Clark L. Tannehill, BiographyPorter County biographical sketches . . . .
Transcribed biography of Clark L. Tannehill
CLARK L. TANNEHILL. A family that has been identified with Porter county for nearly sixty years is properly considered among those whose work and citizenship have contributed to the advancement of the county from pioneer conditions into the modern civilization. The Tannehills of Hebron belong in this class, and their various members have enjoyed influence and esteem in all their relations with this vicinity.
The late Clark L. Tannehill was born in the state of Ohio, a son of Charles and Mary Tannehill, and was reared and educated there. In 1853 he laid the foundation of his own home by marriage to Miss Nancy A. Burwell. Mrs. Tannehill, who is now one of the venerable residents of Porter county, was born in Loudonville, Ohio, May 4, 1830, a daughter of John and Rebecca Burwell, her father being a farmer. The other children in the Burwell family were: Eliza Ann, Amos A., John S. and Rebecca Jane. They received their early training in an old log schoolhouse near their native home, and the son Amos was a successful teacher in both Indiana and Ohio.
After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Tannehill, with enterprise and enthusiasm of youth, determined to find a new home in the western country then just coming into the full fruits of its development. Two weeks following their marriage they set out in an old-fashioned prairie schooner for Porter county. Several years previous to his marriage Mr. Tannehill had joined in the great exodus to California, where he spent three years in the exciting scenes of gold hunting. He was more successful than the average Argonaut on the coast, and returned with two thousand dollars, which was the capital with which he began life. With this he bought one hundred and sixty acres two miles east of Hebron, and there began the work of establishing a home. From California he also brought back a solid lump of gold, which he kept for a number of years as a souvenir, and after the birth of his children he had it made into six rings for the daughters, a pine for his wife and a scarf pin for his son. The place on which they settled east of Hebron had few improvements, being little more than raw land, and the house contained one room. This was their first home, and with the road of hope before them and with industry and vigilance for their every-day tasks they had no hesitation about their undertaking.
Into their home came in time eight children, two sons and six daughters, named as follows: Mary Rebecca, Wilbur Eugene, Eliza Ellen, Candace Loraine, Sarah Agnes, Ora Ella, Charles Burwell and Amy Jane. Wilbur E. died at the age of seven years and five months, but the other grew up and were educated in the old Tannehill district school and finished in the Hebron high school, Mary also being a student at Valparaiso. Mary R. Tannehill became the wife of James B. Dilley, at Valparaiso, and their two children are Clark David and Charles T. Eliza Ellen, who now resides in Hebron, married H. E. Miller, of Ohio, who died in Colorado in 1909. Candace is the wife of Marvin Folsom, a farmer of Porter county, and their four children are as follows: Fay, the wife of Frank Nichols; Elsie, the wife of Glenn McConkey, a farmer near Valparaiso; Sylvia and Florence. Sarah Agnes, who became the wife of Charles W. Skees, an agriculturist of this county, is the mother of two children, Clifford A. and Nora. Ora E. Tannehill, who died at the age of twenty-seven, was a young woman of beautiful character and with many friends, and her death was one of the saddest events in the family circle. Charles B. Tannehill, the only living son, married Lottie Douglass, and their three children are Ora A., Maud V and Ceola DeVere. Amy Jane, the youngest daughter, celebrated the golden wedding anniversary of her parents, on September 8, 1903, by her own marriage with John G. Davidson, a son of Robert and Martha Davidson, the former a native of Halifax, Nova Scotia, and the latter of Pennsylvania. The four children born to Mr. and Mrs. Davidson are Blossom Loraine, Martha Agnes (who died at the age of thirteen months), Anna Miriam and Wilbur Owen.
The Tannehill estate near Hebron is a fine illustration of what an industrious family will accomplish by years of residence. A fine grove of maple and walnut trees near the house was planted years ago by Mr. Tannehill, and many fruit trees that have borne fruit for year after year were planted by the same hands. The house itself is one of the comfortable country homes of this vicinity and has sheltered all the members of the family. Here in 1906 the kindly citizen and affectionate father, Clark L. Tannehill, passed from life. His widow with her daughter, Mrs. Davidson, keep the old home. Mr. and Mrs. Tannehill have been numbered among the members and liberal contributors of the Presbyterian church at Hebron for many years. In politics he was a Republican. Mrs. Tannehill is now more than eighty years old, but the years and their manifold experiences have dealt gently with her. The kindly offices which she bestowed upon her children while they were growing up and the helpful spirit which she manifested toward all good works in the community have brought to her age reciprocal gratefulness and tender services, so that her life is closing in peace and Christian hope.
Source: Lewis Publishing Company. 1912. History of Porter County, Indiana: A Narrative Account of its Historical Progress, its People and its Principal Interests. Chicago, Illinois: Lewis Publishing Company. 881 p.
Page(s) in Source: 678-680
This biography has been transcribed exactly as it was originally published in the source. Please note that we do not provide photocopies or digital scans of biographies appearing on this website.
Biography transcribed by Steven R. Shook