Autobiography

9

My children now living are five; Mary Jane, Julia Allcott, Henry, Seneca G., and Charles. Two others died young and are buried at Forest Home a cemetary near Milwaukee. Family records show my direct ancestry as follows:
I. John Lapham, a weaver born in 1635 in Devonshire England; settled in Providence Rhode Island where his house was burned in the King Phillip War. II. John Lapham, who married Mary Russell. III. John Lapham born Oct 3 1703 married Desire Howland. IV. Benjamin Lapham born January 15 1727. V. Pazzi Lapham born Oct 22 1750 married Bethany Foster. VI. Seneca Lapham, my father, born in Duchess County New York June 10 1784 married Rachel Allen; died in Champaign County Ohio, December 30, 1853.
In 1852 Dr. Asa Gray of Cambridge in a memoir published in the Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge entitled 'Plantae Wrightiana (page 99 plate 9) named a new genus of plants Laphamia with the remark 'I dedicate this genus to I.A. Lapham Esqu. of Milwaukee, Wisconsin author of a catalogue of the plants of that stae and a zealous explorer of its botany.'