By Jerald and Sandra Tanner
Beginning in 1980, Robert and Rosemary Brown, a Mormon couple who live in Arizona, began questioning the claims of Mormon critics concerning their credentials and ancestry. They started out by showing that D. J. Nelson had a phony Doctor’s degree. They then attacked Walter Martin and Wayne Cowdery. They alleged that Wayne Cowdery was not a descendant of Oliver Cowdery, as he maintained, and that Walter Martin did not descend from Brigham Young. Moreover, they pounced upon Martin’s educational credentials and even questioned that he is an ordained minister. While the Browns certainly have a right to delve into these questions, they have made other serious charges that seem to go beyond the bounds of propriety.
Since we have made no special claims concerning educational credentials, Robert and Rosemary Brown have never questioned us regarding these matters. They have, however, through their attorney, tried to put us on the spot by asking for “genealogical verification” of our claims to be related to Brigham Young, the second president of the Mormon Church, and N. Eldon Tanner, who served in the First Presidency of the church. On August 27, 1982, we were mailed a letter from a lawyer representing the Religious Research Association—Robert Brown is listed as president of this organization. The letter read as follows:
I represent the Religious Research Association. They have asked me to write to you concerning numerous representations of your relationship to the Tanner Family and the Brigham Young Family. I was referred by my clients to a recent article in “Christianity Today” which evidently indicated that Mr. Jerold Tanner was related to LDS Church official N. Eldon Tanner and that Mrs. Sandra Tanner was a great-grand[d]aughter of Brigham Young. My clients have requested me to obtain genealogical verification of these relationships if possible. I would appreciate your response in providing the necessary information.
Although we have never been attacked in print about this matter, we recently received a letter from an individual who said a Mormon missionary maintained that our claims concerning our ancestry were not true. We feel, therefore, that the matter should be answered publicly. The question regarding the relationship of Jerald Tanner to N. Eldon Tanner, who was until recently a member of the First Presidency of the Mormon Church, is answered in two different books. The first is entitled, Descendants of John Tanner, compiled by Maurice Tanner. It was published by the John Tanner Family Association in 1942. The second is John Tanner and His Family, by George S. Tanner. This book was also published by the John Tanner Family Association in 1974. Since N. Eldon Tanner himself gave a significant amount of money toward the publication of this last book (see Preface, page viii), it is inconceivable that it would contain information about Jerald Tanner if he was not part of the John Tanner family. The following, however, is found in the Introduction to John Tanner and His Family.
Other family members who are presently General Authorities are Hugh B. Brown, apostle and one-time counselor to President David O. McKay, and Nathan Eldon Tanner, apostle and counselor to four presidents. Presiding bishop of the church, Victor L. Brown is a descendant of John Tanner through Nathan. . . .
There are, of course, many family members who have done some writing, . . . But there is one couple who are unique because their writing is of an anti-Mormon nature. Jerald and Sandra Tanner are the only active anti-Mormons in the Tanner family the author is aware of. Their writings are quite extensive—the index files of the History Department of the church shows seventeen different publications. John Tanner would probably disapprove of this, as he would disapprove of any activity directed against the church he loved so well. . . . One of the chief traits of most Tanners is the desire to be where things are happening—where the action is. . . . Iona Jackson, daughter of Joseph Smith Tanner, says Brigham Young once commented that when he had a tough job to be done, he tried to find a Tanner. There is plenty of evidence that the Tanners got the job done. (John Tanner and His Family, pages 4, 12-13)
John Tanner, who is Jerald Tanner’s great-great-grandfather, joined the Mormon Church two years after it was organized. The following entry appears in Joseph Smith’s History of the Church, under the date of September 26, 1833: “Brother Tanner sent his two sons to Kirtland to learn the will of the Lord, whether he should remove to Zion or Kirtland” (vol. 1, page 410). He was “counseled” to come to Kirtland. After he arrived, he gave Joseph Smith a great deal of assistance in temporal matters. Under the date of December 5, 1835, Joseph Smith recorded that “Elder Tanner brought me half of a fatted hog for the benefit of my family” (History of the Church, vol. 2, page 327). John Tanner was very wealthy at the time he met Joseph Smith and it has been suggested that Joseph Smith took advantage of his generosity. M. R. Werner, for instance, related the following:
Manna from heaven arrived in the form of John Tanner, a convert from New York. He had been healed of a lame leg by a Mormon elder, and he therefore felt called upon to sell his extensive property in New York State and live in Kirtland. He arrived there just as the mortgage on the Temple ground was about to be foreclosed. It is said that a few days before his arrival the Prophet Joseph and his brethren had assembled in prayer-meeting and asked God to send them a brother with means to lift the mortgage. Perhaps this was so, but perhaps some one had whispered to Joseph Smith that John Tanner had just sold two large farms and 2,200 acres of valuable timber land. Nevertheless, the day after his arrival in Kirtland, Tanner was invited by the Prophet to meet with the High Council. The result of the meeting was that he lent Joseph Smith $2,000, and took his note, lent the Temple Committee $13,000 and took their note, and besides these loans made liberal donations to the Temple Fund. A short time later he signed a note for $30,000 worth of merchandise. And they made him an elder; they should have made him a saint. He has achieved, however, a species of canonization, for he is held up as an example of manly righteousness and noble obedience in Scraps of Biography, a book published by the Mormon Church for its young.
With the help of God and John Tanner the Temple was finally completed, . . . (Brigham Young, New York, 1925, pages 91-92)
On pages 74, 75 and 78 of his book, John Tanner and His Family, George S. Tanner comments:
The Werner account may be more dramatic than accurate, but that his [John Tanner’s] gifts were considerable is not in doubt, and that it completely broke him financially is beyond question. . . .
It is extremely difficult at this late date to know how much Mormonism cost John Tanner in Kirtland, Ohio, but it was a sizable amount. Nathan tells us that he came to Kirtland with $10,000 in hard money which probably meant silver or gold. In addition he was carrying $13,000 in merchandise which he signed over to the Temple Committee. It is doubtful that any of the loans were ever repaid. . . .
The author is frequently asked what motivated John Tanner to remain loyal to Joseph Smith and the church after having “staked his all on his faith, the Prophet and the Church, and lost.” Those who have not been fired with religious fervor are puzzled to the point of disbelief.
In 1844, John Tanner was called on a political mission to “electioneer for Joseph [Smith] to be the next President” of the United States (see History of the Church, vol. 6, pages 325 and 336). According to the Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia, vol. 4, page 801, before John Tanner started on this “political mission,” he went to
see the Prophet Joseph Smith, whom he met in the street. He held the Prophet’s note for $2,000, loaned in 1835, to redeem the Kirtland Temple farm, and in the course of the conversation he handed the Prophet his note. The Prophet not understanding what he meant by it, asked what he would have him do with it, and Father Tanner replied: “Brother Joseph, you are welcome to it.” The Prophet then laid his right hand heavily upon Father Tanner’s shoulder and said: “God bless you, Father Tanner, your children shall never beg bread.”. . . He went upon his mission, and was in the East when the Prophet and Patriarch were assassinated; . . .
In the book, Descendants of John Tanner, the ancestry of Jerald Tanner can be traced. Myron Tanner is listed as a son of John Tanner on page 25. On page 47 Caleb Thomas Tanner is listed as Myron’s son. Caleb is listed on page 129 as the father of George Tanner (not to be confused with George S. Tanner, who wrote the book we have previously cited), and on page 329, a list of George Tanner’s children are given. The second child listed is “Jerald Dee Tanner, born June 1st, 1938 at Provo, Utah.” N. Eldon Tanner’s descent is listed as follows: John Tanner had a son named Nathan (p. 36). Nathan was the father of John William Tanner (p. 38), who was the father of Nathan William Tanner (p. 93), and on page 255 we find that N. Eldon Tanner was the son of Nathan William Tanner. In addition to the data found in the two books published by the John Tanner Family Association, Michael Marquardt has obtained an “ARCHIVE RECORD” from the L.D.S. Genealogical Library which lists the genealogy from Myron (John Tanner’s son) to George (Jerald Tanner’s father). The information we have given in the two books and the Archive Record verifies the statement in Mormonism—Shadow or Reality? concerning the relationship between Jerald Tanner and N. Eldon Tanner.
In the letter from the lawyer of the organization of which Robert Brown is president, it is stated that an article in Christianity Today said “that Mrs. Sandra Tanner was a great-grand[d]aughter of Brigham Young.” Actually, the article in Christianity Today, June 16, 1982, page 31, claims that “Sandra is the great-great-granddaughter of Brigham Young. In any case, the fact that Sandra is a descendant of Brigham Young is very easy to prove. In fact, Robert and Rosemary Brown’s attack on Walter Martin’s ancestry provides the important keys. On page 282 of their book, They Lie in Wait to Deceive, vol. 3, “Brigham Young Jr.” is listed as Brigham Young’s son by his legal wife, Mary Ann Angell. On page 291 of the same book we read that one of the sources for “Brigham Young and his Descendants” is the “Family records of Viola Young Laxton.” These records “are found on microfilm at the LDS Genealogical Archives in Salt Lake City, Utah, and are available at any of the branch genealogical libraries.” It just so happens that Viola Young Laxton is Sandra Tanner’s aunt and we have a photocopy of a genealogical record showing the ancestry from Brigham Young, Jr., down to Sandra’s mother. As we have already noted, the Browns mention Brigham Young, Jr., (Sandra’s great-grandfather) as being President Brigham Young’s son. Viola Young Laxton’s document shows that Apostle Brigham Young, Jr., married Abigail Stevens and had a son (Sandra’s grandfather) named Walter Stevens Young. Walter Stevens Young married Sylvia Amelia Pearce who gave birth to Georgia Young (Sandra’s mother) in 1915. Georgia Young married Ivan Raymond McGee in 1936. Their daughter, Sandra McGee, married Jerald Tanner in 1959. Sandra remembers visiting her great-grandmother, Abigail Stevens Young, when she was a child and has preserved a clipping from a Salt Lake City newspaper, dated December 7, 1954, which contains this interesting historical information:
Mrs. Abbie Stevens Young . . . widow of Brigham Young Jr. and one of Utah’s first trained nurses, died at her home Monday . . .
The last surviving daughter-in-law of President Brigham Young . . . Mrs. Young married Brigham Young Jr. in the old Salt Lake Endowment House on Oct. 1, 1887. President of the Council of the Twelve, he died in 1903, widowing Mrs. Young, then 33, with seven children.
Since many articles and books have already been written on Brigham Young, the second president of the Mormon Church, we will not take the space to say anything more about him here.
While we disagree with the Browns concerning Joseph Smith and the truthfulness of Mormonism, we do agree that those who write against the Mormon Church should be willing to submit to an examination of their own claims, ancestry and credentials. While we do not believe that it makes people any more qualified to write on Mormonism if they are descended from prominent Mormons, it would certainly be a blow to our integrity if it could be demonstrated that we lied about our ancestry. In this short article we have clearly demonstrated that our claims can be verified. As the Browns are prone to say after presenting their evidence: CASE CLOSED, November 2, 1987.
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