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Benedict Lapham

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Benedict Lapham

Birth
Burrillville, Providence County, Rhode Island, USA
Death
16 Jun 1883 (aged 66)
Warwick, Kent County, Rhode Island, USA
Burial
Providence, Providence County, Rhode Island, USA Add to Map
Memorial ID
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Benedict Lapham was a New England industrialist, philanthropist, and founder of the Lapham Institute in Scituate, Rhode Island.

Lapham was born in Rhode Island to a Yankee family on June 26, 1816. His parents were Phebe Arnold and Reverend Richard Lapham, a farmer, and a minister in the Wesleyan Methodist church. Lapham farmed before becoming involved in manufacturing in Burrillville, Rhode Island, and Palmer and Douglas, Massachusetts, and he managed a farm for the Albion Manufacturing Company in Smithfield, Rhode Island. Lapham attended Bushee's Academy at Bank Village, Rhode Island studying mechanics and later worked several years as a carpenter and wheelwright. He then worked with the Tillinghast factory in East Greenwich, and the other mills in North Scituate, Centerville, Wallum Pond, Pascoag, Rhode Island, Warwick, Rhode Island.

Lapham served in the militia during the Dorr Rebellion and was a member of Rhode Island House of Representatives, Rhode Island State Senate, state commissioner of the Antietam Cemetery, president of the town council, Delegate to the 1860 Republican National Convention, justice of the peace. In 1863 he purchased and funded the Smithville Seminary and gave it to the Free Will Baptist Association. It was renamed the Lapham Institute in his honor.

Biographical information provided by Winnie Yandell
Benedict Lapham was a New England industrialist, philanthropist, and founder of the Lapham Institute in Scituate, Rhode Island.

Lapham was born in Rhode Island to a Yankee family on June 26, 1816. His parents were Phebe Arnold and Reverend Richard Lapham, a farmer, and a minister in the Wesleyan Methodist church. Lapham farmed before becoming involved in manufacturing in Burrillville, Rhode Island, and Palmer and Douglas, Massachusetts, and he managed a farm for the Albion Manufacturing Company in Smithfield, Rhode Island. Lapham attended Bushee's Academy at Bank Village, Rhode Island studying mechanics and later worked several years as a carpenter and wheelwright. He then worked with the Tillinghast factory in East Greenwich, and the other mills in North Scituate, Centerville, Wallum Pond, Pascoag, Rhode Island, Warwick, Rhode Island.

Lapham served in the militia during the Dorr Rebellion and was a member of Rhode Island House of Representatives, Rhode Island State Senate, state commissioner of the Antietam Cemetery, president of the town council, Delegate to the 1860 Republican National Convention, justice of the peace. In 1863 he purchased and funded the Smithville Seminary and gave it to the Free Will Baptist Association. It was renamed the Lapham Institute in his honor.

Biographical information provided by Winnie Yandell


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