Tipton was born on August 14, 1786 in Sevier County, Tenn. He was the son of Joshua and Jennett (Shields) Tipton, and a nephew of John Tipton. The family had migrated from Maryland to eastern Tennessee, where Joshua Tipton was killed by Indians in 1793. Fourteen years after his death his widow, with four children, moved to Harrison County, Indiana Territory, where one of the sons operated a ferry across the Ohio River.
Education
John Tipton received no formal education, and learned to read and write with meager facility only when he became justice of the peace in 1810.
Career
At that time Indiana Territory was on the Indian frontier and Tipton belonged to a company of riflemen that saw service at the battle of Tippecanoe. For several years thereafter he commanded a troop of rangers which harassed the Indians away from the Ohio River frontier.
In 1822 he was elected major-general of the 2nd Division of Indiana Militia. Meanwhile, 1816-19, he served as sheriff of the county, and then represented his county in the state assembly until 1823. He was appointed one of the two surveyors to run the Indiana-Illinois boundary line in 1821. On December 22, 1823, he was appointed Indian Agent for the Fort Wayne district of Northern Indiana, and negotiated important Indian treaties in 1826, 1828, and 1836. He speculated widely in the cheap lands of the state and was a prolific founder of county seats on sites adjacent to generous holdings of his own. In 1831 he was appointed to fill out an unexpired term in the United States Senate, and in 1833 was elected for a full term.
He completed his senatorial term in March 1839, and died the following month at his home in Logansport, Ind.
His "journal" was published in the Indianapolis News of April 17, and May 5, 1879, and reprinted in the Indiana Magazine of History, volume I, numbers 1 and 2, 1905.
In politics he was a Democrat, being a close friend of Jackson and a frequent visitor at the "Hermitage. " His senatorial career was not spectacular, since he was not a fluent speaker and was never as adept in the intricacies of national intrigue as in the rough and tumble of local frontier politics.
He was hostile to the abolition of slavery, championed Michigan's fight for the "Toledo strip, " and took a moderate part in all discussions of Indian and military affairs.
He was a typical frontier politician, a hard-drinking, hard-hitting Indian fighter, and an adroit land speculator.
Personality
In appearance he was of medium height, sinewy, small featured, with a low wrinkled forehead, and stern grey eyes. His stiff sandy hair stood erect in the Jacksonian manner.
Connections
He was married about 1818 to his cousin, Jeanette Shields, by whom he had three children. After her death, he was married, in April 1825, to Matilda Spencer, and had three children by this marriage.