Ebenezer J. Penniman

Who was Ebenezer J. Penniman?

Ebenezer Jenckes Penniman was a politician from the U.S. state of Michigan.

Penniman was born in Lansingburgh, New York. He attended the common schools, apprenticed as a printer, and moved to New York City in 1822. Later, he moved to Orwell, Vermont, where he engaged in business as a dry-goods merchant. In 1840, Penniman moved to Plymouth, Michigan and again engaged as a dry-goods merchant. He also served as supervisor of Plymouth Township.

In 1850, Penniman defeated incumbent Democrat Alexander W. Buel to be elected as a Whig from Michigan's 1st congressional district to the Thirty-second Congress, serving from March 4, 1851 to March 3, 1853. He was not a candidate for renomination in 1852. He was a member of the convention that met under the oaks at Jackson, Michigan, July 6, 1854, at the organization of the Republican Party in Michigan. He was a delegate to 1856 Republican National Convention from Michigan.

He resumed mercantile pursuits until 1871 when he engaged in banking and served as president of the First National Bank of Plymouth. Penniman died in Plymouth and is interred in Riverside Cemetery there.