The Horace A. Tenney papers contain primarily correspondence, arranged in chronological order. At the end of the collection are a few other items: a volume relevant to the Republican State Central Committee with lists of Republican voters, a volume of reminiscences of his Civil War experiences, and a few photographs made about 1900 and showing the Tenney family homestead(s?) at Bradford (now Groveland), Mass. and tombstones of family members, 1748-1803, in the Bradford church cemetery.
The family papers in the collection consist principally of letters to Horace A. Tenney from his parents, Sylvia and Daniel Tenney of La Porte, Ohio and from his brothers and sisters: Henry W. Tenney of Galena, Milwaukee, Portage, and Chicago; B. J. Tenney of Burlington, Vermont and New York State; D. K. Tenney of Portage and Madison; Mrs. Maria Waggoner, Galena and Kansas; Mrs. Emily Chetlien of Galena and Chicago; and Mrs. Electa Miller of Colorado. There are also letters from these members of the family to each other and a few from other relatives besides those mentioned above.
The collection also contains typewritten copies of letters, 1797-1832, written by Cornelius Cadle, a merchant of New York City. These deal largely with family and business matters. There are a few letters written by Cadle's wife Hannah during the same years. There is also a typewritten record of the Cadle family in England and America.
With the exception of the letters from Henry W. Tenney the family letters deal mostly with personal affairs. There are a few occasional comments on public events, for instance B. J. Tenney in 1838 writes from the University of Vermont about the Canadian revolution, and in 1840 speaks of the Whig convention in the region.
The most valuable of the family letters are the series from Henry W. Tenney of Milwaukee. Henry had been associated with Horace in the establishment of the Galena Jeffersonian in 1845; in 1847 he moved to Milwaukee. From that city he wrote numerous letters to his brother. He was a facile writer, clever, keen, and observing. Some of the letters were written for publication under the pseudonym John Barleycorn. Others appear over his own signature. He comments on current events, personalities, criticizes the policy and tone of newspapers, and offers suggestions for improvements. He opposed the adoption of the second constitution and gives considerable information on the agitation in Milwaukee over its adoption: “The constitution battle wages unabated, & ward meetings, & Dutch meetings, & Irish meetings are held without number,” he wrote on March 20. The letters contain other local items of information on land speculation in which the brothers were engaged. At that time Henry was studying law in the office of Judge Levi Hubbell, and later he established a law practice in partnership with John P. MacGregor. About three dozen letters in the five years beginning with 1853 contain a story of the rise and fall of a dream of wealth based on speculation in city lots. “Land speculation is the thing in a new country” he wrote on April 19, 1853. “Show me a man in Wisconsin, if you can, that has made anything considerable in any other way but to do it to advantage, a man must be on the ground - must do even as Farwell is doing in Madison.” After some months of investigation Henry moved to Portage, investing in lots in that city and in the rising village of Newport. The latter, he wrote on June 24, 1854: “has grown, & is growing very rapidly & is bound to be a great city.” Five years later, June 28, 1858, he drew a ludicrous picture of his plight: “A little while ago I was rich, now I am obliged to consider where I shall hide when I see the sheriff after me with the 'power of the county' at his back. I have thought of the cave in the Dells where Black Hawk hid after the disastrous day of Bad Ax - but that is too near Kilbourn City.” His letters show too the feverish interest in the locating of railroad routes, an interest that was particularly intense in Portage where the residents hoped to benefit both by the railroads and the completion of the Fox-Wisconsin waterway.
Horace Tenney had begun his career as a newspaper writer and among all the vicissitudes of fortune he maintained an interest in fellow journalists. A number of letters appear in the collection from newspaper men, English and German, in Wisconsin, most of whom were like Tenney, pioneers in the field. Chief among those newspaper men with whom he maintained a connection was Josiah Noonan of Milwaukee, who was like Tenney, a native of New York State. There are about thirty or more Noonan letters, 1853-1874, regarding newspaper articles, appointments, and the investigation of 1858, and showing the influence of newspaper writers in shaping state events. The letters ended in 1874 when Noonan was in Chicago editing the Industrial Age.
There are also a number of letters from S. D. Carpenter of Madison, ending about 1874 when Carpenter was trying to perfect and patent an invention of a lock-binding harvester.
In 1853 Tenney went to Pierce County to select lands for the University. There he formed the acquaintance of O. T. Maxson and other local residents, all of whose letters appear in these papers. His University correspondence includes several letters from Carl Schurz. In one of his letters Carl Schurz refuses an invitation to join the faculty of the University on the grounds of insufficient salary. He is, he adds, “still wavering” on the proposition to enter business in Chicago, partly because he dislikes leaving Wisconsin. Other Wisconsin educators represented the collection are Ezra S. Carr, A. P. Ladd, John G. McMynn, and Josiah Pickard.
Through his brother Henry, Horace had become acquainted with Levi Hubbell of Milwaukee. About half a dozen letters from Judge Hubbell, 1852-1854, discuss local politics and the Hubbell impeachment trial. There are also letters from another judge, William P. Lyon of Racine, in the latter part of the 1850s.
Political correspondence begins in earnest in 1858. As state party chairman, Tenney was responsible for the mass convention of the newly formed Republicans. A volume contains the names of members of the Republican Central Committee in 1857, and names of voters by county. There is correspondence with local politicians, newspaper men, candidates, and state officials. Prominent among the latter group are C. C. Washburn, Amasa Cobb, Timothy Howe, John Fox Potter, and J. R. Doolittle (whose letters run through about twenty years). There are also letters from Wisconsin governors at this time and later years - in fact, almost every governor from 1852 to 1880 is represented in this correspondence. Those from L. V. Farwell are especially numerous. In the early 1870s Farwell was in business in Chicago and was burned out in the fire. He moved to Worth County, Missouri, and opened a land agency. Two dozen or more letters in the Tenney papers describe Farwell's business operations after his departure from Wisconsin. There are also a number of letters from Governor Cushman K. Davis of Minnesota.
For the Civil War period the Tenney papers contain a small group of letters written by George D. Kellogg from the lower Mississippi River describing troop movements and soldiers' welfare. One letter from Charles H. Vilas (March 20, 1864) tells how Madison looked in Civil War times. Tenney himself was made paymaster of the army about 1863 and in that connection there are a number of letters from persons of prominence dealing, for the main part, with routine affairs. In later years, he wrote a volume of reminiscences of his war experiences.
At the end of the war he was made Federal inspector of post offices for this area. A number of letters from Michigan and Wisconsin speak of difficulties regarding mail service appointments, and other matters dealing with the office. In 1872 a few letters speak of the Liberal Republican movement. In 1878 a couple of letters from Edward P. Allis give that candidate's views on the Greenback party movement.
