Bill’s Family - Person Sheet
Bill’s Family - Person Sheet
NameMelzer Tannehill 
, 1C5R, T540, 4017, M
, 1C5R, T540, 4017, MBirth18 Jun 1801, Butler County, Pa
FatherMelzer Tannehill , 2606, M (1766-1851)
MotherEleanor Lisle , 3233, F (~1766-)
Misc. Notes
From “History of John and Rachael Tannehill and their Descendants” by Letitia Tannehill Coe 1903
Melzer, my father, was born June 18, 1801. In Butler county, Pa. He came with his father’s family to Jefferson co., Ohio in 1805, and to this place, then Richland County, now Ashland County, in 1811. In addition to the ordinary hardships of pioneer life, he met with an
accident when about fifteen years of age, caused by jumping from a haymow to the barn floor, that resulted in necrosis of one of the bones of the leg below the knee, which caused him much suffering, but from which he finally recovered after severe surgical treatment. His time, during the sickness, was devoted to study of which he was always fond. When he recovered and again able to perform manual labor, his older brothers were all married. His parents were old and much broken and the family burdens rested largely upon him. He married in 1827, Miss Sarah Oliver, a sister of his Brother Charles’ wife. After a marriage of his younger sister he moved his family to the homestead and assumed the care of his parents, which duty was conscientiously and lovingly filled. His children were
1. Elizabeth, born 1828, who married, first J. A. Vanhorn, who died in 1858 leaving a daughter, Agnes E., who married J. W. Kelley; lives in Gallion, Ohio. She is the mother of five lovely daughters. Elizabeth, afterwards married Wilson Knos, by whom she had three sons; Melzar F. of Kansas City, w.W. of Chicago and Oliver Lisle of Mansfield, Ohio. She died in 1900.
2. Charles Lisle, born in 1831. He went to Missouri in 1854 and engaged in teaching, in which calling he was very successful. While teaching he studied law and at the close of the war, in which he had been engaged in the Confederate service, he began the practice of law in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, where he still resides. He never married.
3. Nancy Eleanor, born in 1833, who lives in her own home in Perrysville, interspersed with visits to her nieces, a typical maiden aunt.
4. Mary, born in 1835, was a teacher for several years but did not teach for some years preceding her death, which occurred in 1884, after an illness of many months.
Lastly Letitia J. – Myself – born August 24, 1838. After several years spent in teaching, I was married February 28, 1867 to Nathaniel McD. Coe. He was a very energetic practical man and good financier. He bought the old homestead, on which I still live, with those of my daughters who are unmarried. He served the Presbyterian Church at Perrysville as Elder for 24 years preceding his death; also
as trustee and treasurer as long. His death was a calamity both to his family and the community. He died February 15, 1897. Our children are:
1. Stella Grace
2. Eleanor Winfred
3. Anna Louise
4. Joy Willard (who died in infancy)
5. Mary Leila
6. Sarah Letitia
7. Olive Marie.
The three older daughters are unmarried. They are sensible, energetic, practical women and manage the farm and household affairs. The two next are well and happily married, and the youngest is at home, the life of the household.
Melzer, my father, was born June 18, 1801. In Butler county, Pa. He came with his father’s family to Jefferson co., Ohio in 1805, and to this place, then Richland County, now Ashland County, in 1811. In addition to the ordinary hardships of pioneer life, he met with an
accident when about fifteen years of age, caused by jumping from a haymow to the barn floor, that resulted in necrosis of one of the bones of the leg below the knee, which caused him much suffering, but from which he finally recovered after severe surgical treatment. His time, during the sickness, was devoted to study of which he was always fond. When he recovered and again able to perform manual labor, his older brothers were all married. His parents were old and much broken and the family burdens rested largely upon him. He married in 1827, Miss Sarah Oliver, a sister of his Brother Charles’ wife. After a marriage of his younger sister he moved his family to the homestead and assumed the care of his parents, which duty was conscientiously and lovingly filled. His children were
1. Elizabeth, born 1828, who married, first J. A. Vanhorn, who died in 1858 leaving a daughter, Agnes E., who married J. W. Kelley; lives in Gallion, Ohio. She is the mother of five lovely daughters. Elizabeth, afterwards married Wilson Knos, by whom she had three sons; Melzar F. of Kansas City, w.W. of Chicago and Oliver Lisle of Mansfield, Ohio. She died in 1900.
2. Charles Lisle, born in 1831. He went to Missouri in 1854 and engaged in teaching, in which calling he was very successful. While teaching he studied law and at the close of the war, in which he had been engaged in the Confederate service, he began the practice of law in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, where he still resides. He never married.
3. Nancy Eleanor, born in 1833, who lives in her own home in Perrysville, interspersed with visits to her nieces, a typical maiden aunt.
4. Mary, born in 1835, was a teacher for several years but did not teach for some years preceding her death, which occurred in 1884, after an illness of many months.
Lastly Letitia J. – Myself – born August 24, 1838. After several years spent in teaching, I was married February 28, 1867 to Nathaniel McD. Coe. He was a very energetic practical man and good financier. He bought the old homestead, on which I still live, with those of my daughters who are unmarried. He served the Presbyterian Church at Perrysville as Elder for 24 years preceding his death; also
as trustee and treasurer as long. His death was a calamity both to his family and the community. He died February 15, 1897. Our children are:
1. Stella Grace
2. Eleanor Winfred
3. Anna Louise
4. Joy Willard (who died in infancy)
5. Mary Leila
6. Sarah Letitia
7. Olive Marie.
The three older daughters are unmarried. They are sensible, energetic, practical women and manage the farm and household affairs. The two next are well and happily married, and the youngest is at home, the life of the household.
Misc. Notes
Melzar Tannehill’s Family
My uncles, Adamson and Harvey, I never saw. Uncle Charles resembled my grandfather very much when he became aged, although in appearance he was larger and more robust; he was more abrupt in his manner, but was of a genial disposition. He was a very good man and much respected. I do not remember seeing Uncle Basil but two or three times. He looked like Uncle Charles. Aunt Letty Day was rather small, had dark hair streaked with gray that lay in heavy waves. I think her eyes were hazel, her complexion fair and fresh. Her husband died of consumption when her youngest daughter, Eleanor was a child. My father drove about 50 miles and brought herself and little family and established them in a comfortable double cabin on
his farm, looked after her family and gave employment to her sons until they were old enough to go to trades. Later he deeded a small farm that he owned, to her and his sister, Nancy (who had also been left a widow, but not so dependent, and who he had brought fully the same distance also.) for a merely nominal sum, and looked after the comfort of each family. Aunt letty died of consumption in 1847, her oldest son having preceded her, dying of the same disease. Eleanor the youngest daughter died of the same disease at my father’s home in 1852.
My father and mother never talked about what they had done for the aged parents, or the widowed sisters and their little children, but in later years I have come to realize the unselfishness and magnanimity that prompted much self sacrifice on their part for the well-being of those less fortunate than themselves.
Aunt Nancy’s husband, Dr. Anderson, died of consumption about in 1837, and both of her daughters died of the same disease. Both were young and unmarried and both had been teachers. Aunt Nancy lived to her 83rd year and yielded to the infirmities of age. She was laid to rest beside her daughters in Perrysville Cemetery.
Aunt Nancy differed from her sisters in appearance; she was taller and more angular in build, quick and decided in her manners, practical, kind and generous; intelligent and a woman of good judgment. She was a great favorite among us.
Aunt Rachel Irvin was in appearance very much like Aunt Letty, though not as handsome. She was of a most happy disposition and bore the petulance and ill nature of her husband with unvarying cheerfulness and kindness.
Aunt Sallie Ayres was the youngest and handsomest of my grandfather’s family. She was married at seventeen; had thirteen children and was left a widow at forty-five. Her oldest daughter was married and her two older sons were in California. The oldest at home was twenty-two years of age; then came eight daughters and one other son, who was just a child. By frugality and good management she reared and educated this large family in a most commendable way. She died in 1882 and was buried in Perrysville. She retained her beauty all her life. My father said as he bent over her as she lay
in a burial casket, “Sally always pretty and is pretty yet.”
My father was rather unlike any the rest of the family in feature. He was rather more squarely and compactly built than his brothers and perhaps not quite as tall. I think he more nearly represented the Scottish blood of his family and his father and brothers, Charles and Basil, the English. His features were rugged, check bones prominent, large nose, firm lips, clear gray eyes, very fair complexion somewhat fresh, but not red, and fine, soft, and very black hair, He was a man of excellent judgment, just, charitable, hospitable, honorable in all things. He was well informed on current events, history, especially American History and had very great interest in scientific subjects. He was much interested in education and in everything that led to the betterment of humanity. In faith he was a Presbyterian. As in all his family, though not in the least secretarian. He held to his own belief in religion, politics, which were Republican, and in all leading subjects and recognized the rights of others to conscientiously differ with him.
My mother was of Dutch descent, tracing her ancestry to the first settlers of New York. The Dutch blood was reinforced some time in the first half of the eighteenth century by the marriage of Peter Lourens Kinney, who came from Holland, to Catherine Duboise. These were my mother’s great grandparents. She was a most exemplary woman, inheriting the characteristics of her Dutch ancestors: Industry, frugality, hospitality, kindliness, ever ready to lend a helping hand to the poor and unfortunate, and that without ostentation. My brother used to say “When I find a woman like mother, then I will marry.” He never married. She entered into rest April 29, 1876.
My unmarried sisters cared for my father the remainder of his life. He died May 17,1886. Both were buried in Perrysville Cemetery.
My grandmother Tannehill died in 1840. She was of Scotch-Irish parentage, counting descent from the Campbells of Scotland. My grandfather died April 24, 1851. In his personal appearance, as I remember him, he was quite feeble. He was bent and always walked with a cane. He was quite crippled with rheumatism. His head was bald and we children always braided the thin silvery locks remaining in a queue – very often ornamenting it with flowers. He had a large, well
developed forehead, large Roman nose, was clean shaven except a small lock in front of each ear; his eyes were blue, complexion fair and somewhat ruddy. I think his hair had been dark. He was of a cheerful, affectionate disposition, and his mental faculties, which he retained until the hour of his death, were of a good order. In his younger days he had been entrusted with important public offices and was a man of strict integrity. In spite of the very limited educational facilities afforded in a new country, my grandfather’s family each had what was then considered a fair education, and all were considered very intelligent people.
I think that our great grandfather, John Tannehill, was a man of energy and enterprise; that he was a good man for he raised a large family of good men. I judge their characters by the letters in my possession and from my grandfather’s character and what he told me of his family. I do not think any of us need be ashamed of our Tannehill ancestry either in a moral or intellectual point of view. We sprang from “the common people” and are not much better or worse than other folks; as a rule we have tried to live clean lives, to deal justly and love mercy and follow in the steps of the Master.
Letitia Tannehill Coe.
Perrysville, Ohio,
January 5, 1903.
My uncles, Adamson and Harvey, I never saw. Uncle Charles resembled my grandfather very much when he became aged, although in appearance he was larger and more robust; he was more abrupt in his manner, but was of a genial disposition. He was a very good man and much respected. I do not remember seeing Uncle Basil but two or three times. He looked like Uncle Charles. Aunt Letty Day was rather small, had dark hair streaked with gray that lay in heavy waves. I think her eyes were hazel, her complexion fair and fresh. Her husband died of consumption when her youngest daughter, Eleanor was a child. My father drove about 50 miles and brought herself and little family and established them in a comfortable double cabin on
his farm, looked after her family and gave employment to her sons until they were old enough to go to trades. Later he deeded a small farm that he owned, to her and his sister, Nancy (who had also been left a widow, but not so dependent, and who he had brought fully the same distance also.) for a merely nominal sum, and looked after the comfort of each family. Aunt letty died of consumption in 1847, her oldest son having preceded her, dying of the same disease. Eleanor the youngest daughter died of the same disease at my father’s home in 1852.
My father and mother never talked about what they had done for the aged parents, or the widowed sisters and their little children, but in later years I have come to realize the unselfishness and magnanimity that prompted much self sacrifice on their part for the well-being of those less fortunate than themselves.
Aunt Nancy’s husband, Dr. Anderson, died of consumption about in 1837, and both of her daughters died of the same disease. Both were young and unmarried and both had been teachers. Aunt Nancy lived to her 83rd year and yielded to the infirmities of age. She was laid to rest beside her daughters in Perrysville Cemetery.
Aunt Nancy differed from her sisters in appearance; she was taller and more angular in build, quick and decided in her manners, practical, kind and generous; intelligent and a woman of good judgment. She was a great favorite among us.
Aunt Rachel Irvin was in appearance very much like Aunt Letty, though not as handsome. She was of a most happy disposition and bore the petulance and ill nature of her husband with unvarying cheerfulness and kindness.
Aunt Sallie Ayres was the youngest and handsomest of my grandfather’s family. She was married at seventeen; had thirteen children and was left a widow at forty-five. Her oldest daughter was married and her two older sons were in California. The oldest at home was twenty-two years of age; then came eight daughters and one other son, who was just a child. By frugality and good management she reared and educated this large family in a most commendable way. She died in 1882 and was buried in Perrysville. She retained her beauty all her life. My father said as he bent over her as she lay
in a burial casket, “Sally always pretty and is pretty yet.”
My father was rather unlike any the rest of the family in feature. He was rather more squarely and compactly built than his brothers and perhaps not quite as tall. I think he more nearly represented the Scottish blood of his family and his father and brothers, Charles and Basil, the English. His features were rugged, check bones prominent, large nose, firm lips, clear gray eyes, very fair complexion somewhat fresh, but not red, and fine, soft, and very black hair, He was a man of excellent judgment, just, charitable, hospitable, honorable in all things. He was well informed on current events, history, especially American History and had very great interest in scientific subjects. He was much interested in education and in everything that led to the betterment of humanity. In faith he was a Presbyterian. As in all his family, though not in the least secretarian. He held to his own belief in religion, politics, which were Republican, and in all leading subjects and recognized the rights of others to conscientiously differ with him.
My mother was of Dutch descent, tracing her ancestry to the first settlers of New York. The Dutch blood was reinforced some time in the first half of the eighteenth century by the marriage of Peter Lourens Kinney, who came from Holland, to Catherine Duboise. These were my mother’s great grandparents. She was a most exemplary woman, inheriting the characteristics of her Dutch ancestors: Industry, frugality, hospitality, kindliness, ever ready to lend a helping hand to the poor and unfortunate, and that without ostentation. My brother used to say “When I find a woman like mother, then I will marry.” He never married. She entered into rest April 29, 1876.
My unmarried sisters cared for my father the remainder of his life. He died May 17,1886. Both were buried in Perrysville Cemetery.
My grandmother Tannehill died in 1840. She was of Scotch-Irish parentage, counting descent from the Campbells of Scotland. My grandfather died April 24, 1851. In his personal appearance, as I remember him, he was quite feeble. He was bent and always walked with a cane. He was quite crippled with rheumatism. His head was bald and we children always braided the thin silvery locks remaining in a queue – very often ornamenting it with flowers. He had a large, well
developed forehead, large Roman nose, was clean shaven except a small lock in front of each ear; his eyes were blue, complexion fair and somewhat ruddy. I think his hair had been dark. He was of a cheerful, affectionate disposition, and his mental faculties, which he retained until the hour of his death, were of a good order. In his younger days he had been entrusted with important public offices and was a man of strict integrity. In spite of the very limited educational facilities afforded in a new country, my grandfather’s family each had what was then considered a fair education, and all were considered very intelligent people.
I think that our great grandfather, John Tannehill, was a man of energy and enterprise; that he was a good man for he raised a large family of good men. I judge their characters by the letters in my possession and from my grandfather’s character and what he told me of his family. I do not think any of us need be ashamed of our Tannehill ancestry either in a moral or intellectual point of view. We sprang from “the common people” and are not much better or worse than other folks; as a rule we have tried to live clean lives, to deal justly and love mercy and follow in the steps of the Master.
Letitia Tannehill Coe.
Perrysville, Ohio,
January 5, 1903.