Descendants of John Tanner

Generation No. 1

1.  JOHN¹ TANNER was born 1732 in Virginia, and died 1812.

Notes for JOHN TANNER:

In 1789 the Rev. John Tanner of Virginia moved with his family to the dangerous Indian country on the Ohio River in Kentucky. Not long after this, his eight year old son John was stolen by an Ottawa Indian. When the white settlers of the district tried to pursue, the Indian escaped to the west side of Lake Huron, where young John Tanner spent two miserable years with his captors in the Indian village of Sau-ge-nong. His life as a captive improved somewhat when he was purchased by an aging Indian princess of the Ottawa tribe whose name was Net-No-Kwa. Net-No-Kwa had great influence with her people and with the fur traders of the country. She was allowed a flag in her canoe and on visits to Michilimackinac she was saluted by the firing of a gun from the fort.

Children of JOHN TANNER are:

2.                i.    JOHN² TANNER, b. 1781, Virginia; d. 1846, New York.

                  ii.    AGATHA TANNER.

                iii.    LUCY TANNER.

                 iv.    JAMES TANNER.

Generation No. 2

2.  JOHN² TANNER (JOHN¹) was born 1781 in Virginia, and died 1846 in New York.  He married (1) MIS-KWA-BUN-O-KWA 1799.  He married (2) THERESA 1811.

Notes for JOHN TANNER:

kidnapped by a group of Shawnee and then later sold to an Ojibwa princess named Wa-ge-tone near Lac La Croix for a keg of rum. He lived as a tribe member in various parts of Minnesota, Ontario , Hudson Bay and Manitoba 30 years

By 1800 John was married to an Indian maiden called Mis-Kwa-Bun-O-Kwa which means, Red Sky of the Morning.  In 1810 his first Indian wife Sky Dawn left him taking their two daughters and three sons.  John remarried to another Indian named Theresa she gave him two children. Theresa became Catholic and refused to live with him on strength of their Indian marriage and they quarreled bitterly over this. Theresa died in epidemics

Lord Selkirk held Fort William and was determined to regain his fort in the Settlement. He sent out a military expedition early in the spring of 1817 and as a guide employed John Tanner. After helping Selkirk capture Fort Douglas from the Nor' Westers John was paid £20 When Selkirk was told that Tanner deserved much more he became Interested in John, investigated his story, heard the story of his capture, and determined to find John's parents. John was able to locate his 16 white siblings he found his father, who'd married thrice and become rich, had just died at Cape Girardeau disinheriting him believing him dead.. John married Marie while there the unfortunate victim lived in his wretched hovel at the "Sault" for a year, and by the help of a few friends was secreted on board a passing vessel and carried away from her miserable abode The Sault Ste. Marie whites shunned him and took legal action in 1830 to remove a daughter to a private school because of his hot temper. 

July 30, 1830- The law authorized the Sheriff of Chippewa county to remove Martha Tanner, daughter of John Tanner, of Sault Ste. Marie, to some missionary establishment, or such other place of safety as he may deem expedient, provided said Martha should consent; and in the second paragraph of the act, the said John Tanner was honored by what is probably the only law ever passed in America attaching criminal consequences to injuries to a single private person in the following language:

"Sec. 2. That any threats of the Said John Tanner to injure the said Martha Tanner, or any person or persons with whom she may be placed * *. shall be deemed a misdemeanor, punishable by fine and imprisonment, at the discretion of the court."

And so it came to pass, pursuant to the provisions of the statute in such case made and provided and in spite of any constitutional objections which John may have argued, that Martha was taken by the sheriff to a certain missionary establishment, where she was cared for and  educated. A half breed herself, she became a teacher in the Indian schools of northern Michigan, lived a long and useful life, on Mackinaw Island, honored and respected;

John returned to Rainy Lake and took three of his children to Mackinaw to be educated, when he determined about the year 1823 to revisit the Northwest and take his two remaining daughters down to civilization. The Indians were unwilling that Tanner should take his children away, so she had him shot. Poor John Tanner knew nothing of his wife's wicked intentions and that after the encounter she and her brother escaped back toward Lac la Croix with the children, leaving her husband for dead. In fact, he was more concerned over what was to happen to his wife and children after being shot then of his mortal wound. The bullet had shattered his right arm and reached near the lung, lodging itself under the breast bone. Making it worse, however, was a strand of poisoned deer sinew attached to the ball.

For two nights, Tanner suffered from his wound but was eventually rescued by a group of Frenchmen from the Hudson's Bay Company who happened to be paddling downstream, on their way to the Red River. The voyageurs brought Tanner to the fort at Rainy Lake where he was cared for, that is until one of the agents, who didn't necessarily like Tanner, kicked him out of the fort and forced him to take care of his own wounds believing him to be. His daughters came back to nurse him, but his wife was never heard of again.. Major Long's celebrated expedition of 1823 of which we have so excellent an account by Prof. Keating, was at this time coming back from Red River and Lake of the Woods, and found the wounded Tanner partially recovered at Rainy River. The party had consented to take him and his daughters down the lakes to Mackinaw, but at the last moment his daughters deserted him. John lived at Hudson Bay for a while then disappeared The only recorded evidence of John Tanner's actually fatality was that of a skeleton discovered in a swamp near Sault Ste. Marie, that of an unidentified man who had possibly succumbed to suicide.

Notes for THERESA:

    Theresa was also Indian

Children of JOHN TANNER and MIS-KWA-BUN-O-KWA are:

                   i.    PICHEITO³ TANNER, d. 1872.

Notes for PICHEITO TANNER:

oldest son (called Little Pheasant when young) became a major chief of  a large Saulteaux tribe in the Portage la Prairie White Horse Plains region. He became wealthy in later years retiring to Portage; he died in Qu'Appelle Valley in 1872. His log cabin was the first shingled house west of Winnipeg.

                  ii.    JOHN TANNER, b. 1812; d. 1886.

Notes for JOHN TANNER:

was of Gambler Band living on Silver Creek Reserve No. 63 near Binscarth which entered Treaty 4 Sept. 21, 1874 under Chief Way-wa-se-capow. When most of this band moved to Valley River (Dauphin) and No. 63 was thrown open to homesteaders the Tanners family kept 860 acres (today Gambler Reserve) which descendants still farm

                iii.    MARY ELIZABETH, d. 1883; m. LAVOGUE.

Notes for MARY ELIZABETH:

Their sons Joe and George became prominent Duluth business men. Next she married Joseph Tall and had a son Joseph, late in life who married a Hoffman. As last living child of  John's she developed cancer and died about 1883.

                 iv.    MARTHA A. TANNER.

Children of JOHN TANNER and THERESA are:

                   v.    REV. JAMES³ TANNER.

Notes for REV. JAMES TANNER:

father of  the founder of Tanner's Crossing. During his last 20 years he was a deeply loved Presbyterian and Baptist missionary among his Saulteaux people in Pembina, St. Joseph, Winnipeg and Portage la Prairie regions. Letters to family members attributes James' fatal fall from a lurching wagon drawn by runaway horse to deliberate action of Wolseley's soldiers. The coroner's jury ruled "the late James Tanner died from a fracture of  the skull caused by his being thrown out of a wagon while the horse was running away, and that said horse was caused to run away willfully and maliciously by two persons unknown to this jury."

3.              vi.    JOHN J. TANNER, b. October 24, 1836, NY; d. November 06, 1901.

Generation No. 3

3.  JOHN J.³ TANNER (JOHN², JOHN¹) was born October 24, 1836 in NY, and died November 06, 1901.  He married ESTHER J. GARDINER April 02, 1863 in Dix Hills, Long Island, daughter of HENRY GARDNER and ANGELINE BORT.

Notes for JOHN J. TANNER:

    not much is known of him other then he build a house on his fathers land, and lived there with is mother Theresa in 1840. He was divorced and re-married in 1863 and moved east he was a.Fisherman:         1880, Raritan, Monmouth, New Jersey

Children of JOHN TANNER and ESTHER GARDINER are:

                   i.    EMALI⁴ TANNER, b. January 06, 1864; d. January 12, 1864.

4.             iii.    CYNTHIA TANNER, b. October 19, 1866, NJ; d. October 03, 1892, DC.

                 iv.    JOHN E. TANNER, b. November 01, 1872; d. April 03, 1944; m. ANNA MARIE SCHWENDLER.

                   v.    WILLIARD TANNER, b. October 12, 1870; d. October 12, 1870.

                 vi.    ELLFRIENDA TANNER, b. April 06, 1875; d. April 1965; m. (1) WALLING; m. (2) JOHN B ACKER; m. (3) JOSEPH WILSON.

5.             vii.    ANGELINE TANNER, b. November 14, 1877; d. December 05, 1971.

               viii.    SAMUEL TANNER, b. October 1879; d. November 29, 1951; m. MARTHA GRAVES.

                 ix.    RHODA TANNER, b. October 01, 1879; d. 1966; m. ALBERT WALLING, 1900.

Generation No. 4

4.  CYNTHIA⁴ TANNER (JOHN J.³, JOHN², JOHN¹) was born October 19, 1866 in NJ, and died October 03, 1892 in DC.  She married GEORGE M. CARHART February 24, 1885, son of JOHN CARHART and ANNA SMITH.

Notes for CYNTHIA TANNER:

Notes for GEORGE M. CARHART:

    His mother was Algonquin Indian

Children of CYNTHIA TANNER and GEORGE CARHART are:

6.                i.    LEROY M.⁵ CARHART, b. December 05, 1886, Raritan Township NJ; d. December 01, 1951, Linden NJ.

                  ii.    NORMAN J. CARHART, b. January 1890; d. June 1976, Fl..

5.  ANGELINE⁴ TANNER (JOHN J.³, JOHN², JOHN¹) was born November 14, 1877, and died December 05, 1971.  She married FREDERICK NEIMANN 1898.

Children of ANGELINE TANNER and FREDERICK NEIMANN are:

                   i.    ALBERT JOHN⁵ NEIMANN.

7.               ii.    EDNA MEA NEIMANN, b. April 10, 1903; d. March 28, 1978.