Benjamin Tupper

Personal Facts

• Born: March 11, 1738, in Stoughton, Massachusetts.
• Parents: Thomas Tupper (father) and Remember Perry (mother).
• Spouse: Huldah White (1762).
• Died: June 7, 1792, in Marietta, Ohio. He was 54.
• Buried: Mound Cemetery in Marietta, Ohio.
• Significance: Benjamin Tupper is important to American History because of his military service during the American Revolutionary War and his role in establishing Marietta, Ohio, the first permanent settlement in the Northwest Territory.

Biography

Early Life

Benjamin Tupper was born in Stoughton, Massachusetts, on March 11, 1738. His father was Thomas Tupper Jr., and his mother was Remember Perry. Both were originally from Sandwich, Massachusetts, and moved to Stoughton before Benjamin was born. Benjamin’s father died when he was young. His mother married Jeremiah Willis on October 4, 1742. 

• AHC Note — Stoughton later became the town of Sharon.

Tupper received a common education. He lived with his mother and stepfather until he went to work as an apprentice to a tanner in Dorchester, Massachusetts, where he learned how to produce leather from animal hides.

While living in Dorchester, he spent much of his time on the water, sailing, or learning how to shoot a musket. During this time, he became well-acquainted with the islands in Boston Harbor, which proved valuable during the Siege of Boston.

Tupper briefly served in the French and Indian War (1754–1763), in a company under the command of his uncle, Captain Nathaniel Perry. Tupper was just 16 when he enlisted.

• In 1754 and 1755, Perry raised troops for the Nova Scotia Expedition (1755).
• His company was part of Governor William Shirley’s Second Battalion.
• Tupper’s cousins, Nathaniel (16) and Samuel (13), were also enlisted in this company.
• Perry’s command participated in the Capture of Fort Beauséjour.
• The fort was renamed Fort Cumberland.
• Nathaniel Perry died there in 1756.

During the war, Tupper moved to Easton, Massachusetts, where he worked on the farm of Joshua Howard. By 1756, he purchased land of his own. However, he continued to serve in the Easton Militia. 

In 1757, Tupper was enlisted as a Corporal in Captain Ebenezer Dean’s company, in Colonel Ephraim Leonard’s regiment. 

• The regiment intended to march to Fort William and Mary, which was under siege by French forces.
• The regiment marched about 40 miles when it found out the French had taken the fort.
• The men returned to Easton, and they were paid for five days of service.

In 1758, Tupper enlisted again. This time, he was a Corporal in Captain James Andrews’s company, in Colonel Thomas Duty’s regiment. This regiment marched toward Fort Carillon (Ticonderoga), in New York, on Lake Champlain. They engaged the French along the way. Tupper was discharged from the Easton Militia around October 10.

Tupper reenlisted in 1760 and was a Sergeant in Captain Samuel Glover’s company.

Marriage to Huldah White

By 1761, Tupper was working as a schoolteacher in Easton. In 1762, he married Huldah White.

• She was the daughter of Edward and Kezia White, of Bridgewater, Massachusetts.
• Huldah’s mother was a native of Easton, and her parents, George and Katharine Hall, were among the town’s early settlers.

American Revolution

Tupper was still living in Easton by the time the troubles with Britain started. On January 8, 1764, he became a member of the Easton Congregational Church. However, a few months later, he and Huldah moved west to Chesterfield, Massachusetts. In Chesterfield, Tupper was active in town politics and a deacon in the church.

• In 1774, he served as a Lieutenant in the Massachusetts Militia.
• He was involved in closing the courts in Springfield, Massachusetts, in response to the passage of the Intolerable Acts.

Siege of Boston

After the Battles of Lexington and Concord, he went to Boston, where he was appointed as a Major in Colonel John Fellows’s Massachusetts regiment on April 25, 1775. During the siege, he participated in two key maneuvers:

Attack on Enoch Brown’s House (July 8, 1775) — The Attack on Brown’s House on Boston Neck was a small engagement. Tupper and John Crane led the American forces in an attack on British troops, setting fire to the house and seizing weapons.

Second Raid on Brewster Island (July 31, 1775) — Tupper led an expedition from the mainland to Brewster Island, where they attacked a small British force that was working to repair damage to the lighthouse. Tupper and his men were stranded on the island for a few hours because the tide was too low to sail back to the mainland. British forces fired on them, but they were able to destroy the lighthouse and suffered minimal casualties.

• The next day, August 1, General George Washington mentioned Tupper in his General Orders. 
• He thanked him and his men for “their gallant and soldier-like behavior,” and said the Continental Army “would be as famous for their mercy as their valor.”
• A British officer remarked, “…no one act of the siege caused so much chagrin in London as the destruction of the lighthouse, and was the theme of the most biting sarcasm.

In August 1775, he captured two enemy vessels near Martha’s Vineyard. Afterward, he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel on November 4, 1775. On January 1, 1776, General Washington reorganized the Continental Army, and Tupper became Lieutenant Colonel of the 21st Continental Regiment.

Over the winter, he helped save three men who were trapped in Boston Harbor. They were fishing when the wind shifted, and they were blocked from the mainland by ice. Tupper gathered four pairs of snowshoes, put one on, and made his way across the harbor by moving from one ice floe to another. He reached the boat and had the men put on snowshoes. Then, he led them safely back to the mainland.

New York Campaign

After the Siege of Boston ended in March 1776, General Washington relocated his army to New York City. British forces started to arrive there in mid-June.

Tupper supported Washington’s ground forces by commanding a makeshift fleet made up of small ships, including schooners, sloops, row galleys, and whaleboats. They patrolled the coast of Long Island and New Jersey, keeping watch for the arrival of British ships. However, they were no match for the powerful warships in the British Navy.

On July 12, 1776, two British warships, the Phoenix and the Rose, sailed up the Hudson River. Despite intense cannon fire from American artillery batteries, the ships, aided by strong winds, safely passed Fort Washington and Fort Lee and anchored 30-40 miles north of New York City, near Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow, in the area of the river known as Tappan Zee.

On August 3, Tupper led four ships up the Hudson River and attacked the British ships anchored at Tappan Zee. The Americans failed to cause significant damage and withdrew. 

Tupper’s fleet attacked again on August 16 by setting fire to rafts and pushing them into the British ships. The damage was minimal, but they did sink a smaller British ship. The British ships withdrew on August 18 and rejoined the rest of the fleet near Staten Island.

• Tupper took part in the Battle of Long Island on August 27, 1776.
• On November 1, 1776, he was appointed Lieutenant Colonel of the 2nd Massachusetts Regiment.
• On July 7, 1777, he was promoted to Colonel of the 11th Massachusetts Regiment.

Saratoga Campaign

Tupper helped defend the Hudson River Valley during the Saratoga Campaign, serving under John Paterson in the 3rd Massachusetts Brigade.

Philadelphia Campaign

• Tupper was with Washington’s Army during the Winter at Valley Forge (1777–1778).
• He fought in the Battle of Monmouth Courthouse on June 28, 1778.

Northern Department

• Tupper worked on building defenses at West Point and served on the New York Frontier.
• On January 1, 1781, he took command of the 10th Massachusetts Regiment. He was transferred to the 6th Massachusetts Regiment two years later, on January 1, 1783.
• He retired from the Continental Army on June 12, 1783.
• Tupper was given a brevet promotion to Brigadier General on September 30, 1783.
• He signed the Newburgh Petition in 1783, requesting that Congress allocate western lands to veterans of the war.

Brevet — A promotion in rank, but not in pay.

Society of the Cincinnati

After the war, Tupper returned to Chesterfield, where he was elected to the Massachusetts Legislature. Like many officers from the Continental Army, he joined the Society of the Cincinnati.

• Society of the Cincinnati — Led by Henry Knox, the officers from the Continental Army organized a fraternal organization. It was named after Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus, a Roman military leader who gave up his political and military power after defeating the Roman Empire’s enemies. The Society continues to operate, calling itself the “nation’s oldest patriotic organization.”

Shays’s Rebellion

Shays’s Rebellion (1786–1787) was an insurrection in Massachusetts that showed the weakness of the national government under the Articles of Confederation and helped lead to the Constitutional Convention of 1787. Tupper led militia forces in the defense of Springfield against Daniel Shays and his followers, who were called “Regulators.”

• Massachusetts Governor James Bowdoin raised an army of 4,400 militiamen under General Benjamin Lincoln to restore the courts and protect the state, which was threatened by Shays and the Regulators.
• The Rebellion reached its climax on January 25, 1787, when the militia intercepted and defeated Shays and nearly 1,500 Regulators as they attempted to seize the federal arsenal in Springfield.

Westward Expansion

Tupper spent the last 10 years of his life supporting Westward Expansion into the Old Northwest.

In 1785, Congress passed the Land Ordinance of 1785, requiring land in new territories, including the Northwest Territory, to be surveyed before it could be sold. It was believed this would help avoid confusing land claims that plagued Colonial America and led to various conflicts between colonies.

In the autumn of 1785, a battalion of U.S. troops was stationed at the mouth of the Muskingum River under the command of Major John Doughty. There, they constructed a fort, which was named Fort Harmar.

Meanwhile, a surveying expedition was organized under the supervision of Thomas Hutchins. Rufus Putnam was supposed to represent Massachusetts, but was unable to participate, so Tupper replaced him.

• Tupper traveled as far west as Pittsburgh, but had to stop due to ongoing hostilities with the Native American Indians.
• On January 31, 1786, the Shawnee Nation signed the Treaty of Fort Finney, which ceded a portion of the Ohio Country to the United States, clearing the way for surveyors to proceed with their work.

In June 1787, Tupper traveled westward again, accompanied by his son, Major Anselm Tupper, and surveyed the Seven Ranges in present-day southeast Ohio. Tupper also visited Fort Harmar on this trip and met with Major Doughty.

• Thomas Hutchins (1730–1789) — Hutchins was an engineer, map maker, and surveyor from New Jersey. He fought in the French and Indian War. In the early part of the American Revolutionary War, he was a Loyalist and was with the British forces in Georgia. However, he resigned and joined the Continental Army. He is believed to be the only British officer to change sides during the war. In 1781, Congress appointed him as Geographer of the United States.
• Treaty of Fort Finney (1786) — Congress sent George Rogers Clark, Samuel Holden Parsons, and Richard Butler to negotiate a treaty with the Wyandot, Delaware, and Shawnee. The tribes present at the meetings agreed to cede most of southern Ohio to the U.S., and the U.S. agreed to prevent Americans from settling on Shawnee lands. This marked the first time Native American Indian tribes west of the Allegheny Mountains ceded land to the U.S. However, many of the other Indian tribes in the region rejected the treaty, and hostilities continued with the outbreak of the Northwest Indian War.
• Seven Ranges — A tract of land in eastern Ohio that was the first to be surveyed in the Northwest Territory as part of the Public Land Survey System, which was established by the Land Ordinance of 1785.

Ohio Company of Associates

Tupper returned to Massachusetts and met with Rufus Putnam. Together, they devised a plan to establish a settlement in the Northwest Territory, near Fort Harmar. On January 10, 1786, they published an advertisement (see appendix) for the formation of the “Ohio Company.”

On March 1, 1786, delegates from groups interested in investing in the company met at the Bunch of Grapes tavern in Boston. Rufus Putnam was selected to preside over the meeting, with Winthrop Sargeant serving as the clerk. A committee was chosen to prepare articles of agreement for the Ohio Company, and Tupper was a member.

• On Friday, March 3, the convention met and the committee delivered the “Articles of agreement entered into by the subscribers, for constituting an association by the name of the Ohio Company.”
• The Articles of Agreement said the purpose of the Ohio Company was to “The design of this association is to raise a fund in continental certificates, for the sole purpose, and to be appropriated to the entire use of purrchasing lands in the Western Territory (belonging to the United States), for the benefit of the Company, and to promote a settlement in that country.”
• The delegates voted to accept the Articles of Agreement.

The Ohio Company met again on March 8, 1787, at Backet’s Tavern in Boston, and three directors were elected:

1. Rufus Putnam
2. Samuel Holden Parsons
3. Reverend Manasseh Cutler

Next, Cutler was selected to reach out to Congress with a proposal to buy land in the “Great Western Territory of the United States. In July, Cutler presented a petition to Congress. At the time, Congress was debating the plan to establish a government for the Northwest Territory. On July 13, 1787, the plan was approved in the form of the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, which became the blueprint for adding new states to the Unoin as the nation expanded westward.

• Congress accepted the Ohio Company’s proposal.
• Cutler signed a contract to buy 1.5 million acres of land on behalf of the company.
• The fee was “two-thirds of a dollar per acre,” which had to be paid in specie (gold and silver coins).
• Samuel Osgood and Arthur Lee signed on behalf of the U.S. Treasury.
• The land was located in the Seven Ranges, which Thomas Hutchins called “the best part of the whole western country.”

The Ohio Company met in August at the Bunch of Grapes Tavern, where Cutler informed the attendees about the contract he had signed with Congress. On August 30, the company voted to establish a settlement “near the confluence of the Muskingum and Ohio rivers.”

In November, an expedition set out for the location. Anselm Tupper was one of the surveyors involved in this expedition. The first settlers, who were all men, left Danvers, Massachusetts, on November 30, 1787. For the journey, Reverend Cutler had a large wagon built to transport supplies. He covered it with a black canvas and painted “FOR THE OHIO” on it in white letters. After spending most of the winter at West Newton, Pennsylvania, the first settlers arrived on April 7, 1788.

Marietta

The settlers chose the site for their settlement, cleared the land, and laid out the roads. On July 2, 1788, they named their new home “Marietta.” 

• The name was selected in honor of Marie Antoinette, the Queen of France. When she heard of this, she responded by having a bell cast for use in a public building and sent to Marietta. 
• A fort was built, known as “Campus Martius.”

Benjamin Tupper led another expedition to Marietta, which included his family and others. 

In the summer of 1788, another expedition set out for Marietta, including General Tupper, Colonel Nathaniel Cushing, and Major Nathan Goodale. They made the long journey to Marietta with their families.

Upon reaching the Ohio River, they waited at Wellsville for General Putnam to send an Ohio Company boat from Marietta. They were joined there by Major Asa Coburn and his family, as well as his son-in-law, Andrew Webster, and his family, who had been delayed during their journey over the mountains.

Reverend Cutler joined them at Wellsville. He was traveling to Marietta to attend a meeting of the Directors of the Ohio Company. Tupper and Cutler arrived at Mariett on August 19, 1788.

They arrived on August 19. From this point on, he was actively involved in political and social affairs in Marietta.

On September 6, 1788, the first civil court in the Northwestern Territory convened in Campus Martius. This was the Court of Quarter Sessions. Rufus Putnam and Tupper served as justices. Putnam delivered the charge to the grand jury. After the initial sessions, Tupper assumed the role of presiding judge and continued in that capacity until his death in June 1792.

Death

Tupper died in Marietta on June 7, 1792. In 1825, the Marquis de Lafayette visited Marietta. When the names of the pioneers were read to him, including Tupper, he said, “I know them all. I saw them at Brandywine, at Yorktown, at Monmouth, and at Rhode Island. They were the bravest of the brave.”

Appendix

Advertisement for the Ohio Company

This text is from History of Marietta (1903) by Thomas Jefferson Summers. Please note that minor text corrections have been made and additional spacing has been added to improve readability.

INFORMATION

The subscribers take this method to inform all officers and soldiers, who have served in the late war, and who are by an ordinance of the honorable Congress to receive certain tracts of land in the Ohio country, and also all other good citizens who wish to become adventurers in that delightful region; that from a personal inspection, together with other incontestable evidences, they are fully satisfied that the lands in that quarter are of a much better quality than any known to New England people. That the climate, seasons, produce, etc. are, in fact, equal to the most flattering accounts which have been published of them.

That being determined to become purchasers, and to procure a settlement in this country; and desirous to form a general association with those who entertain the same ideas, they have to propose the following plan, viz: That an association by the name of the Ohio Comjxiny be formed of all such as wish to become purchasers, etc. in that country (who reside in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts only, or to extend to the other states, as shall be agreed on.)

That in order to bring such a company into existence, the subscribers propose, that all persons who wish to promote the scheme should meet within their respective counties (except in two instances hereinafter mentioned), at ten o’clock, A.M. on Wednesday the 15th day of February next; and that each county or meeting, there assembled, choose a delegate, or delegates, to meet at the Bunch of Grapes Tavern, in Boston, Essex; at Captain Webb’s, in Salem, Middlesex; at Bradish’s, in Cambridge, Hampshire; at Pomeroy’s, in North Hampton, Plymouth; at Bartlett’s, in Plymouth, Barnstable, Dukes and Nantucket counties; at Howland’s, in Barnsdale, Bristol; at Crocker’s, in Taunton, York; at Woodbridge’s, in York, Worcester; at Patch’s, in Worcester, Cumberland and Lincoln; at Shattuck’s, in Falmouth, Berkshire; at Dibble’s, in Lenox.

Rufus Putnam
Benjamin Tupper

Rutland, January 10, 1786

Narrative

This narrative of Benjamin Tupper is from the Dictionary of American Biography (1943). Please note that minor text corrections have been made and additional spacing has been added to improve readability.

Benjamin Tupper was born in Stoughton, Massachusetts, the son of Thomas and Remember (Perry) Tupper. Since his father died early, Benjamin had but a common school education and was apprenticed to a tanner in Dorchester until he was 16. 

Subsequently, he worked as a farmhand until the outbreak of the French and Indian War, when he enlisted in the company of his uncle, Captain Nathaniel Perry. At the close of this war, he left the army with the rank of Sergeant. 

After teaching school for a few years in Easton, he married Huldah White of Bridgewater on November 18, 1762. Afterward, they moved to Chesterfield, Hampshire County, in western Massachusetts. 

In 1774, Tupper joined the Patriot Cause, serving as a Lieutenant in the Massachusetts Militia and helping purge western Massachusetts of Loyalist sentiment. In 1775, he took a heroic part in the Siege of Boston and the destruction of the British lighthouse on Castle Island. 

From 1776 to the end of the war, he served as Lieutenant Colonel and then Colonel of Massachusetts troops, participating in the Battle of Long Island, the Saratoga Campaign, and the Battle of Monmouth. He helped build forts and defensive works at West Point and Lake George. 

He retired from the Continental Army in 1783 with the brevet rank of Brigadier General and on his return to Chesterfield was elected representative in the state legislature. 

In 1786, he returned to the field and took an active part in defending Springfield against the insurgent Daniel Shays, during Shays’s Rebellion.

The last ten years of Tupper’s life were identified with the Westward Movement. He was one of the 288 Continental officers to sign the Newburgh Petition in 1783, seeking the creation of a new territory in the Northwest for occupation by soldiers. 

With the settlement of the Indian and land problems by ordinances and treaties between 1783 and 1785, Tupper represented Massachusetts on the corps of state surveyors that was sent westward by Congress under Thomas Hutchins. In 1785, Tupper personally conducted a preliminary surveying in numbers three and four of the Seven Ranges.

Upon his return to the East, he joined General Rufus Putnam in founding the movement that led to the establishment of the Ohio Company of Associates. An advertisement appeared in Boston and Worcester papers early in 1786, describing the Ohio Country and inviting Revolutionary officers and soldiers to form a settlement association. Tupper was elected delegate to represent Hampshire County at the appointed organization meeting in March in Boston. By this body, the Ohio Company was formed, and a petition was sent to Congress for a purchase, which resulted in the grant and settlement of Marietta at the mouth of the Muskingum River and the creation of the Northwest Territory.

Tupper took an active part in the affairs of the Company and of his adopted home. He accompanied the original settlers to Marietta in 1788 and served on committees to determine the location and value of sites for settlement. He was also involved in receiving applications for mills, devising donation methods to attract settlers, determining the location of roads, and leasing city lots. With Putnam, he was appointed judge of common pleas and quarter sessions and presided over the first civil court in the Northwest Territory on September 9, 1788. Subsequently, as Putnam was occupied with other duties, Tupper was practically the sole administrator of local justice in the settlement until his death.

Tupper had seven children. His daughter Rowena was the first wife of Winthrop Sargent, Secretary of the Northwest Territory.