John Tanner and his family

Page 468

12 GENEALOGY "When in this yard my grave you see, My dear wife, weep not for me, My time was come, and blessed is he That called me to eternity." He was always loyal to his country, a citizen of high standing. They had ten children: 1. Polly (Mary) Tanner, born Mar. 10, 1776, in Hopkinton, R. I. Married in 1794, Thomas Potter Baker, of Hoosac, New York, and died May 6, 1856. They had eleven children: Benjamin, born Mar. 26, 1796; Thankful, born October 9, li97; Joshua, born Dec. 30,1799; Jirah, born Nov. 23, 1802, and died Aug. 17, 1860 (single); Susannah, born Oct. 3, 1807, and died Dec., 1835, single; Mehitabel, born Nov. 28, 1809; Clark, born Mar. 26, 1812, and died April 11, 1879; Eunice, born April 11, 1817, and died Febr., 1860, single; Elizabeth, born June 6, 1820; William T., born Nov. 3, 1824. When Polly was quite young her parents removed to Hoosac, New York, and later to Greenwich, Washington County, New York, where she married Thomas Potter Baker from Providence, R. I. They began housekeeping in Charlestown, New. York, where their ten children were born. Then they removed to Albion, New York, where their youngest child was born. Mr. Baker was a farmer and a lumberman, own­ ing saw mills and dealing in lumber. He died at Albion about 1825. In 1837 Polly Tanner Baker, with most of her family, followed her son Joshua to Kinderhook, Branch County, Michigan, where she died in 1856. Though slight in form, she was a woman of remarkable ability and energy, the dictator of her own business affairs and deferred to by her own grown-up sons and daughters, married or single, to the end of her life. She was greatly admired and beloved by the young, notwithstanding her right rules as to propri­ eties of life and the importance of knowing how to do things at a very early age. A granddaughter who could not knit a stocking except "heeling and toeing" when eight years old was in disgrace. 2. John Tanner, the second child of Joshua Tanner and Thank­ ful Tefft Tanner, is given in detail in this book. 3. Thankful Tanner, born Dec. 20, 1780, in Hopkinton, R. I. Married Alpheus Barber. She died April 30, .1859. He died Jan. 8, 1870. They had eleven children: Tefft, who died at the age of 21 years; Harriet, married Edward Austin of Buffalo and died April 11, 1876; Alonzo, born 1804; Cornelia; Louisa, died at 18 years; John, who died in infancy; Jane; Delia, who died at age of 4; Joshua; Mary; Malvina, born Nov. 21, 1822; Hosea, died Nov. 26,1880.