Finding John Tanner among the Country Roads and Farms of Greenwich, New York

From Flickr, used as is.

Sometime in 1810, perhaps in the later half of the year after the harvest was over, a census taker followed the winding country roads of Greenwich, New York, to provide an accurate list of all the inhabitants of the town, black or white, free or slave.

The census taker recorded two John Tanners in Greenwich, both men with families of about the same age.

Unfortunately neither entry matches our Tanner family genealogy. The most likely scenario is that the second John Tanner is ours, since he is listed close to his mother Thankful, but neither entry is a perfect match.

Here are the numbers. The first group is how the Tanner family should have looked in the census, based on the genealogy. The next group is a John Tanner family living with two free blacks. The third group is the John Tanner family living close to the widowed Thankful Tanner. Neither family has slaves; by 1810 there were only eight left in Greenwich.

Note that extra individuals in the family do not matter one way or the other since families were often more fluid than today due to early deaths. The more concerning data points would be the lack of small children who should have been at home with their mother.

FAMILY HISTORY

Males

Under 10  2-3 William (age 7-8), Sidney (age 1), possibly Elisha (age 9-10) unless he was living with the Bentlys

Under 16  0-1 possibly Elisha (age 9-10)

Under 26  0

Under 45  1   John Tanner (age 31-32)

Females

Under 10  1  Matilda (age 5-6)

Under 16  0

Under 26 0

Under 45  1  Lydia Tanner (age 26-27)

OPTION 1 (Page 4, bottom half, line 6)

Males

Under 10  2

Under 16  1

Under 26 0

Under 45  1

Females

Under 10  0

Under 16   0

Under 26   1

Under 45   1

Free blacks 2

Slaves  0

OPTION 2 (Page 5, top half, line 14)

Males

Under 10  1

Under 16  1

Under 26 0

Under 45  1

Females

Under 10  2

Under 16  0

Under 26 0

Under 45  1

Free blacks 0

Slaves  0

MUSINGS

The first entry works if Elisha was counted as 10, Matilda was put in the wrong age group, and the Tanners had two free blacks living with them. The second entry works if Elisha was counted as 10 years old and the census taker accidentally recorded one of the little boys as a girl.

Note that Thankful's entry is strange: she is listed in the under-45 category, but she was actually in her 50s. She also has four boys ages 10-26 living with her (Pardon, Francis, Joshua, and William) and one girl under 10 (perhaps a granddaughter; could this be Matilda?).

Another option is that John Tanner was living elsewhere, but this is not supported by the family history or by any online indexed copy of the US Census. If anyone wanted to read through the entire Washington County Census to check for a wrongly-indexed entry, the easiest way would be to read the copy at archive.org:

Washington County Census

Washington County starts on page 291 and goes through 379. Greenwich is at the very end, and the concluding page of the census (381) notes that it was filed on February 7, 1811.

Another avenue of investigation would be to figure out the identity of the other John Tanner and decide out if he is an obvious match for one of the census records.

CONCLUSION

This is a case where we do not have enough data to make a final decision, but since John was shown farming his father's land in the tax records, it's likely that he was located close to his mother, if we can assume that the census was geographical in nature.

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Freighting the Tabernacle Organ ... or Whoops, Did I Repeat an Urban Legend?

From Wikipedia.

The Mormon Tabernacle Choir was broadcasting from the Salt Lake Tabernacle instead of the Conference Center this morning, so I told my son the story that I saw in the family history and wrote into a biography of Sidney Tanner:

The Tanners lived in San Bernardino until 1857, when Brigham Young called the settlers back to Utah Territory at the time Johnston’s Army was threatening the Saints. Sidney and his family settled in the beautiful valley of Beaver, Utah, after Sidney delivered the new Tabernacle pipe organ to Salt Lake City.

Sidney Tanner

I pointed to the great bank of organ pipes and said that it had some of the original pipes that Sidney would have helped transport. Then my History Hogwash Meter™ kicked in and I remembered that the Tabernacle was built in the 1860s, several years after the Saints left San Bernardino.

An official History of the Tabernacle notes that Joseph Ridges constructed the organ for the new Tabernacle out of ponderosa pine from Pine Valley, Utah, a logging settlement in the mountains above St. George. Like our Bryant-Parkinson-Stapley family, Joseph Ridges was an English emigrant from Australia. His family settled first in San Bernardino, then moved to Salt Lake City during the Utah War. 

But it would be a mistake to abandon the family story even though it doesn't fit into this timeline: the Tabernacle shown above was the second Tabernacle the Church built. The first one was an adobe building situated where the Assembly Hall is now, and it did, in fact, have an organ built by Joseph Ridges in Australia and transported across the Pacific Ocean and then across the Mojave Desert and through old Utah Territory to Great Salt Lake City.

1855 Carl Flemming map of the Southwest, David Rumsey maps

Here is the story of the first organ from a Church News article provided by Joseph Ridge's family.

[Around 1853] Joseph became convinced of the truth of the gospel. He and his wife were later baptized. 

In his spare time he began to build a small, seven-stop pipe organ. Fascinated with the instrument, Mission President Augustus Farnham asked Ridges to donate it to the Church in Salt Lake City. Ridges agreed, and when Pres. Farnham sailed for Utah, he was accompanied by the Ridges—and the organ—who were among a company of 120 aboard the Jenny Ford. When the ship landed in California, they accompanied the members to San Bernardino.... 

Joseph H. Ridges

The following spring Brigham Young sent teams and wagons to haul the organ to Salt Lake City, where it arrived in June 1857. The small organ was installed in the small adobe tabernacle that was built on Temple Square where the Assembly Hall now stands. But with Johnston's Army approaching Utah, the organ was dismantled and packed, and was evacuated to the south along with the population of Salt Lake City. When the fear of war was over, the organ was returned to the old tabernacle, and when the Assembly Hall was built, many of its pipes and better parts were incorporated into the Assembly Hall organ. 

In the 1860's, construction on the present Tabernacle began. Brigham Young asked Ridges, who was then farming in Provo, if he could build a grand organ for the new building. Although Ridges' only previous organ-building experience was on the small organ, he had no doubt that he could build a large organ.... (Source.)

Stuart Grow's thesis "A Historical Study of the Construction of the Salt Lake Tabernacle" specifies that the organ was transported by teams sent from San Bernardino by Charles C. Rich and Amasa M. Lyman (Sidney's brother-in-law). The organ was played for the first time in the Old Tabernacle on October 11, 1857. (Link.)

The Old Tabernacle to the left of the New Tabernacle.

Since the family preserved this memory and Sidney was one of a small group of Mormon freighters running the dangerous trade route between Salt Lake City and San Bernardino, the biographical note about transporting the Tabernacle organ is undoubtedly true, and I will leave his biography mostly as is, but add a note about it being the Old Tabernacle organ.

According to the Church News article, part of the Australian organ was used for the Assembly Hall organ after the Assembly Hall was built on the site of the Old Tabernacle. Here is a picture.

Creative Commons, used as is, Aaron Goodwin, Flickr. 

Note: There's a new well-reviewed history, Michael Hicks, The Mormon Tabernacle Choir: A Biography (2015). I haven't read it yet, but the reviews are positive.

... still screening ...

The front page of the October 27, 1857 Daily Alta California is still not showing up in FamilySearch. If there is a review process, it is very slow. If it has been censored, it would be good of FamilySearch to let me know the reason.

(The newspaper shows as "Screening in process" in multiple accounts. I added the document to three entries on August 19.)

... still screening ...

After I put up the last post about Sidney Tanner and the Mountain Meadows Massacre, I added the newspaper to his FamilySearch entry and also tagged William Mathews and Ira Hatch. The terms in the title or description must have triggered a review by a human, because two weeks later the newspaper still shows as follows.

Wills and Probate: Sidney Tanner

Have you heard about Ancestry's wonderful new U.S. Wills and Probate collection? I've been using it all day and have found some great information for my book, including a notice that was misfiled into a probate folder although it belonged elsewhere, but was valuable in explaining a strange part of the history of a Missouri family.

Since I've been concentrating on Sidney Tanner's history recently, I pulled up his probate record. It was a difficult situation, since he had two wives, but only one was legally able to appear in court.

Each probate file is indexed by contents, as you can see in the right sidebar, making it easier to navigate through the file. I do wish it were possible to download the entire file with one click!

Sidney's file does not include a detailed inventory, which is disappointing, since that's my favorite part of any probate, but it does give a snapshot into the circumstances of his later years.

Have you used this new collection yet? Find anything interesting?

Sidney Tanner and the Mountain Meadows Massacre

Daily Alta California, Mountain Meadows Massacre, October 27, 1857, 1.

Sidney Tanner and William Mathews were freighting between Salt Lake City and San Bernardino. They left Salt Lake City and made their way down along the rough pioneer road and drove into Cedar City just after the horrible tragedy at Mountain Meadows.

Their wagons were stopped and they were not allowed to go any further. Finally they negotiated travel through the area, guided by Indian missionary Ira Hatch. They could not have known that Hatch had just murdered Abel Baker, the last of the Arkansas emigrants killed in a massacre directed by Isaac C. Haight and John D. Lee and others, and carried out by the men of the Iron County Military District of the Nauvoo Legion. 

The account in the Daily Alta California was collected by a reporter writing under a pseudonym, and included the accounts of two travelers, George Powers of Arkansas and P. M. Warn of New York, who had been traveling with Sidney Tanner and William Mathews.

Sidney Tanner and William Mathews were not participants in the Massacre, and although they were taken past the massacre site at night, they must have seen proof of the awful carnage, which was represented to them as being the work of the local native tribes. Mathews was a former Southerner and a slave-owner and had a fiery temper, which is evident in the newspaper report of his comments after the Massacre.

For reliable information about the massacre, see the book Massacre at Mountain Meadows (Walker, Turley, Leonard), with important data summarized at http://mountainmeadowsmassacre.org/.

Sidney Tanner Obituary

When Sidney Tanner died, the fact of his advanced age and reputation and large number of relatives meant that his obituary was front page news across the state territory of Utah. 

Here is the article from the Deseret Evening News. It ran from one column into the next so I cut and pasted into a single file and transcribed it while I was at it. 

(I already quoted most of this obituary in his biography, Sidney Tanner: A Life of Remarkable Industry.)

If someone was paying me to do family history I would do this for each of my files, but usually I just do this for my professional work.

SIDNEY TANNER DEAD.

——

An Old Beaver Citizen Passes to Another Life—Salt Lake Relatives to Attend the Funeral.

——

By a telegram to Mrs. Barlow Ferguson and Mrs. George Crismon, his daughters, in this city, it is learned that Sidney Tanner, of Beaver, died last evening. Elder Tanner was born on the shores of Lake George, in the state of New York, in 1808, and was consequently 87 years old. He was a man of marvelous constitutional powers, and endured the hardships common to the early settlement of this Territory as well as that of southern California. He was one of the earliest settlers of Beaver and has done much to build up that place; and he now leaves behind him a large family of his own, as well as a host of kindred numbering more than 600, all the descendants of John Tanner, who was prominent in the early history of the Church in Kirtland and Nauvoo, and who died soon after his entry into the Territory. The helpless condition of Elder Sidney Tanner during the last few years of his life was such as to make his departure not wholly unexpected to his family and relatives, a number of whom will leave this city and Utah county tomorrow morning to be present at the funeral services which will take place next Sunday in Beaver.

He was known as a man of remarkable industry, temperate habits, generous disposition, and unswerving integrity.

Deseret Evening News, “Sidney Tanner Dead,” December 6, 1895, 1.

Picture from FamilySearch family Tree, courtesy of jonahlstrom.

Media Coverage about James Glade

Toward the end of James Glade's life, he was in extremely poor health. Beverly Wessman thought he had diabetes, but the recorded symptoms are not exact enough to say for sure.

In the 1870s and 1880s there was not anything the doctors could do to help him, besides a little bit of ineffective pain relief mostly based on opiates, so in an attempt to control the excruciating pain he resorted first to alcohol, and then to morphine. None of it worked; in February 1881 he overdosed on morphine. His business partner said it was on purpose; he claimed it was accidental.

Almost two years later he was returning from his job in Ogden to visit his family in Salt Lake City and collapsed in the street. The police assumed he was inebriated, which would confirm a forensic diagnosis of diabetes, since diabetic ketoacidosis can resemble intoxication. An inquest was held, and the officials said his collapse and death were not due to any type of inebriation, but to his health difficulties and "intemperance" (attempts at pain management).

It must have been hard on James's wives Eliza and Isabella to deal with his illness and support the family and maintain a place in society, but they did so. Their children married into other stable families and their descendants have continued to be an important part of intelligent, friendly Utah society.

Here are the articles covering James's unfortunately public state of health.

First, a few background notes from the papers.

Deseret News, December 11, 1878, 1.

Ogden Standard, September 15, 1880, 2.

The newspapers prematurely report James's death.

Ogden Standard, February 12, 1881, 2.

And then they quickly retract the story when he lives and disputes the reported story.

Salt Lake Herald, February 9, 1881, 3.

Ogden Standard, February 12, 1881, 2.

His health only got worse, and at age 51 he collapsed and died.

Ogden Standard, December 5, 1882, 3.

Deseret News, December 6, 1882, 12.

The family held his funeral at home. This was a common arrangement at the time.

Salt Lake Herald, December 6, 1882, 8.

It took years to settle his estate. 

Salt Lake Tribune, April 14, 1892, 8.

The entire file is available in the Utah Probate Records (Series 1621),  Salt Lake County, but the collection is unindexed, and the case files are not organized in a way that makes them easily searchable by date. The James Glade file is Case Number 1547, if anyone would like to locate it. (Click on the first link in this paragraph and select Salt Lake County. The files are marginally sorted by date.)

The Story of James Glade, Part 5: Dreams, Aspirations, and Fortitude

They had a good social life. They went to the Salt Lake Theater, entertained and visited friends, attended lectures and music at the Tabernacle, dances at the church, church on Sunday, and picnics. Black Rock on the shore of Great Salt Lake was their favorite resort. They loved to attend the 24th of July parades where James played the flute in the Nauvoo Legion band. 

Ogden Standard, September 15, 1880, 2.

James was an excellent and knowledgeable musician. He affiliated with the Nauvoo Legion Third Regiment Marshall Band, as it was called, playing the flute and/or fife. He also played the concertina.. James was a slender man, about 5’ 8” and 130 pounds. Later he played the flute in the Salt Lake City Municipal band. He loved to sit on the veranda and play the concertina and sing old Welsh songs. He would practice with other musicians on a summer’s eve. The family loved to listen to the band practice.

James Glade's instrument

The 1880 Census listed 10,768 people in Salt Lake City. The white walls of the temple were nearing completion. Taxes paid for the Glade property and home at 331 C Street on 14 Nov 1881 were $9.60. After long hours of work in the Walker House, James would come home and work in the garden but his health began to fail. James was a quiet soft-spoken man and rarely talked about himself.

Cohabitation was a problem for these polygamist families for fear of prison and fines. James had eight living children and two wives. He promised Isabell her own home but lost so much money by the May partnership that he never could build her a home of her own.

In 1881 James took his oldest son James Richard (Jimmy) to help him as a baker at the Beardsley Union Hotel in Ogden. James was not well. He had a sore on his leg that never healed. They thought it was a spider bite but he probably was a diabetic (unknown then). He worked at his baker’s bench but had to rest his afflicted leg on a stool as he worked.

In March 1882, the Edmunds-Tucker Act was passed by Congress making cohabitation illegal and punishable by heavy fines and imprisonment.

On Saturday December 2, 1882 with his health failing, James told his son Jimmy that he had to go home to see his family. He took the train to Salt Lake. He bought two packages of meat in town and was walking up State Street when he passed out and never regained consciousness. He was taken home and died Sunday, December 3, 1882. 

[Editor's Note: James was in very bad health. Diabetes is a good guess, but the recorded symptoms are not exact enough to say for sure. There was not anything the doctors could do to help him, so in an attempt to control the excruciating pain he resorted first to alcohol, and then to morphine. None of it worked; in February 1881 he either accidentally or purposefully overdosed on morphine. Almost two years later he collapsed in the street, as told here. The police assumed he was inebriated, which would confirm a forensic diagnosis of diabetes. An autopsy found his collapse and death were due to his health problems rather than another morphine overdose.]

He was 51 years old. The funeral service was held in their Victorian Parlor. James was buried in the Salt Lake City Cemetery.

The two young widows continued on in the same home. They sold some of the property to pay bills but kept one quarter block on C Street and 7th Avenue. They took in washing and ironing. Later Isabell did nursing care. They were frugal and managed well together even though they were of different temperaments.

Eliza died of a stroke 7 January 1920. Bell died of cancer on 5 March 1921. Eliza and Isabell are buried in the Glade plot at the Salt Lake City Cemetery. Mary’s unmarked grave is in Nebraska somewhere. They are not forgotten. A part of them is alive in each of us.

It may seem that their dreams and aspirations were not fully realized but these people suffered, worked unceasingly, had fortitude to carry on in face of sorrow and trouble and they persevered. Through faith and endurance they enjoyed the good times and had hope for better. They adhered to gospel principals. Of the 15 children, two of Mary Dyer’s, eight of Eliza Mary’s, and five of Isabell’s, only nine grew to maturity. Seven married and had fine families. We honor them and respect them for the great heritage that is ours. There were over 2,500 descendants in 1990.

Index to History

The Story of James Glade, Part 4: Life in Salt Lake City

He had a good job as a pastry cook at the leading hotel, the Salt Lake House on East Temple, now Main street, where the Tribune Building is now located. They lived in a small adobe home in back of the Salt Lake House. James was ambitious. He went into a business partnership with Dan Towler at the Globe Bakery-Restaurant next to the State House, the largest building on the west side of East Temple (Main St.) and south of South Temple. This was an unprofitable business and he lost money. 

Then he worked at the Townsend House as a pastry cook. He tried another Bakery-Restaurant on the east side of Main between 1st and 2nd South near the Salt Lake House. John Lollin was his partner. This was another unprofitable business. James furnished work and money and his partners furnished poor management. 

Then he worked at the Walker House, the hotel across the street. He was a good baker and always found work. 

James and Eliza Mary lived in the 13th Ward at 6th South and 2nd East. During this time, three children were born; James Richard, Francis Ann Elizabeth, and William John. Baby Francis Ann died during September 1867 at age 14 months.

That same year on December 14, 1867 in the Endowment House, Eliza was endowed and sealed to James by Wilford Woodruff. Mary Dyer was sealed to James. Eliza Mary’s mother and father, the Litsons were endowed and sealed. This has a great day for the Glade family. 

In 1868–69 they lived in the 8th Ward on 5th south between East Temple and 1st east. Beyond the 4th Avenue mud wall and the canal was the property he wanted. James and Eliza saved money and bought the property, which was G of a block on the northwest corner of Pine Street and Mountain Avenue, which is 7th Avenue and C Street today. He finished the two-story house in 1869. It was in 1869 that Great Salt Lake City became Salt Lake City. 

The house faces east. You enter the front and on your left is the Victorian Parlor. The large room you are standing in had a staircase up to the two bedrooms on the north and the dormitory on the south for the children. On the main floor to the right was the large kitchen with a coal stove for heating and cooking on the west well. The north wall had a sink with a cistern outside to catch the rainwater and you could pump fresh water inside to the sink. They were very careful with the water. They carried water from the canal on 4th Avenue to 7th Avenue. He dug two different wells but the wells caved in because of the soil and the slope of the hill. Any excess watered the primroses on the path or the lilacs and woodbine that shaded the porch on the east and south sides of the house. James had four terraces on the side of the steep hill. He had fruit trees and a grape vineyard. They had a barn with a cow, chickens, rabbits, and a goat until the goat made a mistake one day and ate someone’s clothes off the line. He didn’t stay long.

They were busy. It took much work. James had met a young Scottish housekeeper when he worked at the Salt Lake House. He and Eliza had her to their home on many occasions. With the consent of Eliza, James married Isabella Love on June 28, 1869. He bought his new wife a green parasol. He also bought Eliza a blue parasol. He always tried to treat his wives equally.

Isabella Love Glade

It is said they were an ideal polygamous family. The children called Eliza Mary Auntie Liz and Isabell was called Auntie Bell. Auntie Liz (Lies) was soft spoken and quiet. She used praise and soft pats on the head. She liked working outdoors, gardening and animals. Auntie Bell was outspoken and more talkative. She showed love by darning your socks or sewing on truant buttons. She did the indoor work, sewing and cooking. They worked well together and had a great capacity for love. The children loved them both.

In 1870, the post brought them good news, James’s Uncle Will in England left them an inheritance. They bought some furnishings for 331 C Street. Then James furnished the money for a new partnership, the May and Glade Butchers in 1871. He suffered heavy financial loss because of his partner’s bills. This was his last business venture. His partners took advantage of his trusting nature and money. Three times he had suffered financially. He knew disappointment, but he was a hard worker. He spent long hours at his baker’s bench, often 12 hours a day. He always had good work. He and his wives were industrious. They had a good home life.

For special occasions like Christmas, James baked fancy cakes and candies when sugar was $1.00 a pound. The nuts had to be shelled and raisins and fruit cleaned. The family sat at the table working and whistling to keep the children from eating the nuts and fruit. At meal times James sat at the head of the table. On each side of him sat one wife. Next to her sat her youngest child, with the other children arranged according to age on her side of the table. The wives never spoke unkindly to each other. 

The children went to school as often as finances allowed them to go. They went to the 20th Ward school until 1875.

ln 1876 they went to the 18th Ward and went there to school. Sometimes they attended Brigham Young’s school or two private schools for 25 cents a week for each child. 

Eliza Mary had five more children: Eliza Mary, Jennetta Georgeina, Joseph Robert, Grace Katchlaina, and George Litson for a total of eight. On November 18, 1878, a diphtheria epidemic took the life of Joseph Robert at age 3-1/2. Six days later six year old Jennetta died in the morning then baby Grace, 11 months old, died a few hours later. She was buried in the arms of her sister. (Francis Ann had died 11 years earlier.) 

Isabella had five children: Annie Isabell, James David, Margaret Elizabeth, Alice Addelina, who was almost three when she died, and Orson Henry. 

To be continued...

Index to History