Horace A. Tenney (1820-1906), around whom these papers center, was a native of New York State. In 1845 he established the Galena Jeffersonian. A year later he joined the staff of the Madison Argus which merged with the Wisconsin Democrat in 1852. In 1854 he founded with J. T. Marston the Wisconsin Patriot. He became interested in University affairs soon after his arrival in Madison. In 1853 he selected saline lands for the University in Pierce County, and was for a while a member of the Board of Regents. He served briefly in the early 1850s as assistant state geologist under Edward Daniels. At the time of the organization of the Republican Party Tenney joined the group, and in 1858 was chairman of the state committee. When the Civil War broke out, he was appointed paymaster-general of the army, and at the close of the war held a position for a number of years as special agent for the post office department in Wisconsin and Michigan. He entered politics again in 1872 in the liberal Republican campaign, serving as chairman of the party. He supported Taylor for governor, and was appointed clerk in the Railroad Commission under Taylor. In 1878 he was interested in the Greenback movement. In the early 1870s he returned to his writing, serving as special editorial writer for the St. Paul Pioneer. He collaborated with David Atwood in preparing a Memorial Record of the members of the two constitutional conventions. The volume was published in 1880. In the closing years of his life he busied himself with collecting information on family history, and the correspondence contains a number of letters from various branches of the family.
