There are two Nathan Cram Tenney's a grandpa/grandson combo. It may take me a bit to differentiate between the two....
http://www.payneirwin.com/Nathan%20Cram%20Tenney/NTenney.pdf
(I need to clean this up but here it is rough):
Nathan Cram Tenney: Cowboy Hero © R. Allen Hackworth 2009
Many people like colorful movies which tell of the old west. “Give us cowboys and Indians,” we say. These movies tell exciting stories within the confines of approximately two hours. They have a tidy beginning, middle, and end. M Cowboy heroes usually live after they have made the world a better place; beautiful girls have perfectly combed hair and wear attractive clothing. The Indians present an aura of deep wisdom and silent dignity. The noble savage is endeared to our hearts, and when youngsters play cowboys and Indians, many want to be an Indian. The plots make us anxiously yearn to see what happens next. We love it all as we suspend our sense of disbelief and give way to well-planned illusions. The process for the creator and viewer alike romanticizes the old west. With joy, we look through “rose-colored glasses.” But was the old west like the movies? Yes, in many ways. Great adventures did happened. The cowboys and Indians had ferocious fights, and death came to both sides. The movies effectively teach as well as entertain. But coupled with the movies, authentic pioneer biographies should continue to enlarge our vision. Where many westerns have been filmed in the Southwest, in real life there was: starvation; unrelenting, boiling summers; cold, bone-chilling winters; annihilating sickness and disease; natural disasters including floods which forced families to completely start over; deep despair and discouragement; rocky, alkaline soils which severely limited food production; loneliness and isolation which limited news and supplies; foul-tasting water; remote access to timber; ubiquitous, destructive insects which destroyed crops; rattle snakes; few game animals; few cultural backdrops which included schools, songs, plays, literature and art; and early death for the children. The Southern-Utah saints used adobe for building homes, but in times of sustained rains, the adobe walls softened and crumbled. Illustration 1: Nathan Cram Tenney For the Indians, there was wide-spread displacement. Hunting areas were compromised and weakened. The Whites introduced new diseases, and an implicit attitude of superiority on the part of the Whites taught the Indians that their ways would not do. To the Indians' great dismay, their ancient lands were constantly claimed and occupied by an ever-growing pioneer population. Where did the settlers want to ranch and farm? They wanted the best areas available, where there was water, grass, and good soil. And these were the lands where the Indians often had a former claim. In real life, some heroes died prematurely; women suffered harsh conditions including never-ending work loads both inside and outside of one's dwelling. For the Southern-Utah Indians, many lived in the dirt. They didn't take baths; they stunk; they starved, and they suffer great deprivations. Into this hard, unforgiving world of the Southwest, Nathan Cram Tenney was called by his leaders to help settle new lands.1 When considering Nathan's life, we put away our “rose-colored glasses,” and we see a good man who believed in the teachings of Jesus Christ. In Nathan, we see the making and forging of a steel-minded, dedicated saint. Nathan was born 28 July 1817 at Ontario, Wayne County, New York. He was the son of Meshach Tenney and Phoebe Cram.2 At age 24, on 18 March 1841, Nathan married Olive Strong, age 22, in Illinois. Three years later on the 16th of November, 1844 in Rand (probably near Keokuk, Lee County), Iowa, Olive gave birth to Ammon Meshach. Olive, a daughter of Ezra Strong and Olive Lowell, joined the Church with her husband around 1844. In 1846 the couple was listed as members of the Mount Pisgah Branch, Union, Iowa3 , and they are listed as two of the 7,478 residents staying at Winter Quarters in 1846.4 (Some early documents spell Nathan's last name “Tenny.” Current FamilySearch records us the name “Tenney.”) This couple received their endowments in the Nauvoo Temple on 3 February 1846 shortly before the saints vacated the city. (The sealing of their marriage would not be performed until later in Utah in the Endowment House.) While at Winter Quarters, Olive gave birth to a son. He was given his father's name, Nathan Cram Tenney. The child died on the day of his birth, that is, 4 April 1846. 1 Illustration 1 came from the Tenney Family web site: http://www.tenneyfamily.org/ nctenneyprofile.htm 2 http://www.familysearch.org/eng/default.asp 3 Iowa Branches Members Index 1829 - 1859, Volumes I and II, Ronald G. Watt, (Historical Department Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints 1991, Copyright LDS Church). 4 http://winterquarters.byu.edu/Biographies.aspx Nathan and Olive crossed the plains with the Willard Richards Company in 1848 when Nathan was 30, Olive 29, and son Ammon Meshach 3. The Willard Richards Company departed 3 July 1848 and arrived in Salt Lake from 10-19 October 1848. “526 individuals were in the Richards Company when it began its journey from the outfitting post at Winter Quarters, Nebraska, but the company divided into two sections, the Willard Richards section and the Amasa Lyman section. The Lyman section left the outfitting post on 30 or 31 June 1848 and the Richards section left on 3 July 1848.”5 After arriving in Salt Lake City, the Tenneys settled near Big Cottonwood Canyon. While in this area, Olive gave birth to a daughter, Olive Eliza on 27 April 1849. A short time after, Brigham sent Nathan (and family) to San Bernardino, California. In this region, Nathan acted as a community leader for the saints and as an interpreter. At the time of his assignment in San Bernardino, Nathan was called as Bishop of that ward. While in San Bernardino, Olive gave birth to a second daughter, Nancy Ann, on 17 November 1851. Another daughter, Phoebe Relief, was born in 1853. Phoebe died that same year. In California, Olive taught school for the saints and for the Mexicans. In 1856 while still in California, Olive Stone Tenney gave birth to another girl, Abby Celestia. Abby lived only a short time. In 1857, with the threatening approach of Johnston's Army to Salt Lake City, the saints in San Bernardino were asked to return to Utah. Bishop Tenney, now 41, led a migration of California saints back to Utah, leaving California in January 1858.6 The Tenneys then settled in Cedar City. While in Cedar City, on 5 Mar 1858 Olive gave birth to Samuel Benjamin. 5 http://www.lds.org/churchhistory/library/pioneercompanysearch/1,15773,3966-1,00.html 6 http://www.lds.org/churchhistory/library/pioneercompany/0,15797,4017-1-447,00.html Illustration 3: Amasa Lyman Illustration 2: Willard Richards The next year, 1859, Nathan took a second wife, Grace Tibbits Jose. Grace was 17, and Nathan was 42. (About five years later, Nathan also married Nancy Beaufort Morris.) We next learn that the Tenneys, in 1861 started a new settlement named Grafton, Utah. They lived next to the Rio Virgin. (Grafton is near Rockville which is near the entrance of Zion National Park.) During the winter of the next year came the great flood. It rained every day for over a month. High water in the Rio Virgin completely destroyed Old Grafton and washed away trees and precious soil. Camped too near the raging river, suffering in the never-ending rain, Olive Strong Tenney was ripe for delivery of a new baby. Her home was a wagon box. The cold, January storms and Olive's eventual labor pains converged. Now the box was too close to the river, and Olive's life was in danger. During the bitter storms, with ground giving way each day to the boiling, rushing waters, to save the birthing mother's life, a group of men picked up the box with Olive inside and moved the primitive home to higher ground. Because of the circumstances of the birth of their new son, the Tenneys named their boy, Marvelous Flood Tenney. (Marvelous only lived for three years.) At the end of the storms, Old Grafton was gone, so the Saints moved up river a few miles and started Grafton again. This location was called New Grafton. By this time, Nathan and Olive had lost five of their 10 precious children. During the flood, Ammon Meshech, 18, was probably not in Grafton. He was carving out an exciting life for himself and developing into a brave, strong Mormon leader. Olive Elisa was 13, John Lowell was 6, and Samuel Benjamin was 4. The next year, fourteen-year-old Olive Elisa married Joseph Smith McFate. Illustration 4: Grafton, Utah 2009. Photo by author. The Tenney family probably stayed in Grafton for a couple more years. At least Nathan was in Southern Utah in 1865. His son, Ammon, told Arizona historian James H. McClintock about a time when Ammon was with his father at a point “eighteen miles west of Pipe Springs and six miles southwest of Canaan, Utah.” McClintock continues: There were three Americans from Toquerville, the elder Tenney [age 48], the narrator [Ammon Meshech Tenney, age 21], and Enoch Dodge, the last known as one of the bravest of southern Utah pioneers. The three were surrounded by sixteen Navajos, and, with their backs to the wall, fought for an hour or more, finally abandoning their thirteen horses and running for better shelter. Dodge was shot through the knee cap, a wound that incapacitated him from the fight thereafter. The elder Tenney fell and broke his shoulder blade and was stunned, though he was not shot. This left the fight upon the younger Tenney, who managed to climb a twelve-foot rocky escarpment. He reached down with his rifle and dragged up his father and Dodge. The three opportunely found a little cave in which they secreted themselves until reasonably rested, hearing the Indians searching for them on the plateau above. Then, in the darkness, they made their way fifteen miles into Duncan's Retreat on the Virgin River in Utah. 'There is one thing I will say for the Navajo,' Tenney declared with fervor. 'He is a sure-enough fighting man. The sixteen of them stood shoulder to shoulder, not taking cover, as almost any other southwestern Indian would have done.'7 In 1877 in Kanab, Utah, Brigham Young asked Ammon Meshech Tenney, now recognized as a great Mormon scout, to go into Arizona and select places for colonization. After doing so, Ammon recommended St. Johns, Concho (16 miles west of St. Johns), The Meadows (eight miles northeast of St. Johns), and Woodruff. Eventually, Ammon was given authority by the Church to purchase land in the St. Johns area, and Nathan Tenney followed with his family to make a new life. Five years later, more events fitting a great western movie occurred. According to McClintock, There was a wild time in St. Johns on the day of the Mexican population's patron saint, San Juan, June 24, 1882, when Nat Greer and a band of Texas cowboys entered the Mexican town. The Greers had been unpopular with the Mexicans since they had marked a Mexican with an ear "underslope," as cattle are marked, this after a charge that their victim had been found in the act of stealing a Greer colt. The fight that followed the Greer entry had nothing at its initiation to do with the Mormon settlers. Assaulted by the Mexican police and populace, eight of the band rode away and four were penned into an uncompleted adobe house. Jim Vaughn of the raiders was killed and Harris Greer was wounded. On the attacking side was wounded Francisco Tafolla, whose son in later years was killed while serving in the Arizona Rangers. It 7 James H. McClintock, Mormon Settlement in Arizona, (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1985), 71. was declared that several thousand shots had been fired, but there was a lull, in which the part of peacemaker was taken up by "Father" Nathan C. Tenney, a pioneer of Woodruff and father of Ammon M. Tenney. He walked to the house and induced the Greers to surrender. The Sheriff, E. S. Stover, was summoned and was in the act of taking the men to jail when a shot was fired from a loft of the Barth house, where a number of Mexicans had established themselves. The bullet, possibly intended for a Greer, passed through the patriarch's head and neck, killing him instantly. The Greers were threatened with lynching, but were saved by the sheriff's determination. Their case was taken to Prescott and they escaped with light punishment.8 In the middle of the picture is the Barth home with the tower on the top. It is likely the gunman was in the tower when he shot Nathan through the head on the 24 Jun 1882, one month before Nathan's 65th birthday. Nathan died instantly, and for that reason, his death was easy. Today the founders of St. Johns, Arizona are honored and respected by many, and their stories will live for years to come. As we learn of Nathan, we sense his experiences on the frontier could provide materials for a good western movie featuring Nathan Cram Tenney as the hero. 8 McClintock, 180-181. Illustration 5: St. Johns, Arizona 1887 Appendix Nathan's honorable son, Ammon Meshech, married three wives, one of whom was Eliza Ann Udall, sister of David King Udall Senior. Both David's and Ammon's stories are about heroes too. By the way, Ammon looks like a movie star. 
I am not sure if this is our ancestor or not. I have his wife as being Isabel Pearl Walters and that they are the parents of Louie Isabell Tenney, but neither women are listed below in the information from Find a Grave. Further research is necessary.
| Birth: Jul. 28, 1817 Ontario, Wayne County, New York, USA Death: Jun. 24, 1882 Saint Johns, Apache County, Arizona, USA Nathan Cram Tenney was born to Meshach Tenney and Phoebe Cram. Nathan's parents divorced. Nathan lived with his mother and, later, his step-father, John Gates. Nathan was a polygamist and married three times: (1) Olive Strong March 18, 1841 in Berreman, Jo Davies County, Illinois. Nathan and Olive had ten children together; only four of whom lived past childhood. George Alma Tenney (1841 - 1848) Ammon Meshach Tenney (1844 - 1925) Nathan Cram Tenney, Jr. (1846 - Bef 1860) Olive Eliza Tenney (1848 - 1916) Nancy Ann Tenney (Abt 1850 - Bef 1852) Phoebe Relief Tenney (Abt 1851 - Abt 1853) John Lowell Tenney (1856 - 1936) Abbey Celestia Tenney (Abt 1856 - Abt 1857) Samuel Benjamin Tenney (1858 - 1949) Marvelous Flood Tenney (1862 - 1865) (2) Grace Tippett Jose March 18, 1859 in John D. Lee's home in southern Utah. This was a polygamous marriage, as Nathan was still married to Olive. Nathan and Grace divorced about 1869. Nathan and Grace had one child together: William Arthur Tenney (1862 - 1918) (3) Nancy Beaufort Morris October 10, 1863 in Salt Lake City, Utah. This was a polygamous marriage, as Nathan was still married to both Olive and Grace. Nancy had been married twice before she married Nathan: John Lyle Riggs and Edward Marvin. Nathan and Nancy had one child together: Ernest Talbot Tenney (1865 - 1865) ------------------------ Nathan was living in St. Johns, Arizona at the time of his death. On June 24, 1882, there was a St. John's Day celebration in town. A fight broke out between some Mexican youths and some brothers named "Greer"; it stemmed from an ongoing feud they were having. The argument turned into a gunfight, and Nathan got caught in the crossfire. He was shot in the head and died instantly. Family links: Parents: Meshach or Meshack Tenney (1793 - 1870) Phebe Cram Tenney Gates Baker Blair (1797 - 1881) Spouses: Olive Strong Tenney (1819 - 1881) Grace Tippett Jose Tenney Wilhelm (1842 - 1916) Nancy Beaufort Morris Riggs (1828 - 1903) Children: George Alma Tenney (1841 - 1848)* Ammon Meshach Tenney (1844 - 1925)* Nathan Cram Tenney (1846 - 1853)* Olive Eliza Tenney McFate (1849 - 1916)* Nancy Ann Tenney (1851 - 1851)* Phebe Relief Tenney (1853 - 1853)* Abby Celestia Tenney (1855 - 1855)* John Lowell Tenney (1856 - 1936)* Samuel Benjamin Tenney (1858 - 1949)* William Arthur Tenney (1862 - 1918)* Marvelous Flood Tenney (1862 - 1865)* Ernest Talbot Tenney (1865 - 1865)* Siblings: Nathan Cram Tenney (1817 - 1882) Samuel B. Gates (1822 - 1899)** Nancy Jane Tenney Sutton (1827 - 1870)** Oliver Bush Tenney (1828 - 1906)** Calista Tenney (1830 - 1830)** Hananiah Derrick Tenney (1832 - 1917)** Ambrose Fox Tenney (1833 - 1889)** Silas Buel Tenney (1836 - 1926)** Nancy Almira Tenney Booth (1838 - ____)** Eber James Tenney (1839 - 1915)** Eliza Lovina Tenney Frakes (1843 - ____)** George Meshach Tenney (1845 - 1919)** Sally F. Tenney Wicks (1847 - 1915)** Ann Augusta Tenney Goff (1851 - 1938)** *Calculated relationship **Half-sibling Burial: Saint Johns Cemetery Saint Johns Apache County Arizona, USA |
You may need to scroll to the left:
From the Family Bible:
No comments:
Post a Comment