Charles W. TENNEY

TENNEY, LA DUE, HAYS

Posted By: Sharon R Becker (email)
Date: 2/25/2011 at 01:04:49

1883 History of Franklin and Cerro Gordo Counties, Iowa

CHARLES W. TENNEY

Charles W. Tenney was the first of the family to come to Falls township, Cerro Gordo county, where he still resides. He was born Feb. 16, 1834. In pioneer days he often visited northern Iowa, south western Minnesota and Dakota, hunting and trapping. He was the first treasurer and recorder of Cerro Gordo county and has also been county surveyor He was also a member of the board of supervisors and was elected to the lower house of the State Legislature, the district at that time comprising the counties of Cerro Gordo, Worth, Winnebago and Kossuth. He has been twice a trustee of the Iowa State Agricultural College, served in all about seven years, but resigned in 1882 because of ill health, being succeeded by Governor Kirkwood.

He has been married twice. His first wife was Mary A. La Due, to whom he was married Sept. 12, 1857, by whom he had eight children-Thomas L. D., Edward H., Mary E., (deceased when two years of age), Charles I., Nina A., Mattie P., Hattie I. and Georgie H., (died in infancy). May 5, 1875, he married Anna E. Hays, of Cincinnatus, N. Y. They have had three children-Johnnie H., (deceased), Dewitt C. and Albert W. Charles W.

Tenney's home is Beaver Grove, his stock farm adjoining the village of Plymouth, which he helped to found. His east and home farms contain about 700 acres of prairie and timber land, well watered by Beaver Dam creek and Rocky Branch. He is greatly interested in agricultural pursuits, and was a member of the first class in the first agricultural college in the United States. His failing health prevents his being actively engaged in any occupation at the present time.

SOURCE: History of Franklin and Cerro Gordo Counties, Iowa. p. 683. Union Publishing Co. Springfield IL. 1883.

Transcription by Susan Steveson