Tappan, Samuel F., one of the men who took an active part in the early history of Douglas county and the state, was a native of Massachusetts. He was one of a party of 30 settlers who came to Kansas in 1854, located in Lawrence in August of that year, and soon became the correspondent for the New York Tribune and the Boston Atlas, telling of the first difficulties with the border ruffians. In 1855, accompanied by Martin F. Conway, he made a canvass of southern and western Kansas in favor of the free-state movement. He was clerk of the Topeka constitutional convention; took part in the rescue of Branson; was assistant clerk of the house of representatives in 1856; went east in July of that year and brought back a quantity of arms and ammunition by way of Iowa and Nebraska, and the following year performed the duties of speaker of the Topeka house of representatives. He was secretary of the Leavenworth constitutional convention in 1858, clerk of the Wyandotte convention in 1859, and in 1860 left Kansas for Denver, Col., where he took an active part in the public life of the city and state. Subsequently he removed his residence to New York city.