Name Wilkins Tannehill Role Politician | Died 1858 | |
Wilkins F. Tannehill (1787–1858) was an American Whig politician and author. He served as the Mayor of Nashville, Tennessee from 1825 to 1827.
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Early life
Wilkins F. Tannehill was born on March 2, 1787 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He was a student at the Pittsburgh Academy, forerunner to the University of Pittsburgh. He had three sisters, Catherine, Rachel, and Nancy. He was the son of Josiah Tannehill (1752-1811), who had fought in the American Revolutionary War of 1775–1783 and Margaret Wilkins (1767-1811). His maternal grandfather John Wilkins, Sr. (1733-1810). His uncles were John Wilkins, Jr. (1761–1816), Quartermaster General of the United States Army from 1796 to 1802, and William Wilkins (1779–1865), who served as United States Senator from Pennsylvania from 1831 to 1834, United States Ambassador to Russia from 1835 to 1835, United States Representative for Pennsylvania's 21st congressional district from 1843 to 1844, and 19th United States Secretary of War from 1844 to 1845.
Career
Tannehill moved to Nashville in 1808, where he managed a warehouse owned by his uncle. During the War of 1812, they sold saltpeter critical for the war efforts. Later, he opened a grocery store in Nashville and Pulaski, Tennessee.
Tannehill served as alderman of Nashville in 1813 and Director of the Nashville Bank in 1814. He served on the Board of Trustees of Cumberland College, later known as the University of Nashville, from 1814 to 1821 and from 1825 to 1832. He served as Mayor of Nashville from 1825 to 1827. He founded two newspaper, The Daily Orthopolitan in 1845, and The Port Folio; or Journal of Freemasonry and General Literature, in 1847.
In 1849, Tannehill founded the Merchants Library and Reading Room, a subscription library in downtown Nashville. Hugh Henry Brackenridge called him "one of the most finished scholars of the West."
Freemasonry
Tannehill was a freemason. He became a Knight Templar in 1813. In 1817, he served as Grand Secretary and later as Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Tennessee. In the 1840s and 1850s, he helped raise money from other lodges for the Montgomery Masonic College (now known as Rhodes College) in Clarksville, Tennessee, Jackson College in Columbia, Tennessee, and small colleges in Huntingdon, Tennessee, Macon, Tennessee and Bradley County, Tennessee.
Personal life and death
Tannehill married Eliza Dewees in 1810. His brother-in-law was William Tyler Berry, who founded Berry Hill, Tennessee. With Eliza, he had a son, Wilkins Farmer Tannehill, who moved to Memphis, Tennessee, and five daughters: Eliza Jane Tannehill, Mary Tannehill, Anne Tannehill, Samuella Dewees Tannehill, and Helen Tannehill. He turned blind by the end of his life. He died on June 2, 1858, and he is buried in the Nashville City Cemetery.