Mary Allenah Tanner (William Lewis Tanner's Sister)

Mary Allenah Tanner was born October 25, 1842 in Meriden, New Haven, Connecticut. She was the first born of Lewis Alexander Tanner and Sarah Dibble Perkins. While her family lived there two brothers were born. William Lewis and Norman Alexander.

Connecticut Town Birth Records, Pre-1870 (Barbour Collection)

  Before the 1850 census their family moved about 6 miles to Wallingford, New Haven, Connecticut and two sisters were born, Anna Tanner & Ally Tanner. Anna only lived a few weeks. 

1850 Wallingford, New Haven, Connecticut Census with Lewis & Sarah's family

  In 1854 their family moved again about 12 miles to the busy seaport town of New Haven, Connecticut and bought the property at 117 East Pearl St. Their house was right down the street from the Quinnipiac River near all the wharves.

New Haven's harbor and long wharf 1849

 The town boasted a population of 20,000 and was the home of Yale University.  Her father was a tinsmith making oyster cans and his business partner Seth DeWolf lived with them from when she was small. School was not considered important for girls at this time so she was most likely taught at home how to cook, sew and raise children. Her sister Lilly born the year they moved to New Haven but only lived a few months. Her younger sister Ally passed away in 1856 at the age of 4 years old. As a family they attended the First Congregational Church about 2 miles away in town.

First Church of Christ, Congregational Church New Haven Connecticut (Photo taken about 1930)

She was about 19 when the civil war broke out in 1861.  Her brother William was a sailor at the time but their younger brother Norman enlisted in Company H, 27th Connecticut in 1861. When William returned from sea in August 1862, he enlisted in Company B, 1st Regiment, Connecticut Cavalry.

At the home front, New Haven was a busy place with their hospital turned into a designated military hospital. During the summer of 1863 she met a 23 year old, dark eyed Sergeant recovering from illness at the hospital. He had joined the 16th Connecticut Volunteer Infantry on August 11, 1862 and after the battle of Fredricksburg in December 1862, he took severe cold. In the morning he was stiff, lame, could hardly move and suffered severe pain in his limbs and back.  He had "contracted rheumatism through undue exposure by sleeping on the ground and traveling through mud and water ankle deep about their quarters. In the latter part of the summer of 1863 he was sent to the hospital in New Haven, where he met Mary.

His name was John Wesley Fielding and he was 5 ft 8 3/4 inches tall, fair complexion and dark hair. He is the son of Philander and Sophia Fielding and was born November 7, 1839 in Bolton, Tolland, Connecticut. 

John and Mary were married December 24, 1863 in Fair Haven, New Haven, Connecticut and lived with her family. She stayed with her family while John returned to his infantry unit and during this time their first child was born on November 2, 1864. She was a daughter they named Allenah Mary Fielding and they called her Lena.  

John came home when the war ended and in August of 1865 they moved to a home on Arch Street in New Britain in Connecticut. John was a carpenter by trade but also suffered from rheumatism, a condition resulting from his illness during the war. He was troubled with it frequently and each attack would last longer sometimes making it difficult to work.

On October 1, 1866 their first son was born and they named him Lewis, after her father.  In the spring of 1867 they moved to South Manchester and lived east of the Post Office.  In December of that same year, her father Lewis passed away at the age of 49. Mary and John continued to live in South Manchester until the Spring of 1869 when the moved to Gastonburg, a farming district situated about 3 miles away. Their son John Burdette was born here on November 26, 1869 and John was not able to work about half of the time because of his conditions. 

Lena, Lewis & John B Fielding

On August 27, 1871 their daughter Sarah was born and about this time they moved to back to Fair Haven and they lived there for a few years.  In January of 1875 they moved again, this time to  North Manchester and their child Adah G was born 28 May 1875.  John worked when he was able but would have bad spells often. Sometimes he was confined to his bed with swollen joints and sometimes he was able to work while still having pain in his hands, back or ankles. On August 29, 1876 their daughter Ida S. was born. 

Ida S Fielding

 Sometime before 1880 Mary and John lost two of their children, Sarah A and Adah, as they are not listed with the family on the census nor are they listed as living children on John's pension claim later. On the census they are living in Vernon, which is closer to a hospital for veterans where John could receive treatment.  Mary is able to stay home and keep house and Allenah works at the Woolen Mill. 

1880 US Census, Vernon, Tolland, Connecticut

Mary and John had another son on May 25, 1884 but he possibly didn't live very long and there is no name listed.  In August 1884, Mary's mother Sarah comes to visit and comes down with Typhoid fever (which can take 6 days to a couple months to show symptons) and she passes away on the 4th. 

Mary's brother William comes from Minneapolis for the funeral and all her siblings are together. 

Sarah leaves Mary a chamber set, feather bed and bedding, 2 pillows and divides her estate between Mary and her 3 siblings. The newspaper also reported when her sister, Ida came to visit in July 1885 and stayed for a few weeks, possibly for when Lena got married?

Lenah Fielding

In 1885 or 1886 Lena married a Benjamin Schofield and has 3 boys between August 1886 and June 1895. Lewis married Dolly Hainer on January 6, 1888 and Ida married Mryon Charles Dumore on August 12, 1894.

On June 21, 1895 John's ailments are bad enough he is admitted to Fitch's Home for Soldiers, also known as Connecticut Home for Soldiers.  He suffers from rheumatism, heart disease, atheroma, aortic stenosis, consumption and other ailments. John lives in this home until he passes away on April 14, 1912.

In January 1897 Mary's brother William passes away and leaves her $500 from his estate.

Around this time,  Mary moves in Lena and her family and by 1900 Mary and Lena are living in Massachusetts on Myrtle Street with both of them are listed as married but their husbands are not there. By 1910 they have moved to 44 Greenleaf Street in Portland, Cumberland, Maine and are both listed as widows, though we know John is still in the Home for Soldiers. 

On September 6, 1915 Lena remarries, this time a man named Roscoe Strout. They live at 413 Cumberland Ave, Portland and Mary lives with them until she passes away at the age of 82 on June 16, 1925 in Portland, Maine.  She is buried in the Forest City Cemetery, South Portland, Cumberland, Maine in the same cemetery as her daughter Lena. 

Research notes: John Burdette is listed in the William Tanner Sr & Descendents book on page 126 as his birthday is 26 Nov 1869. Also, his father writes in his pension declaration they were living in Glastonbury, Hartford, Connecticut at the time and he appears on the 1870 with his family in the same place and is listed as 7/12 months old. There's a social Security application for a John Berdett Fielding with a father of John Fielding and a mother of Mary Tanner and he list his birthdate as 7 Nov 1874 in New Haven, Connecticut and the family would have been living there at the time, but then he shouldn't be on the 1870 census. Therefore, I am keeping the date as the 1869 until I get better information showing differently.

Mary & John's other two children are listed in the William Tanner Sr and his Descendants 1910 written by Higginson on pg 126. 

The 1910 Census list Mary & Lena as widowed but John is alive until 1912 in the Connecticut Home for Soldiers. Also, Mary is listed as having 7 children, which we have accounted for but only 2 are alive.  John Burdette filled out a social security application in 1930 and Ida is alive on the 1910 census and 1920 census. 

I have copies of John's pension file that detail what he went through and his disabilities. He also writes down where they lived and when they moved from place to place. 

Lenah is listed on the 1900 Census in Haverhill, Massachusetts with the last name of Schofield and three boys. It also says she's been married for 14 years, putting the date about 1886.  I have yet to find a marriage record for her, but I am still looking. I have found her husband's name on her son Frank's Social Security Application, listed as Ben. Also, on their son William's marriage record in 1911,  it list his name as Benjamin and list him as dead.  I cannot find any death information on Ben, birth date or anything. I am still researching them.