Limestone-Madison County AlArchives Biographies.....Tanner, John Thomas 1820 - 
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 September 4, 2011, 10:47 pm

Source: See below
Author: Smith & De Land, publishers

    JOHN THOMAS TANNER, Real Estate, Immigration Agent and Dealer in Exchange,
Athens, was born in Madison County, this State, August 25, 1820. His father,
Samuel Tanner, a native of Virginia, came to Alabama in 1818, and to Athens in
1825. He was a merchant all his life. He died in 1871, at the age of 87 years.
He was an active business man to the very day of his final sickness. He reared
four sons, one of whom, W. P. Tanner, deceased, was secretary and treasurer of
the Cotton Seed Oil Mill at Montgomery.

    The subject of this sketch was educated at Athens; began clerking for his
father at the age of thirteen years, from which time, it may be truthfully said,
he has been an active business man. In 1842 he engaged in the cotton business in
New Orleans; two years later he removed to Shreveport, and in 1847 returned to
Athens and was with his father in mercantile business up to 1852. He at that
time engaged in banking, at which business we find him at the outbreak of the
war, and to which he returned at the close of the war. In 1866 he was appointed
Revenue Collector (United States); held that office about eighteen months, and
was succeeded by a gentleman from Pennsylvania.

    As secretary and treasurer of the North & South Railroad, during the war,
Mr. Tanner was exempt from Government service, and the fact of his not having
participated in any manner in the cause of the South led to his appointment by
the United States Government to the office of Collector of Revenue.

    Associated with the Hon. Luke Pryor and others, Mr. Tanner was conspicuous
in the organization and construction of the North & South Railroad, and was
officially connected with it for twenty-five years. [This road was first called
the Tennessee & Alabama Central.—ED.]

    Since 1871, Mr. Tanner has devoted his time to the business indicated at the
introduction of this sketch. He has been connected officially with the Athens
Female College for the past thirty years, a great deal of the time as
vice-president, and at the death of Senator Houston was made president, a
position he has since continued to fill. He has been five years Mayor of the
city of Athens, and always identified with her best interests. He is probably
the most conspicuous advocate of Prohibition in the State, if not in the South.
The first State Temperance Alliance was held and organized at his office, in
1881. He was chairman of the first State Convention called in Alabama in the
interest of prohibition. In 1884 he was a delegate to the convention at
Pittsburgh, and in the roll-call of States placed the Hon. John P. St. John in
nomination for the Presidency of the United States. In 1886, Mr. Tanner was
nominated at Birmingham for Governor, on the Prohibition ticket, made the race,
and distinguished himself as a powerful and sincere worker in the cause of
temperance. He is now one of the vice-presidents of the National Temperance
Society, whose headquarters are in New York City, and is also chairman of
executive committee of the Prohibition party for the State of Alabama.

    At this writing (1888) Mr. Tanner is prominently spoken of in connection
with the vice-presidential candidacy of the Prohibition party, his name having
been indorsed for that place by the State Prohibition Convention. December 15,
1887. [Mr. Tanner's was presented to the convention at Indianapolis. June, 1888,
for Vice-President of the United States on the Prohibition ticket, and received
a flattering vote.—ED.]

    He was married at Greenwood, La., November 26, 1846, to Miss Susan Owen
Wilson, a native of Jackson, Tenn., and has had born to him four sons and four
daughters, to-wit: John B., who is a cotton broker, Athens; Jason S., deceased,
aged nineteen years; Stephen, deceased, and Maria, deceased; Margaret Elizabeth
(Mrs. Dr. W. R. McWilliams); Mary Ruth (Mrs. J. L. Thompson), and Susan O. (Mrs.
C. F. Carter.)

    Mr. Tanner and family are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

Northern Alabama: Historical and Biographical
Birmingham, Ala.: Smith and De Land
1888

PART III.
HISTORICAL RESUME OF THE VARIOUS COUNTIES IN THE STATE.
CEREAL BELT.


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