Solomon Tanner
Solomon "Sol" Tanner (August 5, 1835 – June 19, 1891) settled in Texas during the 1840s. During the 1850s, Tanner became a Texas Ranger. In 1861, Solomon Tanner became a soldier in the Civil War for the Confederacy, where he served in The Battle of Nueces, also known as the Nueces Massacre. After his time in law enforcement and military service, Solomon Tanner moved to the newly formed settlement of Brownwood, Texas, where he became the first mayor.
Early life
Solomon Tanner was born on August 5, 1835, in Tippecanoe County, Indiana, to Jonathan Tanner and Elizabeth “Betsy” Ann Crossley. Jonathan and his wife, Elizabeth, were settlers who continually moved westward in the United States. As the child of these settlers, Solomon’s early life was in a state of constant change. Tanner moved from Indiana to Missouri as a child, and by the time he was 15, he was a resident of Caldwell, Texas. Shortly before his arrival in Caldwell, Tanner's mother, Elizabeth, died at the age of 38 on May 17, 1850, in Swan, Missouri.[1] In 1850, Tanner's father, Jonathan, was a carpenter, and Tanner was a student.[2]
Solomon's father, Jonathan, was murdered by Mr. Samuel Wilson in the settlement of Live Oak, Texas, between noon and one o’clock on May 17, 1852, “for threatening his life while absent at Corpus Christi.” Jonathan Tanner died from his wounds at ten o’clock that night. The shooting of Jonathan Tanner was considered justifiable by most of the community, and Mr. Wilson was never charged.[3]
Texas Ranger Career in the 1850s
Solomon Tanner began his career in law enforcement and military service on April 16, 1856, in Comal County, Texas. Tanner was enlisted as a Sergeant in the Texas Mounted Rangers under the command of Captain John W. Sansom.[4] He worked with fellow ranger, Richard Luckett, who later became his lieutenant in the Civil War.[5] During his career, he captured a Native American to take into custody and "did sleep one night with the captured Indian chained to a post of his bed."[6] Lieutenant Governor Pease sent Sergeant Solomon Tanner to Joshua Creek in June–July 1856 during an Indian skirmish where Tanner killed one Indian and captured thirteen horses.[7]
On May 20, 1858, Tanner married Cynthia “Auty” George in Blanco County, Texas. Their marriage license was the first one issued in Blanco County.[6]
The Civil War and Nueces Massacre
Shortly after the birth of Solomon Tanner's first child, Dona (born on February 2, 1860), on August 1, 1861, Solomon Tanner enlisted in the military to fight in the Civil War for the Confederacy. Tanner’s enlistment rank was a Private, and he joined muster company one in the third infantry regiment known as Luckett’s Regiment. Tanner was under the command of Lieutenant Richard Luckett during the Civil War.[8]
In 1860, Texas received many German immigrants who had settled in the hill country, including the settlement of Fredericksburg. These Germans had great loyalty to their new nation and did not abandon the Union during the Civil War. This left these Texas Germans as targets to the Confederate army, and they were persecuted continuously by Captain James Duff, who was dispatched to restore order among the immigrants and gain their loyalty to the Confederacy.[9] These immigrants formed the Loyal Union League under the guidance of John W. Sansom, the commanding officer of Solomon Tanner when he was a Texas Ranger. Sansom was a staunch Unionist.[10]
Sansom encouraged the Texas Germans to attempt to escape Confederate laws and persecution and journey to Mexico. In 1862, around sixty-five immigrants left to live in Mexico for the remainder of the war. Confederate troops tracked the party, who had no idea they were being followed and did not bother to cover their tracks. The Confederate army had no trouble catching up with the group of Germans.[9] The Confederates confronted the Texas Germans on the Nueces River, killing nineteen and wounding nine immigrants in the attack. The nine captured Texas Germans were executed hours after the battle by Lieutenant Richard Luckett, named in sources as "Lt. Luck." In later skirmishes, seventeen more Germans were killed. The Texas Germans who managed to stay out of Confederate hands reached Mexico, and some joined the Union army. After the war, the bodies of the thirty-six Texas Germans that were left on the battlefield after they were killed and mutilated were recovered and buried in Comfort, Texas.[11][12]
Solomon Tanner fought under Lieutenant Richard Luckett, who was responsible for the murders of the Texas German prisoners. After these murders, the loyalty to Lt. Luckett split amongst the group. Most in the command of Lt. Luck condemned his behavior. Robert Hamilton Williams, a Confederate soldier, documented his experiences at the Battle of the Nueces in which he agreed that Lt. Luckett's actions were appalling.[9] Luckett later deserted his post alongside some of his subordinates, some of whom died of exposure, starvation, and dehydration in the desert. Solomon Tanner was not a part of the men to desert the army with Lt. Luck, and it is most likely that he, like Robert Hamilton Williams, condemned the executions of the Texas German prisoners.[13]
Political Career and Later Life
On January 23, 1875, Solomon moved his family from San Antonio to Brownwood, Texas in Brown County. He and his wife had ten more children after Dona’s birth, six of whom lived into adulthood. Tanner became the first mayor of Brownwood, Texas.
Solomon Tanner lived in Brownwood until his death on June 19, 1891, at the age of 55.[14] As a prominent member of Brownwood, his obituary in the local Brownwood paper was gleaming with praise; “He was a landmark of infancy, growth, and progress of Brownwood, seeing it grow from the little frontier hamlet to its present (1891) proud dimensions as the metropolis of the Southwest Texas. He was a man in whose heart dwelt many honest virtues that endeared him to his friends. He was devoted to his friends, his family, and his home. And in their memory, his name shall live.”[6]
After Tanner's death, his wife and children continued to reside in Brownwood, Texas, except for his daughter Dona, who married Maryatt C. Smith, a Harvard graduate, judge, and pupil to Oliver Wendell Holmes, and they raised a family and resided in Ballinger, Texas.[15][16]
References
- ↑ "United States Federal Census." Swan, Missouri, 1840.
- ↑ “United States Federal Census.” Caldwell, TX, 1850.
- ↑ •“Another Murder.” Texas State Gazette, May 22, 1852.
- ↑ “Texas, U.S., Muster Roll Index Cards, 1838-1900.” Comal County, TX, 1856.
- ↑ Carroll, H. Bailey. "Texas Collection." The Southwestern Historical Quarterly 47, no. 2 (1943): 162-84. Accessed October 1, 2020. http://www.jstor.org/stable/30236020.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 White, James C. The Promise Land: A History of Brown County, Texas. Brownwood, TX: Brownwood Banner, 1941.
- ↑ Carroll, H. Bailey. "Texas Collection." The Southwestern Historical Quarterly 47, no. 2 (1943): 162-84. Accessed October 1, 2020. http://www.jstor.org/stable/30236020.
- ↑ "U.S. Civil War Soldiers, 1861-1865." Solomon Tanner, 1861.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Shook, Robert W. "The Battle of the Nueces, August 10, 1862." The Southwestern Historical Quarterly 66, no. 1 (1962): 31-42. Accessed December 1, 2020. http://www.jstor.org/stable/30236222.
- ↑ "TSHA | Sansom, John William". www.tshaonline.org. Retrieved 2021-03-16.
- ↑ “Texas in the Civil War.” The Texas Historical Commission. Accessed November 18, 2020. https://www.thc.texas.gov/public/upload/publications/tx-in-civil-war.pdf.
- ↑ Wooster, Ralph A., and Brett J. Derbes. “Civil War.” The Handbook of Texas Online. Texas State Historical Association . Accessed November 20, 2020. https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/civil-war.
- ↑ Williams, Robert Hamilton. With the Border Ruffians: Memories of the Far West, 1852-1868. Hardpress Publishing, 2012.
- ↑ "Solomon "Sol" Tanner (1835-1891) - Find A Grave..." www.findagrave.com. Retrieved 2020-12-03.
- ↑ “United States Federal Census.” Brownwood, TX, 1880.
- ↑ "SmithMC - Runnels County TXGenWeb". sites.google.com. Retrieved 2020-12-03.
- Ransleben, Guido E. A Hundred Years of Comfort in Texas; A Centennial History. San Antonio, TX: Naylor, 1954.
- In the Life and Lives of Brown County People. Brownwood, TX: Brown County Historical Society, 1987.
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