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Show 20 John Tanner and His Family one is led to wonder where facts leave off and Most folks would like to know how solid the founda myth begins. tions are for such beliefs. These will be explored to the extent of ation in details, that available sources." The nature of the available information concerning John Tanner does not lend itself to extensive historical research. In the first place neither he nor any of his family kept on-the-scene diaries or journals. While they were all literate in the broad sense of the term, writing The few items was a painful chore which most of them avoided. and in elementary spelling, penmanship, preserved show deficiencies grammar. The most prolific writer in the immediate family was Nathan, third in age of John's sons who came West with the Mormons. His writings include what is called a journal containing fourteen type written pages commencing in 1836 when he arrived in Kirtland and ending about ten years later at Winter Quarters. The "journal" is clearly not an on-the-scene account and is not even a consecutive narrative of the events it covers. But it is a most valuable source and bears evidence of accuracy and a thorough knowledge of the quoted extensively with the period it covers. There is no way of knowing when the journal was written, but it may well have been in Winter Quarters during the winter of 184647 or 1847-48. A better known item from Nathan was a speech, given in Payson at a family reunion in 1884 when he was sixty-nine events. It will be years of age. This talk, which was written and read, quotes ex tensively from the journal, but was intended to entertain the family As a historical document it is of less value than the but contains important matters not found there. members. journal, In 1849 Nathan accompanied Parley P. Pratt and a company explorers into Sanpete Valley and kept a day-to-day diary, showing his ability to manage a diary if he chose to do SO.4 This ten-page document is of less importance to us in our history and is mentioned only to show that Nathan was capable of on-the-scene reporting. He also kept diaries of mission work which will be used very little in this writing. A delightful seven-page manuscript has come from Elizabeth Beswick, third wife of John Tanner. Like the manuscript from Nathan, this seems to have been prepared for a family gathering in Payson at Christmas in 1884.6 The first half is in the handwriting of a younger person, possibly a granddaughter, to whom it was of 5 |
