Archives West Finding Aid

Nathan Tanner (1815-1910), was a frontiersman, pioneer, and colonizer. He was born in Greenwich, Washington County, New York, on 14 May 1815, to John and Lydia (Stuart) Tanner. He was named after another Nathan Tanner, who was a distant relative and Baptist preacher. This preacher asked Tanner's parents to give their child his name. After John and Lydia Tanner agreed, the preacher made many prophesies about his namesake; many of which, are argued to have come true. When Tanner was sixteen years old, he was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, by Jared Carter, on 10 September 1831.

In September 1833, Tanner and his brother, John, were in Kirtland Ohio, to meet Joseph Smith and other Mormon leaders. In the winter of 1833, Tanner attended school in New York. In April 1834, Tanner was summoned to Kirtland to enroll as a member of Zion's Camp. Later he assisted Zerubbabel Snow in the commissary department, and became friends with Joseph Smith. Tanner was supposedly with Joseph Smith when Smith had a vision about the future of the country they were traveling over. Acting as a teacher among the "Saints" who had been driven from Jackson County, Tanner remained in Missouri. After purchasing a piece of land in Missouri, he returned to Kirtland and spent the winter of 1834 and 1835 attending the School of the Prophets.

When the first quorums of Seventy were organized, Tanner was ordained a Seventy on 10 October 1835, and was made one of the presidency of the fourth quorum. Tanner served a mission, with Amasa M. Lyman, to the Eastern States. On 30 June 1836, while in Bolton, Warren County, New York, Tanner married Rachel Winter Smith, daughter of William and Jane (Calkins) Smith.

Later, while helping to save the credit of the Church, Tanner lost all his property. When a mob burned the Church Printing Office, Tanner was called out on guard; at this time, Tanner's wife gave premature birth to their first child, Romelia, who died within the hour. In the fall of 1837, Tanner moved his family, with others, to Missouri. Having no means with which to build a home, Tanner and his family occupied part of his brother's, John's, house; John and Nathan had married sisters. Nathan later went with John to work for the government at Fort Leavenworth. When mob troubles broke out he took an active part in the defense of his people. As captain of ten, he was with Colonel David Patten and his command when they captured a cannon from the mob. When mobs began burning houses and other property, Tanner gathered up homeless refugees and conveyed them to places of safety. During these mob attacks, Tanner's father was brutally attacked by a Captain Odell; afterward, Tanner's father was disabled. Eventually the Mormons agreed to leave Missouri.

At Nauvoo, Tanner was one of the explorers chosen by Joseph Smith to accompany him on his proposed journey to the Rocky Mountains; however, as Tanner and other waited for Joseph Smith, their plans were frustrated by Smith's martyrdom. Tanner continued to live in Illinois until "the exodus," when he journeyed to Council Bluffs. He eventually settled on what was known as the Lyman Survey, ten miles south of Salt Lake City, where at one time he owned three hundred and twenty acres of land. He claims to have been the first to break ground for bringing water from Big and Little Cottonwood streams. He built a toll road in Little Cottonwood canyon; hauled freight for the Overland Mail route and for the Government, and poles for the first telegraph line across the continent. He made several winter trips with teams to Los Angeles, and was among the foremost in pushing out and incurring the hardships of pioneer life. Tanner explored southern Utah with Parley P. Pratt and others. He spent three years as a driver, helping bring in immigrants.

In the fall of 1852, Tanner started, with others, on a mission to the Sandwich Islands. He proceeded through southern Utah, across the desert to Sand Bernardino, and thence by way of San Pedro to San Francisco. By this time he had several families, and wherever he went he candidly acknowledged it, exhibiting the pictures of his wives and children. By 17 February 1853, Tanner was in Honolulu; eventually Tanner became one of the counselors to Phillip B. Lewis, the president of the Sandwich Island mission at the time. Tanner suffered arrest and other persecutions, while in the Islands, and he baptized Phillip Wort, the French Consul. In 1854, Tanner was sent to San Francisco to confer with the authorities of the California mission, with a view to purchasing a vessel to convey the Hawaiian Saints to San Bernardino. Later, he was honorably released and returned to Salt Lake City, having been absent for about three years.

During the "Echo Canyon War," Tanner was one of Governor Cumming's escorts from Camp Scott to Salt Lake City. After peace was declared he settled down to the life of a farmer. He also carried on freighting, and at one time kept a store at South Cottonwood. Tanner had five wives, Rachel W. Smith, Mary R. Baker, Persis Tibbitts, Sarah Littley, and Mary Benbow; he also had eighteen children. He had homes at Cottonwood, in Salt Lake City, and at Wanship, Farmington, and Granger; he was justice of the peace at Wanship. In the Church he held successively the offices of Deacon, Priest, Elder, Seventy, and High Priest. In addition to the missions mentioned, he fulfilled two missions to the Eastern States. He died in 1910.