I first beheld the light of day...

Many years ago my family and I heard a story from a regional representative at a Stake Conference. I unfortunately can't remember his name but he was originally from Joseph City and met my dad before the conference and found out he was a great-grandson of Henry Tanner, so he told a story about him in the conference. About 25 years later I wrote down the story as I remembered it, and then did some looking around on the internet and found that the story is included in a published book, much as I remembered it.

It is a personal and sacred family story, so I will not include it here, but will point any descendants to Henry Tanner's entry on FamilySearch Family Tree, and note that I heard at least one additional similar story about Eliza Parkinson Tanner from her granddaughter Pearl Jacobson.

Instead of including the stories here, here's an autobiography written by Henry and recently added to Family Tree by Janice Salazar. I have added paragraphs for readability, although I preserved his spelling and punctuation. As a word of explanation, in the era when he was baptized and ordained, ordinances were normally performed by ward leadership, rather than the father, as is commonly done now.

I Henry Martin Tanner first beheld the light of day, in the old fort in Sanbernardino California, in the year of our Lord 1852. While my parents were filling a mission in this goodly land. My parents being released from the mission in 1858, returned to Utah, & resided in Cedar City for one year or there abouts. From thence to Beaver. 

At the age of eight years or in 1860 June 11, I was Baptized by Samuel White and Confirmed by John Robinson. My father followed freighting for a livelyhood and I remained on the farm at home. In the year 1867, I was Ordained a Deacon under the hands of John Robinson of Beaver. In the month of Janurary ^25^ 1877, in the St George Temple, I was promoted to the office of an Elder under the hands of Lorenzo Roundy & at the same time & place married my wife Eliza Ellen Parkinson. 

In the following Feb. 21st, I took all of my Earthly belongings & started upon a colonizing mission on the little Colorado River in the North Eastern part of Arizona traveling by the way of St. George, Lynx Springs, Pierce’s Ferry, Wallapai Valley, & Hackberry. [See the account of the journey here.] Then to the Sanfrancisco mountain & the Settlements on the little Colorado River and Settled in what was then known as William C. Allens Camp. Twenty-five miles South of East of Sunset.

We passed through all the trials incident to traveling & colonizing in a new country. Breadstuff was very high at that time we payed as high as eighteen dollars a hundred for flour, then were very fortunate if we got a first class article which we hauled with ox teams from New Mexico or Utah.

At that time the Navajo Indian’s were wild & would some times drive off some of our horses, but we followed the Counsel of President Young and fed them instead of fighting them.

I have followed the occupation of mixed farming. In the year 1878 I was called as second counselor to BP Joseph Richards of St. Joseph Arizona. I think in 1886 it was when our ward was reorganized Bp John Bushman BP. I was selected also as counselor to him and have remained in the Bishoprick until the present time. In 1886 I married my wife Emma Stapley in the St George Temple. In 1888 I was called to fill a mission in Great Britain returning in 1889 on account of Ill health. Have served as Superintendant of Sunay Schools twenty years in the St Joseph ward. My wife Eliza Ellen has born me eleven children all healthy and strong        of whom are married and have home and families of their own all in good standing in the church at present time.

Emma Ellen has born six children four of whom are living, one married. Two of my Sons have performed missions in the Southern States on under the Presidence of Ben E. Rich and the other under the Presidence of Charles A. Callous [Callis] one son is the Stake Clerk in the Snowflake Stake of Zion

Sources
Bushman, Edith Smith. Climbing Life's Mountains: Arizona Pioneer Stories and Faith-Promoting Experiences. A.E. Bishman Family Organization, 1993, 97-98.

Tanner, Henry Martin. "Autobiography of Henry Martin Tanner." Genealogical Surveys of LDS Members: Autobiographies and Ancestors. 34 Volumes. Salt Lake City, Utah: Genealogical Society of Utah, 1924–1929. (Family History Library book 289.3 G286g; films 1059454–63).

Henry Tanner: Joseph City Arizona Pioneer

My dad sent a link to a digitized copy of George S. Tanner's Henry Tanner: Joseph City Arizona Pioneer. You can download it here:

Henry Tanner: Joseph City Arizona Pioneer

Here's the first page:

And a random page with the end of one interesting story (found here), and two others in their entirety:

Henry Tanner and the Edmunds-Tucker Act

I've read that Henry Martin Tanner was never prosecuted for u.c. (unlawful cohabitation, or polygamy) under the Edmunds Anti-Polygamy Act 1882, or the Edmunds-Tucker Act of 1887, but I just found a copy of the Joseph Fish Journal online that says otherwise.

Fish, a resident of Snowflake, Arizona, noted that in 1905:

Senator DeBoise from Idaho has been working up a move against the Mormons and he had brought strong pressure on the officials in northern Arizona to prosecute the polygamists in this action. The officers were compelled to do something and a vast number of witnesses were procured from this section and St. Johns, my wife Adelaide being among the number. So we knew that something was being done and we all that were liable were looking for the office to come and arrest us, but there was but one from this district that left on this account, the others all decided to stay and meet the case, be it what it may. The result of this effort of Senator DeBoise was that there were ten of us arrested in this district.

A Biography of Eliza Ellen Parkinson Tanner by Loy Despain

Many thanks to Loy Despain who sent this lovely history of Eliza Ellen Parkinson Tanner. He also sent a better copy of the picture of Emma Stapley Tanner, and I have added it to the index for the Tanner Family.

Henry and Eliza Tanner.

HISTORY OF ELIZA PARKINSON TANNER

by

Loy Despain

Eliza Parkinson Tanner was born 8 September 1857 in San Bernardino, California to Thomas Parkinson and Mary Ann Bryant. She married Henry M. Tanner on January 25, 1887 in the St. George Temple. He was 24 and she was 19.

A month following their marriage they responded to a call to help settle the Little Colorado Colonies in Northern Arizona. On May first they arrived at Allen’s Camp which is now known as Joseph City, Arizona. They only stayed in Allen’s Camp a few days before leaving to travel with John Hunt and family to one of the New Mexico settlements. Three days on the dry, dusty road following the Rio Puerco wash towards New Mexico persuaded them to return Allen’s Camp and cast their lot with the saints in that location. During those trying periods of conquering a resistant land, bonds of friendship were forged that lasted a lifetime. Ida Hunt Udall was with her father John Hunt during the travels from Utah to Arizona and into New Mexico. She and Eliza became good friends as she reports one of her trips from Utah back to Eastern Arizona. She stated that she stopped to visit with her good friends, Eliza and Henry Tanner in the little town that is now known as Joseph City.

Henry and Eliza Tanner's trip to Arizona, Part 1

Henry M. Tanner and Eliza Ellen Parkinson were married January 25, 1877, in the St. George Temple. He was twenty-four and she nineteen. Henry had already received his call to go to Arizona as one of the colonists. They had little more than a month after their marriage to get ready for the journey....

At the time of their marriage, [her father] Thomas Parkinson gave Eliza a milch cow named Red. She was taken to Arizona with other cattle but she was always a little special. George Parkinson, Eliza's brother, says that Eliza included in the news from Arizona items about Red and her calves along with information about the birth of children....

In preparation for their departure, [Henry's father] Sidney Tanner gave a reception and farewell for the young couple in the upstairs of his ample home. In addition to the friends in Beaver who attended were the members of the Hunt family who were also going to Arizona. For the past year the Hunts had been living on Cove Creek two and a half miles from Joseph City, Sevier County, Utah. The Hunts had eight children, the oldest of whom was but one year younger than Eliza Tanner. They had three wagons of their own, one drawn by two yoke of oxen, one by two span of horses and a light wagon with one span of horses. The oxen were driven by a young man anxious for a bit of adventure by the name of Isadore Wilson. He was a neighbor of the Hunts. John Hunt drove the four horse team and two of the girls drove the light wagon. Also in the Hunt company was a four mule team owned by Manasseh Blackburn, also anxious for the adventure of the trip. His wagon carried mostly heavy supplies belonging to the Hunts.

Before leaving Beaver, Thomas Parkinson had mixed a large quantity of flour with soda and probably cream of tarter so that all that was necessary in making bread [biscuits?] was to add salt and water. The company left Beaver February 21, 1877, accompanied by Father Sidney Tanner who went one day's journey with them and hauled feed for their animals. Enroute to St. George, Henry and Eliza went by way of Toquerville for a few days visit with relatives. Emma Ellen Stapley, cousin of Eliza, was at that time a girl of fifteen. Perhaps she little dreamed that ten years later she would be going to Arizona too....

This party of pioneers did not go by way of Lee's Ferry as the earlier settlers had done. John Hunt and Henry Tanner had been asked to explore a better crossing of the Big Colorado River at Pearce's Ferry below the Grand Canyon. As early as 1862, this crossing had been used by Jacob Hamblin, but not until December, 1876, was regular service established by Harrison Pearce, father of James Pearce, later a pioneer in Taylor, Arizona. The ferry was located at Grand Wash, just a few miles east of the Nevada line. The location is now submerged in Lake Mead. Whatever advantage this crossing was thought to have, evidently did not prove to be and it was not used again by the Arizona settlers.


Excerpts from George S. Tanner, Henry Martin Tanner: Joseph City Arizona Pioneer, 1964, pp 13-14. Some minor editing corrections made to the text.


Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7

Picture of Lake Mead from www.flickr.com/photos/wouterkiel/3442561279/.

Henry Martin Tanner

b. 11 June 1852 San Bernardino, San Bernardino, California
m. 25 January 1877 St. George, Washington, Utah
d. 21 March 1935 Gilbert, Maricopa, Arizona
b. 24 March 1935 Joseph City, Navajo, Arizona
Wives: (1) Eliza Ellen Parkinson, (2) Emma Stapley
Father: Sydney Tanner; Mother: Julia Ann Shepherd

Since Henry Tanner took the opportunity to write his own life story, I'll include it in its entirety. He notes that his hearing is poor; how many of us inherited that gene? After this post, I will do a few posts on Henry and Eliza Tanner.


So here is Henry Tanner in his own words...

My grandfather, John Tanner, was born August 15, 1778, Hopkinton, Rhode Island. Was converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Previous to his baptism into the Church he was a cripple and at the time of his baptism he was healed by the power of the Lord. He was very well fixed financially and during the early days of the Church he donated freely to the Church.