The Life and Times of Ezra Sherman Tanner
by Hazel Gendron
Hazel Gendron has shared with us...and you, this wonderful tale of life in the rugged mountains of Northern California and Southern Oregon. She is the great-granddaughter of Ezra Sherman Tanner, once farmer and later, a miner. The story of Ezra's life is a fascinating piece of history. Recently Hazel has been attempting to change certain landmark names back to their original naming. It is unclear why the names were changed...perhaps someone made a transcription error from one map to another. Below is an excerpt from an email we received from this wonderful lady.
I have just completed a 1600 word story plus a number of photos of my great-grandfather, Ezra Sherman Tanner, who is buried there; the story is to appear in the Grants Pass Courier soon on the Josephine County Historical page; it all came about because in past years !920's through 1960's, the Tanner name was landmark names of Tanner Mt., Tanner Lake, East Tanner Lake, and the two creeks flowing from those lakes just inside the Oregon border, just north of Happy Camp, on the old Waldo trail. Tanner had many mining claims there, hence friends and family named it and appeared on maps for years. Just in recent years, the name was changed in spelling to 'Tannen', thus I am going through the Oregon Society of Historical Names Board to have it revert back, quite a process.
Update from Hazel, November 5, 2002: The Oregon Names Board voted unanimously to change those landmarks back to Tanner in their regular summer session held in Bend, Oregon June 22, 2002. I attended that session and was overwhelmed by their response to my proposal. It seems that my research cleared up questions that agencies in Oregon have had for many years, not knowing how those landmarks were named. The Klamath National Forest of Yreka and Happy Camp, as well as the Siskiyou County Historical Society were helpful in my research as well as the Josephine County Historical Society and Siskiyou National Forest of Oregon. The proposal has now be sent to the US Geographic Names Board for their approval within the next few months.
We would like to thank Hazel for sharing this important part of history with us and hope you will enjoy the tale as much as we...
Ezra Sherman Tanner was born at Tanner Hill, N.Y. in 1822 and was laid to rest in 1877 near the shadow of Tanner Mountain of Oregon, his namesake. In recent years, the Tanner landmark name has been changed to Tannen and a great granddaughter descendent of the pioneer, Hazel Roberts Davis Gendron, is now in the process of trying to have the name revert back to Tanner. Tanner's 55 years of living is an interesting story.
Ezra was a descendant of New England families dating back to the Mayflower in Rhode Island and New York with the Tanner family having large holdings of land in what became known as Tanner Hill, in Schuyler, Herkimer Co., N.Y. Ezra's grandfather, Isaac Tanner moved to N.Y. in 1796 where he purchased 1200 acres in Herkimer Co. for $4.50 per acre. The family moved from Rhode Island in a wagon of Isaac's own construction with a team of oxen.
After securing the deed to the property, he laid out nine farms for his nine grown children, which was located on one of the highest points of Herkimer Co., N.Y., and has borne the name of Tanner's Hill since that day. On the section laid out for his father, Francis, Ezra was born and grew up with his four younger siblings. His grandmother was Lydia Sherman Tanner, whose family descended from the Mayflower, his roots deep in New England history.
Ezra began his westward movement with his marriage to a farm girl in Wisconsin in 1846. Laura Ann was a daughter of John and Hannah Lease who owned a farm in the town of Salem, in Racine County and where her father was also a physician according to the census of 1850. Ezra and Laura Ann were listed as residents of the Lease household and his occupation that of a farmer.
About this time the big news world-wide was that of the Gold Strikes in the West, as well as the news in 1850 that Oregon had passed the Donation Land Claim Law and was offering free lands for farming to anyone who wanted to claim the land, clear it, and live on it. The news spread fast in the east, Ezra and Laura began to make their plans.
Ezra Sherman Tanner, photo taken about the time he went from being a farmer to being a miner in the Siskiyou Mountains of Southern Oregon and Northern California during the Gold Rush. Upon his death, about 1877, he left his young widow and one daughter, Amanda, near Happy Camp; Amanda married Thomas Roberts and they homesteaded not far away and raised a family of seven leaving many descendants still in Siskiyou County.
By December 1, 1852, Ezra and his wife had arrived in Oregon and after months of seeking a suitable site not already claimed they secured their own 160 acre Donation Land Claim, #1530, near Waldo, March 27, 1854, along with many other farmers nearby. A few months earlier, a big gold strike was found by a group of shipwrecked sailors who joined the search for gold, and Sailors Diggings came into being. The town of Waldo, located on Sailor gulch, was booming, miners were coming and going, the town growing to include many businesses as well as busy ranchers clearing their newly acquired lands. Waldo was the largest Oregon mining settlement in Sailor's Diggings, an area that included Sailor, Allen, Scot's Frye, Waldo, Taylor, Shelly, Butcher and Caro gulches, as well as French Flat, Takilma and O'Brian. At this time Waldo was believed to be in California and in 1854 the thriving community had an approximate population of 3,000 and ultimately grew to 10,000. Many if not most of the miners spent their gold faster than they could dig it up.
Also about this time there was much unrest with the settlers with frequent attacks by various bands of Indians unhappy with whites occupying their native lands. Military outposts were set up to protect the thousands that were moving to Southern Oregon and Northern California by ship and prairie schooner. There were massacres on both sides.
Ezra's plan for their Oregon farm came apart when the divorce of Ezra and Laura Tanner was filed in Nov. 1857, the records only indicate that there were no children born to the couple and the divorce was final in May 1858 in Josephine Co. It may have been because of Indian uprising and number of massacres not too far away or Laura may have just become homesick and left.
Whatever the reason, by March 1, 1859, Ezra had decided to mortgage the farm and become a miner. For the sum of $1200, he mortgaged his land to John W. Work and Warner C. Crandall evidently for his "grub-stake" and mining equipment. He never returned to his farm and the property was never cleared from mortgages, finally being sold at public auction in 1889, following his death.
Changing from a farmer to a miner must have suited Ezra well; he took to the mountains and for the rest of his life lived in the Siskiyou Range during the "mining months" and the lowlands at the base of the mountain during the winter. His extensive mining locations there prompted friends to call that area Tanner Mt. and the lake nearby Tanner Lake where it is believed he had a summer camp and where he loved to fish.
By the 1860 Federal Census, he was listed in the Althouse precinct, one of the richest and busy mining districts in the area located south of Waldo in the Siskiyou Mountains. His name appeared among many other miners, and nearby he had located a number of his own claims along the ridges and gulches of the mountain range.
It is not known where he spent the first few winters, but by 1867, Ezra registered to vote in the Happy Camp precinct of Del Norte Co. (now Siskiyou Co.) of California at the age of 45, native of New York, and a miner. In the winter he moved out of the mountains and worked for wages at the booming Classic Hill mine on Indian Creek, just inside the California border then in the spring he would go back to his own mines. He was still a registered voter in Happy Camp in the 1873 registration of Del Norte Co.
In 1874, Ezra's life took a surprising twist, unusual to some but very common to those of the western Gold Rush era. A Native Karuk Indian woman and her fourteen-year-old daughter, fathered by a white-man in Crescent City, were traveling the Waldo Trail on their way from Crescent City to the mother's birthplace near Happy Camp. They stopped at Ezra's camp to rest and during the visit, Elizabeth sold her daughter, Emily to the miner for his bride. This practice was normal for native families, the parents setting a price for their daughters within their own tribe as well. The price set for Emily is unknown, but a usual price was for horses, mules or some other agreed upon items. Elizabeth went on to Clear Creek on the Klamath River alone. Elizabeth's own life, that of a native whose ancestors had lived on the river for eons of years, had her life completely changed as well by the rush for gold. The Clear Creek area was the scene of big gold strikes as well as fighting among the whites and Indians whose religious ceremonial grounds were located up and down the river. In historical accounts published in Siskiyou County, many accounts are written about how the life on the river was devastating to the Karuk tribe. Most believed that if the Indians could have been left alone, things might have been well, but the ceremonial grounds were violated, young women were not safe and enmity grew. Gold continued to beckon. Eventually a confrontation took place and many of the Indian men were killed or driven into the mountains while the women were herded together and the miners chose among them, taking those they wished to have for their own. Elizabeth's native home was in that Clear Creek area and this where she returned after she sold Emily to Tanner in 1874. Elizabeth later married Henry Haley and is buried in the family plot of her native village near the banks of Clear Creek on their original land claim.
Ezra and his bride continued to live at his mines in the summer and in the lowland in the winter, and the following year, Emily gave birth to a baby girl, Amanda, after Ezra moved his wife to a cabin nearer to Happy Camp at East Fork of Indian Creek. Here he built them a little cabin and there was grazing nearby for the animals, and close by neighbors who were friends.
Not long after that Ezra's own life was failing, and by the time his daughter was two years old, Ezra was laid to rest in the Happy Camp cemetery. It was believed that he had asked one of his friends, John Ince, to watch over his wife and daughter and one year later, John claimed Emily for his wife. They continued to live at East Fork where they homesteaded the property where Ezra had moved his young wife and baby. Emily had 12 more children by Ince, with Amanda growing up very close to her siblings. Among the things Emily gave to Amanda after she grew up was a photo of her father, which she treasured and kept with her the rest of her life.
Some years following Ezra's death, the places where he mined became officially known as Tanner Mt., Tanner Lake, and Tanner Creek as they appeared on maps of Southern Oregon and Northern California between the 1920's and the 1970's. Sometime after that for unknown reasons, the spelling was changed to Tannen Mt., Tannen Lake, etc. and descendants are now in the process of going through the Oregon Historical Society to have the name of Tanner restored to the places he mined and called home. Most of the descendants live in Siskiyou Co. or near there some being fifth and sixth generation descendants of Ezra Sherman Tanner born at Tanner Hill, New York and died within the shadows of Tanner Mountain, Josephine Co., Oregon.
The town cemetery in Happy Camp where Tanner is buried lies within sight of Indian Creek, the flowing stream of the creek coming from the headwaters of his namesake, Tanner Mountain. Just south of the cemetery, Indian Creek flows into the Klamath River, whose fame of gold brought adventurers from all corners of the world to seek their fortune in gold, mineral, or land. Many left descendants with rich ancestry of two cultures flowing in their veins.
Story and photos are the copyrighted property of Hazel Gendron. No other use of this material is allowed without her express written consent.
