Male

March 7, 1760

August 18, 1823

New Milford, CT

Mary Anna Whiting Boardman (September 25, 1792)

Elijah Boardman (1760-1823) was the third son of deacon Sherman Boardman and Sarah Bostwick, of New Milford, Connecticut. As a boy, Boardman was educated under private tutors, and at age 16, he enlisted in the Continental regiment of Colonel Charles Webb. In March 1776, during the Revolutionary War, 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 end of the Revolution Boardman trained as a clerk in New Haven, Connecticut, and then returned to his hometown of New Milford where he began a mercantile venture with his brother Daniel in 1781. The brothers' business thrived and through a network of trade offered goods from Europe and India ...to the local market. To accomplish this, an intricate pattern was utilized in which local agricultural goods, received in trade or purchase, were shipped to New York and sold at a premium. Boardman would then bring back to Connecticut rum, molasses, and a large variety of textiles to sell in the local market. This proved very successful and he continued his mercantile pursuits into the 1810s.

In 1795, Boardman had begun to expand his property holdings when he became a member of the Connecticut Land Company, one of the purchasers of the Connecticut Western Reserve (now part of Northern Ohio). Through this transaction he had become the owner of a large amount of real estate, standing second on the tax list of New Milford at the time of his death.

In addition to his business pursuits, Boardman was active in local and state politics after 1800. He became a member of the State Lower House of Representatives and served from 1803 to 1805 and again in 1816. He was elected to the State Upper House in 1817 and continued to serve until 1819 when he was elected to the Connecticut State Senate. In 1821 Elijah Boardman was elected to the United States Senate as a Democratic Republican, where he served from March 4 of that year, until his death in 1823.

In 1792, Boardman married Mary Anna Whiting. They had six children. Two of their sons, Wililam Whiting Boardman and George Sherman Boardman, attended the Litchfield Law School. Two daughters, Caroline Boardman Schroeder and Mary Anna Boardman, attended the Litchfield Female Academy.

At the age of 63 Elijah Boardman passed away on August 18, 1823 on a trip to Ohio to visit his son. His body was returned to Connecticut and he was interred at the Center Cemetery in New Milford.
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Private tutors

Business; Political Office

Democratic Republican

U.S. Senator (CT) 1819-1821

State Representative Lower House (Connecticut) 1803-1805; 1816
State Representative Upper House (Connecticut) 181701819
State Senator (Connecticut) 1819-1821

Charlotte Goldthwaite, Boardman Genealogy (Hartford, 1895), p. 332-333.