Norman B. Tanner, BiographyPorter County biographical sketches . . . .
Transcribed biography of Norman B. Tanner
NORMAN B. TANNER was born May 28, 1829, in Munson, Geauga County, Ohio; he is one of ten children born to David and Ruth (Cochron) Tanner, the former of New York and the latter of Massachusetts. Young Tanner lived with his father in Geauga County until 1840, when he moved to Union County, where Norman remained until twenty-one years of age, having received a common school education; he then married Sarah A. Cratty, a native of Union County, August 10, 1850. In 1852, his wife died. After renting awhile, in 1854, he went to Chicago and engaged as boatman, working but a short time, when he came to Porter County and worked in a saw mill, owned by Joel Wicker, of Chicago, until the mill burned in July of 1854; he now engaged in a saw mill on the old plant road near Chesterton, where he served about four years, at the end of which time he rented a farm of Mr. Dillingham. After two and a half years nearly, he bought his present farm of eighty acres of good land, well watered with spring water; he had been married to Sophronia P. Vanslyke, a native of New York. Mr. T. has been engaged more or less in lumbering, wire fence foreman and saw mill, etc., at which he made a success; he engaged in these because of lameness, which prevented his farming. In 1852, he joined the Presbyterian Church, while his present wife was a Baptist. They both afterward joined the Christian Church; he was a member of the I. O. O. F., and at present is a member of the Masonic fraternity; he has held office of Township Assessor for five years successively; he is a strong Republican and used to be a "conductor" on the "underground railroad," He has five children - Sarah A., Ida M., George D., John L. and Schuyler S.
Source: Goodspeed, Weston A., and Charles Blanchard. 1882. Counties of Porter and Lake, Indiana: Historical and Biographical, Illustrated. Chicago, Illinois: F. A. Battey & Company. 771 p.
Page(s) in Source: 368
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