Butler County Genealogy Trails Kansas J. Earl Tanner Bio

BUTLER COUNTY'S EIGHTY YEARS BIOS

J. EARL TANNER

(Transcribed by Lori DeWinkler)

J. Earl Tanner, cashier of the Walnut Valley State Bank, of El Dorado, president of the Towanda National Bank; vice chairman of the board of governors of Lions International, a member of the executive council of the American Bankers Association, and one of the best known figures in civic enterprises and Kansas banking and finance, was born at Wamego, Pottawatomie County, Kansas, on February 19, 1878.

Within the past fifteen years, Mr. Tanner has achieved genuine success as a constructive and progressive Kansas banker. He has the distinction of founding or being actively associated in the organizations of three important banking institutions of Butler County. In 1915, he founded the Andover State Bank, which institution he served as cashier and president for many years. He directed the organization, in 1923, of the Walnut Valley State Bank, the organization of the Mid-Continent Building and Loan Association of El Dorado, with which group he became a director; and later purchased a controlling interest in the Towanda National Bank, of which he is president. In September 1927, he perfected plans for liquidating the Security State Savings Bank. The stability of these institutions and the fine part they have played in Butler County during the last few troublous years, vitally attest the success Mr. Tanner has achieved as a level-headed and constructive banker.

A signal honor was paid to Mr. Tanner when he was elected by the Kansas Bankers Association to the executive council of the American Bankers Association. Mr. Tanner took office on October 25 (1934) at the close of the Sixtieth Annual Convention of the American Bankers’ Association, at Washington, D.C., following which the new council was organized. His term of office is for a three year period and his election to the council is considered a high honor. Membership on the executive council of the American Bankers’ Association is limited to three members from the state of Kansas.

Chronologically, Mr. Tanner has served as president of the Butler County Bankers Association doing the year 1926; was chairman of Group Five of the Kansas Bankers Association during the year 1927; was president of the El Dorado Country Club for the years 1932 and 1933 and also president of the Lions Club of El Dorado for the fiscal years 1931-1932 and 1932-1933. He was state vice president for Kansas of the American Bankers Association for the fiscal years 1933 and 1934; was District Governor of the Seventeenth District (comprising the State of Kansas) of Lions International for the year 1933-34, and at the annual convention of Lions International held at Grand Rapids, Michigan, July 1934, was elected vice chairman of the Board of Governors, which position he now holds. At the annual convention of the Kansas Bankers Association held at Wichita, Kansas, May 1934, the American Bankers Association members elected Mr. Tanner to the executive council of the American Bankers Association for a term of three years.

Mr. Tanner’s business record is one hundred per cent in that every institution in which he was directly interested in founding, continues strong, and with every probability of further development. In addition to his regular business activities, he has found time to assume the responsibilities of successful citizenship. He is a regular attendant of the First Baptist church. He takes an industrious interest in the movements of the local Lions Service Club, the Country Club and other El Dorado organizations.

Among Mr. Tanner’s other affiliations, he is a life member of the alumni Association of University of Nebraska. His Masonic affiliations are as follows: Patmos Lodge No. 97 A. F & A. M.,El Dorado; Kaw Valley Chapter No. 53 R. A. M., Wamego; Mount Olivet Commandery No. 12 K. T., Wichita; Topeka Consistory No. 1,Topeka; Augusta Council No. 20 R. & S. M., Augusta, and Midian Temple A. A. O. N. M. S., Wichita.

Suggestive of educational and business training and his importance among the bankers of the state, the following excerpt is taken from the official publication of the State Bankers’ Association:

“J. Earl Tanner was born on a farm in Pottawatomie County,Kansas, in 1878, and spent his early life there. As was the custom in those days, he worked on his father’s farm about ten months of the year and the remaining two months attended a country school. His father being in the ministry, he had not accumulated sufficient to provide a higher education for his family, and after attaining his majority, J. Earl, as he is commonly known, secured employment at feeding cattle on a farm near St. Mary’s, Kansas, and from this job saved enough money at $15 a month, to enter the Kansas State Agriculture College at Manhattan. There he remained until he reached his junior year when he decided to study law and entered the College of Law, University of Nebraska, in 1902, receiving his Bachelor of Laws degree with the class of 1904, at which time he was admitted to practice in all the courts of Nebraska.

“Upon leaving the University, he engaged his life insurance work, which he followed (with the exception of about two years spent in traveling in Atlantic coast states, with Philadelphia as headquarters) until 1915, at which time he was state manager for Kansas for the Security Mutual Life Insurance company, New York, with offices at Topeka.

“Mr. Tanner has traveled extensively in the United States and Canada and has a world of loyal friends. His election (1922) to the position of vice president of the Kansas State Bankers Association for the Eighth district is but another testimonial of his ability and character. He is loyal to the bankers of Kansas, and, being of wide influence in the state, is able to fill any position with honor and success.”

Mr. Tanner’s father, Captain John W. Tanner, was a native of Ohio, and was born July 20, 1829. He enlisted in the Civil War with the 70th Ohio Volunteers of the 198th Ohio Volunteers at the age of 21. He was with Sherman on the famous march through Georgia and the Carolinas, which resulted in the quick collapse of the Confederacy. Captain Tanner’s parents, the grandparents of J. Earl Tanner, were Edward and Elizabeth (Ramey) Tanner, both of whom were born in Ohio. Their parents, the great grandparents of the subject of this sketch, were born in Virginia. The great grandfather was of English descent. He was captured, when fifteen years old, by the Indians and taken to Sandusky, Ohio, where he remained for three and one-half years. He was ransomed by the government and returned to his home in Virginia, which consisted of 500 acres of land. After that he married Sarah Brown, who was of Irish descent, and they moved to Ohio in a keel boat, settling in Muskingum County, and living there the remainder of their lives.

Captain John W. Tanner, father of J. Earl Tanner, was educated for the ministry and shortly after removal to Kansas to the late sixties, was a Methodist circuit rider with congregations at Wamego, Doniphan and other places in northeast Kansas. Later he settled on a farm near Wamego, and retired from active business about 1918, when over 80 years of age. In addition to preaching and farming he taught school in Pottawatomie County and in the late 1880’s and early 1890’s acted as county surveyor. J. Earl Tanner’s mother was Mary R. (Remlear) Tanner, a native of Pennsylvania. Her parents also were Pennsylvanians, the original Remlears coming to America nearly 100 years ago. Both parents died during an epidemic when Mrs. Tanner was a child. She died March 19, 1914.

J. Earl Tanner married Mrs. Mollie Bender Purdie, at Wichita, January 3, 1914. She was born in Bloomington, Illinois and died in El Dorado April 10, 1925.

On June 9, 1928, Mr. Tanner was united in marriage to Mrs. Mabel Alta Andrews, of El Dorado. Mr. and Mrs. Tanner have two daughters, Alta Isabelle and Barbara Tanner, at home. Mrs. Tanner is a member of the First Baptist Church, the E. M. B. Club and the Saturday Afternoon Music Club. She was born January 7, 1892, in Sullivan County, near Hymera, Indiana, the daughter of Reuben Jacob and Minerva Retta (Plew) Rein, who live in Paris, Tennessee. Mrs. Tanner’s mother was born in Green County, near Linton, Indiana, and is of Irish descent. Her father was born in Sullivan County, Indiana, and is of German and French ancestry. James Plew, maternal grandfather of Mrs. Tanner, was pastor of an Indiana Baptist church. He was born in Kentucky and died in Green County,Indiana in 1886, at the age of 67 years. His mother was Minerva Plew, who was born in Sullivan County and died in Green County Indiana, in 1860. Mrs. Tanner’s paternal grandfather was Heinrich Rein, who was born in Germany and came to America when he was 18 years old. He died in Hymera, Indiana, in 1900, at the age of 66 years. His wife, Edith Rein, the grandmother of Mrs. Tanner, was born in Sullivan County, Indiana and died in Paris, Tennessee, in 1897, at the age of 69 years.