Elijah Boardman Elijah Boardman ( March 7 , 1760 – August 18 , 1823 ) was a senator from Connecticut . Born to a noted and politically connected Connecticut family , he served in the United States Army before becoming a noted merchant and businessman . Becoming involved in property and land ownership in Connecticut and Ohio , he founded the towns of Boardman and Medina . His involvement in politics also increased , and he gradually rose through the ranks of the local , and then national government in the United States Senate . He served as Senator for Connecticut until his death in Ohio . Biography . Early life . Boardman , an Episcopalian , was born in New Milford in Connecticut , the third of four children for Deacon Sherman Boardman ( 1728 – 1814 ) and Sarah Bostwick Boardman ( 1730 – 1818 ) . His father , a first minister , was a " prosperous farmer " , well educated and well versed in local politics – he was 21 times elected as a member of the General Assembly of Connecticut – and was familiar with " civil and military concerns of the town . " The Boardman family were the town ' s founding family , and lived on a " substantial farm " on the Housatonic River . A biographer of his later wife wrote of Elijah Boardman : " Inheriting many of the good qualities of his father and his grandfather , he combined , with those good qualities , the energy and intrepidity of his mother and of his grandmother , respecting both of whom there are preserved family traditions of much historical and domestic interest . " The biographer also noted Boardman to be " dignified " in personal appearance , and handsome . His brother , Davind Sherman Boardman , remarked that he was " inclined " to hilarity . Elijah Boardman was educated by private tutors – including tutoring in Latin by Reverend Nathaniel Taylor and other matters by his own mother – at home before enlisting in the local militia to serve in the American Revolutionary War as a " common soldier " , in March 1776 aged 16 . Revolutionary War . Under Captain Isaac Bostwick , Boardman served in one of the first sixteen regiments raised by the Continental Congress under the command of Colonel Charles Webb . Boardman was directed to Boston , and diverted to New London and New York City , where he took part in Battle of Long Island , however after defeat there and American evacuation to Washington , he was confined to a sick bed having exacerbated childhood medical difficulties and fever . After six months , having achieved an ultimate rank of sergeant , he obtained passage on a wagon back to New York , where he was discovered in poor health by a friend of his father , who sent word home for Boardman to be collected . Meanwhile , Boardman obtained a discharge from the army . In the summer of 1777 , Sir Henry Clinton led British forces through Fort Montgomery and prompted a call - up of Connecticut militia , which Boardman joined until the danger passed following the surrender of General Burgoyne , whereupon the militia was disbanded . Now detached from the army , Boardman resumed his tutorship under John Hickling , a family tutor employed by Boardman ' s father . Mercantile employment . In 1781 , Boardman took work as a clerk and as a merchant . He spent time employed in New Haven , training as a shopkeeper in the store of Elijah and Archibald Austin , before setting up his own company in his home town of New Milford later that same year . This business , a dry - goods store , was operated in conjunction with his two brothers , David and Daniel . As part of his travels , he visited Ohio , where he founded the town of Boardman . In 1789 , he was the subject of a portrait by Ralph Earl , which " portrayed the richly dressed dry goods merchant . . . in his store in New Milford . . . through the open door , bolts of textiles tell the viewer how Boardman earned a living . " Earl ' s most " accomplished " and successful series of paintings were of the Boardman family . Boardman then married Mary Anna Whiting on September 25 , 1792 , for whom he would build ' Boardman ' house , which still stands in New Milford . By this time , he had also opened a second shop outside of any partnership with his brothers , which was situated in Litchfield County and was designed by architect William Sprats , and on October 10 , 1794 his first son , William Whiting Boardman , was born . In September 1795 , Boardman became a member of the Connecticut Land Company , and a purchaser of the Connecticut Western Reserve – now part of northern Ohio – which entitled Boardman and his associates to two townships located there , one of which being Medina . The site set aside to create a county seat was originally named Mecca , until it was realised that a nearby town was named the same . Boardman ' s land agent , Rufus Ferris Sr . , became the first resident of Medina , Together with his brothers , Boardman had thus became the owner of a " considerable " amount of real estate , among the post - Revolutionary War landed gentry " among the town ' s highest taxpayers . " Politics . Boardman ' s initial ventures into politics are recorded in a letter to then - President Thomas Jefferson on June 18 , 1801 . He included a sermon of Rev . Stanley Griswold , of the New Milford church , which discussed the new President as " an example of how evil could be overcome by good . " Jefferson subsequently replied with a detailed critique of the sermon . Boardman became a member of the State House of Representatives for the period 1803 – 05 and again in 1816 , before becoming a member of the State ' s upper house between 1817 – 1819 , and a member of the State Senate between 1819 – 1821 . On March 4 , 1821 , he was elected to the US Senate while living in Litchfield , Connecticut . He is listed by the " Abridgment of the Debates of Congress , from 1789 to 1856 " as having been present at Senate proceedings on December 3 , 1821 , in Washington DC in the company of Class - 3 Connecticut senator James Lanman . Later life and death . Boardman served in the Senate until his death during a visit to his son , whereupon he was succeeded by Henry W . Edwards . His cause of death is a subject of speculation , however biographer and son - in - law John Frederick Schroeder ( m . Caroline Maria Boardman ) related it while writing in 1849 to several bouts of cholera and fever Boardman had suffered throughout his life , particularly during a tour of Rhode Island in 1780 , as well as other attacks in Vermont and New Hampshire throughout his life . Senator James Lanman proposed on December 5 , 1823 , a motion for the members of the Senate to wear " the usual mourning " for thirty days to commemorate his passing . Boardman ' s body was returned home and interred in New Milford . He was survived by his first son , later politician William , and his second , Henry Mason Boardman . Mabel Thorp Boardman , American philanthropist , was his great - granddaughter .