Benjamin Ives Gilman

Benjamin Ives Gilman (29 July 1766 – 13 October 1833) was a pioneer of the U.S. state of Ohio. He was a shipbuilder on the Ohio River and an extensive landholder. He was a delegate to the convention that wrote a constitution for the new state. Youth Gilman was the son of Joseph Gilman and Rebecca (Ives) Gilman, and was born July 29, 1766, at Exeter, New Hampshire. He graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy. When the Ohio Company of Associates was formed, he purchased one share personally, and two in partnership. He moved to Marietta, Northwest Territory, with his parents in 1789. Life in Northwest Gilman returned to the East, and married Hannah Robbins of Plymouth, Massachusetts, at that place in February 1790, and they moved to Marietta. The couple had nine children born between 1790 and 1808, including Winthrop Sargent Gilman. Gilman opened a store in Fort Harmar in 1792, and was clerk of courts for Washington County from 1795 to 1803. In 1802, Gilman was elected as a Federalist delegate to the convention to write a constitution for the new state of Ohio. He voted at the convention against slavery and for civil rights and suffrage of black people.