John Tanner and his family

Page 374

366 John Tanner and His Family "Reminiscences," Compiled by Apostle Francis M. Lyman Reminiscences in the history of John Tanner the Son of Joshua and Thankful (Tift) Tanner born August 15th, 1778 in Rhode Island. >I< * * * At the age of thirteen years he moved with his parents into the Town Greenwich, Washington County, New York where he grew up to man­ hood, and at the death of his father took charge of the farm and settled of up the business of the estate. In this place he married early in the year 1800 Tabatha Bently, who gave birth to a son, Elisha Bently, March 23, 1801 and she died on the 9th of the following month. In the fall of that same year he married Lydia Stewart, and while living in Greenwich she bore him nine children, namely Willia Stewart, Matilda, Willard, Sidney, John Joshua, Romela, Nathan, Edward and Edwin, the two latter being twins. He prospered well in this place while struggling to raise his large family. One evening when he returned home from his work, in 1808, he found two of his children had been bitten by a dog which had gone mad, and when he attempted to shut the dog up, he bit him on the calf of the leg, and he at once took sheep shears and cut the impaired part out and filled up the wound with salt and thus saved his life. He obtained a recept which he used and also saved his children. In the spring of 1818 he moved with his family to North West Bay on Lake George in the Township of Bolton where his daughter Maria Louisa and son Martin Henry were born, and in 1823 he moved into the town of Bolton where his son, Albert Miles was born in 1825, and on May 31st of that year his wife Lydia died, and in the following Novem­ ber he married Eliza Besswick who bore him four sons in Bolton namely, Myron, Seth Benjamin, Freeman Everton, and Joseph Smith. In 1832 he was so terribly afflicted with black or mortification sores, seven in number, from his thigh to his shin on his left leg, that he was pronounced incurable by seven physicians, the last of whom, Dr. Clark of Sandy Hill, a very celebrated practitioner, said he could make him a bill for medical attendance of $500.00 but he could do him no good as beyond the reach of medicine. In the fore part of September, 1832, father Tanner was called upon by two Elders from the Latter-day Saints, Simeon and Jared Carter. At this time he had been for three months that he could not allow his afflicted limb to hang or rest on the floor, but it must be kept horizontal with his body resting on pillows in a chair in front of him. Jared Carter asked him on the 16th day of September, if he thought his leg could be healed, and he answered, "the Lord can heal it," and Jared stood up and laid his he was