Joseph M. Tanner
Joseph Marion "Jay" Tanner (March 26, 1859 – August 19, 1927) was an American educator and a leader in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). He has been described as "one of the most gifted teachers and writers in the [LDS] Church in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries".[1]
Tanner was born in Payson, Utah Territory, in a Latter-day Saint family. He attended Brigham Young Academy in Provo, Utah before departing the United States as a missionary for the LDS Church. From 1884 to 1887, he preached Mormonism in Europe and the Middle East. Along with Jacob Spori, he was the first LDS Church missionary to preach in the Ottoman Empire—where they baptized Mischa Markow—and was the organizer of the first branch of the LDS Church in Palestine.
From 1887 to 1891, Tanner was the principal of Brigham Young College in Logan, Utah. In 1891, he became the leader of the first group of Latter-day Saints to enroll at Harvard University. Tanner studied law at Harvard Law School until 1894, when his ill health prompted him to return to Utah.
From 1896 to 1900, Tanner was president of Utah Agricultural College, which is today Utah State University.
In 1901, Tanner succeeded Karl G. Maeser and became the second Commissioner of Church Education for the LDS Church. At the same time, he became the second assistant to Lorenzo Snow in the general superintendency of the church's Deseret Sunday School Union. When Snow died and was succeeded by Joseph F. Smith, Tanner became Smith's second assistant in the church's Sunday School.
Tanner retired in 1906 and emigrated to Alberta, Canada, where he farmed in the Cardston area.
From 1906 to 1921 Tanner wrote extensively for the Improvement Era, an official periodical of the LDS Church. He wrote a number of books, including manuals for the church's Sunday School and a biography of John R. Murdock.
Tanner was a practitioner of plural marriage and had six wives. His second wife, Annie Clark Tanner, reported his abandoning her and their children.[2][3]
Tanner died in Lethbridge, Alberta, and was buried in Salt Lake City, Utah.
See also
[edit]Notes
[edit]- ^ Arnold K. Garr, Donald Q. Cannon & Richard O. Cowan (eds.) (2000). Encyclopedia of Latter-day Saint History (Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book) s.v. Tanner, Joseph M.
- ^ Annie C. Tanner (1941) (1983 reprint). A Mormon Mother: An Autobiography by Annie Clark Tanner (Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature Books) pp. 236–241.
- ^ Jeffrey Nichols (2002). Prostitution, Polygamy, and Power: Salt Lake City, 1847-1918 (Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature Books) p. 17.
References
[edit]- Arnold K. Garr, Donald Q. Cannon & Richard O. Cowan (eds.) (2000). Encyclopedia of Latter-day Saint History (Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book)
- Margery W. Ward (1980). A Life Divided: The Biography of Joseph Marion Tanner, 1859–1927 (Shepherdsville, Ken.: Publishers Press)
| International | |
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| National | |
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- 1859 births
- 1927 deaths
- 19th-century Mormon missionaries
- American Latter Day Saint writers
- American Mormon missionaries in Palestine (region)
- American emigrants to Canada
- American expatriates in the Ottoman Empire
- American leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
- Brigham Young College faculty
- Canadian Latter Day Saint writers
- Canadian Latter Day Saints
- Canadian leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
- Commissioners of Church Education (LDS Church)
- Counselors in the General Presidency of the Sunday School (LDS Church)
- Harvard Law School alumni
- Latter Day Saints from Massachusetts
- Latter Day Saints from Utah
- Mormon missionaries in Europe
- Mormon missionaries in the Ottoman Empire
- People from Cardston County
- People from Payson, Utah
- Presidents of Utah State University
- Tanner family
- Utah State University faculty
- Writers from Logan, Utah