Page 697
It is no disparagement to other citizens of Casa township to state that Mr Tanner is one of the leading tillers of the soil in this locality. John Tanner, his father, was born in East Tennessee in 1804 and after going to Alabama was married there, in which State our subject was born May 23, 1835. His mother was Laura Jane Williams. In 1874 they removed to Logan County Ark and in 1877 to Perry County, the senior Tanner following farming. He was of Dutch descent. His father, Henry Tanner, was a son of John Tanner, who was born in Maryland, and who at the age of one hundred and twenty five years came from that State to Jackson County Alabama on horseback, surviving thereafter two years. Henry died in Northern Alabama, at the age of ninety years. John was born in 1804 and died in 1876; and his wife, of Tennessee origin, was born in 1849, and died in 1884, in this county. She was the mother of twelve children, three of whom are still living: Charles H., Almeda and George. Charles Henry was practically brought up on the railroad and began to drive a cart when he was eight years old, thus losing the advantages of an education. He continued this work till the breaking out of the war, when on Christmas Day 1861, he entered in Company B, Forty Ninth Regiment Alabama Infantry, serving three years and nine months. He was in the battles of Shiloh, Baton Rouge and Corinth where he did not taste food for five days on account of its scarcity. He was with Johnston on his retreat back to Atlanta; was under Hood at Peachtree Creek, and with him, in Tennessee, at the Franklin fight; also at Nashville. He was wounded in the right arm, at the elbow, at the battle of Shiloh, and still has the shirt he wore, with six bullet holes in it. This wounded arm has been of but little use since that time. After the war Mr Tanner went to Alabama and remained three years, when he removed to Yell County Ark, residing there two years; then he came to Perry County and now has 160 acres of land, with fifty under cultivation. In politics he is a Democrat. He and his wife are members of the Primitive Baptist Church, and he is an honorable and respected citizen. In November 1865, Mr Tanner married Miss Elizabeth Bryant, who was born in Jackson County Ala in 1835. She is the mother of eight children: Clayburn B., John H., Mary Jane and Martha (twins), George W., Murtie S., Charles H., and Mary E., all at home.