History of Putnam, (Muskingum County) Ohio United States of America

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Biographies:

Benjamin Tupper, soldier and pioneer, was born in Stoughton, mass., March 11, 1738; son of Thomas and ?? (Perry) Tupper; grandson of Thomas and Mary Tupper; a descendant of Thomas Tupper (born in Sandwich, England, June 28, 1578), who came to America as early as 1635, possibly in 1624, resided in Saugus (Lynn), Mass., previous to 1637, where, with nine others, he settled Sandwich on Cape Cod, where he died, March 28, 1676; and maternal descendant of Ezra Perry of Sandwich, Mass. His father having died when he was quite young, he served an apprenticeship to a tanner in Dorchester, Mass., and about 1754 went to live with Joshua Howard, a farmer at Easton. He served as a private in the company, of his maternal uncle, Capt. Nathaniel Perry, during the French and Indian war; was clerk of a company in the eastern army, in the winter of 1756-57; was promoted corporal in 1757, and sergeant in 1759. He taught a district school in Easton, 1761; was married, Nov. 18, 1762, to Huldah White of Bridgewater (who died in Putnam, Ohio, 1812), and removed to Chesterfield, Mass., where as lieutenant of militia he dispersed the supreme court of the crown at Springfield, Mass. He was commissioned major of Colonel Fellows' regiment at Rexbury; took part in the Battle of Bunker Hill, and in July, 1775. led an expedition to Castle Island, Boston Harbor, burning the light-house, and carrying off much property. When the British attempted to rebuild the light-house, Major Tupper attacked the guard, killed the officers and four privates, captured the rest of the troops, the total killed and captured being 53, and demolished the works. which act of gallantry won him the thanks of Washington in general orders and caused Jefferson to characterize the affair as an instance of "the adventurous genius and intrepidity of New Englanders." The British Admiral said that no one act in the siege caused so much chagrin in London as the destruction of the light-house. Tupper was sent to Martha's Vineyard to capture two vessels in August, 1775; made an expedition to Governor's Island, Boston harbor, in September, and commanded a number of gunboats on the Hudson river in August, 1776, participating in an engagement near Fort Washington. He served as lieutenant-colonel of Colonel Bailey's regiment in the northern army under Gates in 1777, becoming colonel of the 11th regiment of Continental troops in July, 1777; was at Valley Forge, 1777-78; engaged in the battle of Monmouth, June 28, 1778, where his horse was killed under him; was appointed inspector in General Robert Patterson's brigade in September, 1778; served as aide to Washington; superintended the stretching of a chain across the Hudson river at West Point in 1780, and toward the close of the war was brevetted brigadier-general. He was subsequently a member of the Massachusetts legislature, and a justice of the peace; was one of the signers of the petition of Continental officers for the laying out of a new state "westward of the Ohio." June 16, 1783, and in 1785, owing to Gen. Rufus Putnam's resignation as surveyor of the north western lands, accepted the vacancy, and in connection with General Putnam called a convention at Boston, Mass., March 1, 1786, which organized the Ohio company of Associates. General Tupper made a second survey in 1786, and on his return took charge of the military organizations at Springfield, Mass., during Shays's rebellion, repelling the insurgents' attack on the armory, and being immediately afterward discharged from active service. He removed to Ohio in the summer of 1787, arriving at Marietta, Aug. 9, 1788, where he was actively engaged in promoting the plans of the Ohio company. At the assembling of the first civil court of the Northwestern Territory, Sept. 9, 1788, with Rufus Putnam, he served as justice of the quorum, and thereafter, with the exception of one or two sessions, presided until his death. Of his children: Maj. Anselm Tupper, who was a "fine classical scholar, a good mathematician, and something of a poet," died in Marietta, Ohio, Dec. 25, 1808; Col. Benjamin, Jr., died at Putnam, Ohio, 1815; Gen. Edward W., who served under General Harrison in the war of 1812, died in Gallipolis, Ohio, 1823, and his daughter Rosoma married Gov. Winthrop Sargent, and died in Marietta, 1790. General Tupper was a member of the Society of the Cincinnati, and the inventor of the screw propeller. He died in Marietta, Ohio, June, 1792.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Charles Frederick Marvin, meteorologist, was born in Putnam, Ohio, Oct. 7, 1858; son of George Frederick and Sarah Anne (Speck) Marvin; grandson of Samuel and Caroline (Lottridge) Marvin and of Noah and Maria (Smitley) Speck. He was graduated from the Ohio State university, M.E., 1883. While at the university, he was assistant instructor in the mechanical laboratory, 1878-83, and he was assistant in the department of physics and mechanical engineering, 1883-84. In May, 1884, he was appointed junior professor in the U.S. signal service and upon the organization of the physical laboratory division in January, 1885, he was assigned to that division and carried on a series of comparative observations of the "Regnault" Dewpoint apparatus and the "whirled or sling psychrometer" for the purpose of determining the constants of a formula for the psychrometer. The work was done in Colorado at the base and finally on the summit of Pike's peak and was the basis of the psychrometric tables of the weather bureau. He was placed in charge of the instrument division, U.S. signal service, in 1889, and was elected professor of meteorology in the U.S. weather bureau in 1891. He was married, June 27, 1894, to Nellie Limeburner. He made important investigations of anemometers for measurement of wind velocities and pressures and conducted many experiments for deducing the moisture contents of the air. In 1897-98 he developed important improvements in the construction of kites and the a?rial apparatus employed by the U.S. weather bureau in ascertaining the meteorological conditions at great elevations in the free air. This apparatus was subsequently employed by both European and South American institutions and formed part of the equipment of the German South Polar expedition of 1901. Among his inventions are instruments for the automatic registration of rainfall, sunshine, wind velocity, the temperature and pressure of the air. He contributed to American scientific periodicals. He was made fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a member of the Philosophical Society of Washington, the Washington Academy of Science, the National Geographic society, and corresponding member of the Deutscher Verein zur F?rderung der Luftschiffahrt in Berlin.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor