Memorials › Ezra Tanner
Ezra Tanner
1822 – 1877
| Birth | 1822 |
| Death | 1877 |
| Cemetery | Happy Camp District Cemetery Happy Camp , Siskiyou County , California , USA |
| Added by | James Price on 05 Aug 2012 |
| FaG | https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/66147173 |
Bio
Ezra Tanner was born at Tanner Hill, NY (now Schulyer Herkimer Co. NY) to Francis Tanner and Patience Sherman. He is 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 become known as Tanner Hill. Ezra's grandfather, Isaac Tanner, moved to New York in 1796 where he purchased 1200 acres in Herkimer Co. for $4.50 and acre. The family moved from Rhode Island in a wagon of Isaac's own contruction and a team of oxen. After securing the deed to his property, he laid out nine farms for his nine grown children, located on one of the highest points in Herkimer Co., NY. On the section laid out to Ezra's father is where he was born and grew up with his younger siblings. Ezra began his westward movement with his marriage to Laura Ann Lease a farm girl whose parents were John and Hannah Lease from Salem, Racine Co. WI. About this time the news world-wide was that of the Gold Strikes in the West, as well as in 1850 when Oregon passed the Donation Land Claim Law and was offering free land for anyone who wanted to claim it,clear it and live on it. Ezra and Laura on December 1, 1852 arrived in Oregon and made claim to 160 acre Donation Land Claim #1530, near Waldo by Mar 27, 1854 along with many other farmers. The town was a Sailors gulch and was booming. It was a time of unrest with the settlers and attacks by various bands of Indians unhappy with the occupying of their native land. Ezra's plan for their farm came apart when the divorce of him and Laura was filed in November 1857. No children were born from this union and Laura returned to her homeland. March 1, 1859 he mortgaged his farm for the sum of $1200. and become a miner and took to the mountains where he lived in the Siskiyou Range during the "mining months" and the lowlands at the base of the mountain during the winter. Later named Tanner Mountain, Tanner Lake where it is believed he had a summer camp where he love to fish . In 1874 his 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, CA were traveling the Waldo trail and stopped at Ezra's camp to rest and during their visit Elizabeth sold her daughter, Emily, to him for his bride. He built them a cabin nearer to Happy Camp at East Fork of Indian Creek and there his daughter was born, Amanda. Not long after his health was failing and when his daughter was two, Ezra was laid to rest in the Happy Camp Cemetery. Some years after his death the places where he mined became known as Tanner Mt., Tanner Lake and Tanner Creek as they appeared on the maps of Southern Oregon and Northern California from 1920-1970s. Most of his descendants live in the Siskiyou co., 5th and 6th generations near the town cemetery in Happy Camp where he lies within sight of Indian Creek, the flowing stream of the creek comes 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 fortunes in gold, mineral or land.
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