Early Tannahills & Jones in Idaho - Sam Tannahill

Brothers - John Lyons Tannahill sitting and
Samuel Oliver Tannahill standing behind.
Taken about 1930

I have always been interested in local history.  I knew that my mother's family came to the Lewiston, ID area in the 1920's and my Dad's family was in the Princeton, ID area in 1935.  However, if I look a little deeper, I find that I actually have family on my mother's family that was here much earlier.  If you work on the premise that one of the reasons an individual or family moves to an area because they relatives already there, I suspect that it is a significant connection.

My grandfather, Oliver Richard Tannahill moved to Idaho with his father in the mid 1920's.  I suspect it was around 1926 or so.  Why did John Lyons Tannahill (my great grandfather) decide on Idaho instead of another location.  It turns out that he had two full brothers and two half brothers who lived in the area, one of those is Samuel Oliver Tannahill.  

Almira Jones m. John Tannahill & Sam Pennell
Sam's mother

Samuel Oliver Tannahill was the second child of Almira Jones and John Tannahill. His older brother died at birth, so in essence he was the oldest.  Sam was born 10 Aug 1868 in Elden Wapello Co., IA.  He had two younger brothers, George William Tannahill (1871-1917) and John Lyons Tannahill (1873-1945).  Sam's father died in 1873 just before John Lyons Tannahill was born. Almira remarried a few years later on 8 Jun 1875 in Montgomery, KS to Samuel Wesley Pennell.  By all accounts, Sam Pennell treated his step sons well, but they all left home fairly early to make their own way in the world. Almira and Sam Pennell also had four more sons (Robert, Charles, Grover "Pat", Thomas Franklin) and three daughters (Maude, Mollie & Celia).   

The first record that I find on Samuel Oliver Tannahill in the general was in 1889 in Garfield Co., WA (likely close to present day, Pomeroy, WA).  Sam married his first wife, Alice R Cox on 6 Oct 1897 in Nez Perce Co., ID.  According to his obituary he was "a leading citizen of Lewiston and prominent as an attorney in central Idaho since 1905, practicing most of the time since in Lewiston, democratic national committeeman from Idaho and well known all over the northwest." (Obit published Lewiston Morning Tribune 31 Dec 1935)  All I really knew about Sam Tannahill was that he had been an attorney and had been fairly prominent in the Democratic party in Idaho until his death.  His obituary explains that he was elected as assessor in Nez Perce Co., ID in 1894 as well as serving on the city council.  He also worked in a store in Ilo (present day Craigmont, ID) and also worked as an abstractor.  He saved enough money to go to Valparaiso, IN for Law School.  This is yet another example of going somewhere where family is or was located.  I know from my own research that Sam Tannahill likely had Harrington relatives who lived near Valparaiso.  His grandmother's family (Hulda Harrington) grandparents had died in Valparaiso, IN.  It may be an interesting coincidence, but then it may not be either.  Both Sam and his brother, George William Tannahill went to Valparaiso and returned to Idaho to practice law.  Sam ended up being the prosecuting attorney for Lewis Co., ID (Nezperce) for several terms.  He actually had been in partnership with his brother in Lewiston, ID as well.  After George died in a car accident in 1915, Sam returned to Lewiston permanently.  

Sam was involved in virtually every capacity within the Democratic party in early Idaho including be a representative to the national committee.  While I think Sam Tannahill's business life was very good and impressive...I am not sure the same can be said of his private life.  Sam was first married to Alice R Cox on 6 Oct 1897 in Nez Perce Co., ID.  He was still married to her in the 1910 census, but they must have divorced between 1910 and 1917, because Sam marries again on 11 Sept 1917 to Ella Patterson in Spokane, WA.  Alice has not died and in fact remarries to Harry Lydon, the county treasurer sometime before the 1920 census when they are recorded together.

Ella died on 15 Oct 1923.  According to her death record, Ella died at age 46 of an embolism.  Sam marries again on 6 May 1925 to Josephine Krier.  Sam died himself of a cerebral hemorrhage on 30 Dec 1935 in Lewiston, ID.

I don't know as much about Sam from family stories other than a few tidbits I picked up from my mother.  I think that my great grandfather (John Lyons Tannahill) brought his two youngest children when he moved to Idaho, probably sometime around 1926-1928. (Oliver Richard Tannahill & Olive Rachel Tannahill) I can only guess that the reason John Lyons Tannahill came to Idaho was because his only surviving full brother lived in Idaho.  My grandfather, O. Richard Tannahill finished high school in Lewiston, ID.  I have often wondered if Sam had some influence on my grandfather finishing high school and spending a short time in college.  In 1930, life had to be pretty difficult because of the depression.  For Grandpa Richard to have completed his education makes me believe that Sam possibly helped his brother's family financially.  I also know from what my mother said that Grandpa Richard was very fond of Sam and that both my grandparents were quite upset when he passed away.  

Most of my information about Samuel Oliver Tannahill comes from an obituary and a write-up on early Idaho history.  He was a significant enough figure, that there was quite a bit written in an early Idaho history that was published.  I know that he was an important attorney in the area having been the first prosecuting attorney for Lewis Co., ID and was appointed by the governor of Idaho at the time.   In addition, Sam was quite active in the Idaho politics until his death in 1935.  Beyond his personal acclaim as a lawyer and local citizen, I suspect that he must have had an important personal connection with my grandfather and perhaps gave him the type of guidance and support needed to become a good businessman.

A Jones Wall

You might say that I have three of the worst surnames to try and research – Johnson, Smith and Jones My Johnson line is probably the most significant because it is my own surname and we have pretty good proof that the line connects with a famous ancestor, President Andrew Johnson.  Although, I must feel that I felt an even more significant connection on the day that I stood on the land that my 3^rd Great Grandfather settled on near Hampton, TN.  My Smith line is also interesting with a fascinating ancestor like Jacob Cunningham Smith – I feel like there is still a lot to learn about them.  However, I feel like there is hope to discover something new on both of these lines.  I don’t have quite the same faith in my Jones line.

My grandfather died at the young age of 35 in a hunting accident and his grandfather also died at the young age of 34, just 10 days before his youngest son was born.  I don’t know what he died of – possibly pneumonia or a farming accident of some kind.  However, I know that he left his widow with two small young boys and heavily pregnant with another son.  Almira or Elmira (I’ve seen it spelled both ways) was born in 1850 in Van Buren Co., IA.  She married John Lyons Tannahill on 22 Dec 1866 when she was 16 years old.  They had a young baby born just about 9 months after their wedding who died either at birth or shortly thereafter.  Just a year later on 10 Aug 1868, Elmira gave birth to Samuel Oliver Tannahill and on 2 July 1871 she gave birth to George William Tannahill.  Elmira and John Lyons Tannahill moved sometime after George’s birth to Chautauqua Co. KS along with Elmira’s parents, Henry Valentine Jones and Huldah Harrington.  On 19 Apr 1873, Elmira became a widow at the age of 23, and on 28 Apr 1873, she gave birth to her third son, John Lyons Tannahill, my great grandfather.

Elmira Jones Tannahill Pennell

Elmira Jones eventually remarried to Samuel Pennell in 1875 in Kansas.  They had seven more children and it is interesting to note that while most of them stayed  the Oklahoma-Kansas area, several traveled north to live in the Lewiston, Idaho area.  When Almira’s brother, George Washington Jones moved to Southwick, two of his sisters followed suit as did his Tannahill nephews.

Sam Tannaill & John Lyons Tannahill

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It is easy to find information on the parents of Elmira – since she is recorded with her parents in the 1850 and 1860 census records.  Finding additional information of their ancestry has definitely been problematic.  Several years ago, I received a copy of some research that was done by Eldora Garlinghouse.  It turned out that her husband’s mother was Elmira’s niece through her brother, George Washington Jones.  The notes that she had made were really invaluable.   It allowed me to build a database built around the Jones family…and I must say it hasn’t been easy.

Henry Valentine Jones

Henry Valentine Jones was born on 14 Feb 1827 somewhere in OH.  According to the notes by Mrs. Garlinghouse, he was the son of Henry Washington Jones.  I have a name of Susan Turner as the potential mother of Henry Valentine Jones.  However, I have found nothing that directly connects Henry Valentine Jones with Henry Washington Jones or Susan Turner.  In fact, I have never been able to figure out when Henry might have lived in Ohio.  There are a multitude of Henry Jones and you can’t be sure which one is a connection.  Henry married Huldah Harrington on 19 Dec 1847 in Van Buren Co., IA.  They were the parents of:

• George Washington Jones m. Eliza Jane Briscoe m2 Harriet Mae Yates
• Almira Jones m John Lyons Tannahill m Samuel Pennell
• Jacob Jones d. young
• Henry Valentine Jones m. Aunt Duck (only name that I have)
• Edwin B. Jones d. after 1870
• Mary Alice Jones m.  Francis Marion Thompson
• Sarah Frances Jones m. William Martius Blackington m.2, George T Hicks

George’s family ended up near Southwick, ID (near Lewiston, ID) as did Mary Alice Jones and her family and Sarah Frances Jones.  As with many families, when one family migrates somewhere – it doesn't seem long until other family members follow along.

Henry Valentine Jones and Huldah Harrington both lived out the remainder of their lives in Chautauqua Co., KS  Huldah died in in 1898 and Henry died in 1904.  It seems that no matter what I have tried, I have never been able to figure out exactly who and where Henry’s family came from.  I know that he was born in Ohio and immigrated to Iowa at a pretty young age.  He also married someone whose family had also come from Ohio, suggesting that there might have been a connection between the families.  Really the only thing that I have ever read that suggests where the Jones family was a biography that was published in an early local history that was about a “Who’s Who” of the region.  It stated that Samuel Tannahill’s family came from Wales I have no idea if that was something that made up of if it has some kernel of the truth.

I feel as if I have made a lot of progress on Almira’s family and their descendants, but I wonder if I ever will make any progress on their ancestry.  

There seems to be too many strikes against me to make much progress.  I don’t have specific locations previous to Van Buren Co., IA, I can’t be sure that Henry Valentines’ father was Henry Washington Jones nor do I have a clear view of who is siblings or mother might have been.  They weren't wealthy enough to leave documentary tracks beyond the standard census records.  So even though I continue to pound on that brick wall – I wonder if I ever will make progress on my Jones wall!

  

A Source of Frustration...

My mother was the daughter of Oliver Richard Tannahill…but he was known as O. Richard Tannahill meaning that I assume he didn’t like his first name.  He died in a hunting accident in 1947 when my mother had just barely turned 6.  Her memories of him were vague and hazy and she only had a few precious memories.  So much of what she knew, she learned from others who admired and loved him.  So, the Tannahill branch was never an easy family to research for me.  I didn’t have the resource of a grandfather to learn from or a mother who had a lifetime of her father’s stories.  All we had to really start with was a few names and dates…so Mom and I took it from there.

Top Left - Ted, George, Richard, Sam - Lower Left - Rachel, John & Viney - older brother Earl not pictured - he died in 1942.  Photo was taken in 1945 at the funeral of John Lyons Tannahill.

We began our research on the Tannahill family with the names of Richard’s siblings and his parents.  A photograph was taken at the funeral of Grandpa Tannahill (John Lyons Tannahill) that included 7 of the 8 siblings and allowed us to see what they looked like as adults.  Later on we also got a picture of the entire family taken at a much younger age.  A cousin had a book that she had gotten at the Family History library down in Salt Lake City that Mom and I copied.  As we began to read the book (Genealogical History of the Tannahills, Tannehills and Taneyhills by James B. Tannehill), it illuminated a lot of the story of the Tannahill family since their arrival in America in the 1600’s.  However, it soon became a study of frustration as well.  The author had lovingly articulated stories that he had gathered by letters and archived documents but he neglected to include any of the sources.  So, while the story was great it was lacking a way to use the book as proof of anything.

Our family line is an excellent example of this…John Lyons Tannahill was born on 28 Apr 1873 in Jonesburg, Chautauqua Co., KS as the 3^rd living child.  His father died eight days before his birth of an unknown cause.  John’s mother, Almira, remarried a few years later to a Samuel Pennell and had 7 more children with him.  So, we knew that Grandpa Tannahill was the son of John Lyons Tannahill and Almira Jones – but where did the line go from there.  Grandpa Tannahill’s father was also named John Lyons Tannahill and he was born 9 Feb 1840 in Ohio and died 19 Apr 1873 in Chautauqua Co., KS.  He was the third child of 8 children born to Mary Fillinger and possibly Frank Tannehill.  Of those 8 children, only two lived beyond 1900 and of the two that survived past 1900, only one can be traced to their death.  It is unknown where the family lived before they went to Iowa other than to say Ohio.  It is also unknown when Frank Tannehill died.  We know that he died before 1850, because he is not recorded in the 1850 census with his wife, Mary Fillinger.  She is recorded in every census until her death in 1897.  Tragically she must have seen the deaths of 6 of her 8 children before her own death.  Frank Tannehill was reputed to be born about 1788, so he must have been an old man when he married Mary “Polly” Fillinger, by my estimation about 47 years old.  According to James B. Tannehill, Frank was the son of James Tannehill and Jemima Smith who probably was born either in Virginia or Somerset Co., PA.  He left his father’s home in 1810 and went to Virginia and then down to Nicholas Co., KY where he is recorded in 1830 as unmarried.  According to James Tannehill, hen then went to Iowa to live out his days.  This is obviously incorrect, because the four children who were born before 1845 were born in Ohio.  The first child recorded as being born in Iowa was in May 1845. 

Most of this information is in James Tannehill’s book and although I have added detail to the line, in essence it is the same.  I believe from the way he wrote his book that he got a lot of his information from the archives in Washington D. C. and from letters that he wrote to Tannehill families all over the United States. (You might have noticed that I spell the name differently from John Lyons Tannahill down…that is because that is the way our family has always spelled it)  I believe that James Tannehill is right on the line and I suspect that he got his information from Charlotte Tannahill Bucey or her adopted sons.  Charlotte was the last living Tannahill sibling and she died in 1934.  So, if that is where he got the information, I’m sure that is correct according to the best information that he had available.  However, I’ve yet to find anything that helps me confirm anything for several reasons.

• John Lyons Tannahill died in 1873 in Jonesburg, KS and there are no death records available until after 1904.
• While I have a death record for Mary “Polly” Fillinger Tannahill, there is no listing of either her parents or her husband’s name.
• Because of Iowa laws, I can’t get a copy of Charlotte Tannahill Bucey’s official death record because I am not a direct descendant.  The copy that I obtained from the local archive doesn’t give me any information on her lineage.

So, although the James B. Tannehill’s book is a marvelous resource, it has been a source of frustration.  Although I keep trying to find information that proves my line of Tannahills – I feel as if I am chipping away at a brick wall.  Perhaps someday, I will find the magic piece of information that blows that brick wall away.  I’ve been searching for almost 15 years…so hopefully my persistence will pay off.

Do I have Native American ancestry?

I’ve often heard within our family that there is Indian or Native American ancestry.  Now this is a common theme among genealogists.  I’ve always heard that my mother’s Tannahill side was the source of this Native American blood.  This is the same side of the family that told the story that we were related to “Machine Gun” Kelly – it sounded likely since there was a Kelly background…until I found out that his real name was George Kelly Barnes and he came from Tennessee.  So…I look at these family stories sometimes with a grain of salt.

The most likely Native American ancestor – if they exist is probably about four generations back.  My great grandfather, John Lyons Tannahill, was the son of Almira Jones and John Lyons Tannahill.  Almira was the daughter of Henry Valentine Jones and Huldah Harrington and she was born 3 Jul 1850 and died 5 Aug 1916.  She married John Lyons Tannahill on 27 Dec 1866 and they had 4 sons (first one stillborn) and John Lyons Tannahill (Sr) died 9 days before his son, John Lyons Tannahill was born.  Almira remarried Samuel Pennell and had 7 more children.  I’ve been able to trace information about Almira and her parents – but the trail runs cold.  I have the dubious honor of being descended from Johnsons, Smiths, & Jones…if you don’t have definite details, they are exceptionally hard to trace.

Henry Valentine Jones was born in 14 Feb 1827 in Ohio…I have nothing more specific than the date and location.  I suspect it might Athens Co., OH – but I can’t be sure.  He is supposedly the son of Henry Washington Jones and an unknown woman.  I believe that if we have Native American ancestry that it is this unknown woman.  There are features common to Native American ancestry in pictures I have seen of both Henry Valentine Jones and Almira Jones.  However, having these features doesn’t make it so.  I’ve also read bits and pieces about the Jones family have Welsh ancestry.  As I said before – I have no proof beyond a birthdate, death date and marriage date for Henry Valentine Jones.

Henry Valentine Jones

Almira Jones Tannahill Pennell

Here is the west – there seems to be a magic date when death records were kept.  Most of the time, these dates are about 1904 or so.  Henry Valentine Jones died in 1904 before death records were kept in Kansas.  So – without a family bible, birth record, or death record – there is little to go on for that mysterious Native American ancestry.  The family story is all that we have to base this information on. 

Now because I have no proof or any records as yet, I still hold out hope that someday I may find something.  So, every once in a while, I check records for anything further on Henry Valentine Jones and his possible father Henry Washington Jones.  I correspond with different people who have experience with Ohio lines and counties to find out if anyone has seen those names.  I probably touch base on the family at least once a year.  You might wonder if I have found any success as yet.  The answer is no…not on this family.  But…the method has worked on other families.  So, perhaps one day, I will find the key record that will answer the question one way or another – do I have Native American ancestry?