Boardman, Elijah, 1760-1823

Resident of New Milford, Connecticut, and original shareholder in the Connecticut Land Co.

Elijah Boardman (1760-1823) was the third son of deacon Sherman Boardman and Sarah Bostwick, of New Milford, Connecticut. At age 16, he enlisted in the Continental regiment of Colonel Charles Webb. In March 1776, he was stationed in Long Island but his regiment left in October when the British took over the city. Boardman suffered from poor health and spent much of the war bed-ridden with a fever. After the war he became a merchant; he first trained as a clerk in New Haven, Connecticut, then set up his own mercantile business in his home town of New Milford. In 1795, he became a member of the Connecticut Land Company, which purchased and managed a large tract of land in Ohio.

Boardman married Mary Anna Whiting on September 25, 1792. Together they had three daughters and three sons.

In addition to his business pursuits, Boardman was active in local and state politics. He became a member of the State Lower House of Representatives and served there from 1803 to 1805 and again in 1816. He was elected to the State Upper House where he served from 1817 to 1819. In 1819, he ended his merchant activities and devoted his energies to the Connecticut State Senate. He was elected to the United States Senate as a Democratic-Republican, where he served from March 4, 1821, until his death in 1823, while on a visit to Boardman, Ohio. He is buried in New Milford, Connecticut.

William Whiting Boardman (1794-1871) was the eldest son of Elijah and Mary Boardman. He graduated from Yale College, was a probate judge in New Haven, Connecticut, and was elected to the Connecticut State Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives.

Walter Gerald Drogue wrote a biography of Elijah Boardman. His research notes and a draft of the biography are in this collection. Drogue was born in New Britain, Connecticut, in December of 1910. He graduated from Yale in 1932, and died in Boston, Massachusetts, in February 1990.