellious states. On 5 February, 1861, when a report was submitted recommending that the provisions of the constitution should be obeyed rather than amended, he made a patriotic speech in support of the government. Mr. Tappan was one of the earliest to enlist in the volunteer army, and was colonel of the 1st New Hampshire regiment from May till August, 1861. Afterward he resumed the practice of law, and held the office of attorney-general of the state for ten years preceding his death, He was a delegate to the Philadelphia Loyalists' convention of 1866, and presided over the New Hampshire Republican convention on 14 September, 1886. In the presidential election of 1872 he supported his life-long friend, Horace Greeley."

Charles H. Bell, The Bench and Bar of New Hampshire: Including Biographical Notices of Deceased Judges of the Highest Court, and Lawyers of the Province and State and a List of Names of Those Now Living. (Boston, MA: Houghton, Mifflin Co., 1894), 679-680.

Daniel L. Tappan. Tappan-Toppan Genealogy. Ancestors and Descendants of Abraham Toppan of Newbury, Massachusetts, 1606-1672. (Arlington, MA: Printed by Daniel L. Tappan, 1915), 96, 98-100.

Pleasant Hill Cemetery, Bradford, NH

Mason W. Tappan Papers, NHHS Library