John Riley Tanner (1844-1901), Republican Governor of Illinois (1897-1901), was born in Warrick Co., Ind. on April 4, 1844 and grew up on a farm near Carbondale, Ill. He served in the 98th Illinois Volunteers (1863-June 1865) and the 61st Regiment (June-Sept. 1865). After the war, Tanner established himself as a farmer in Clay Co., Ill., where on Dec. 25, 1866, he married Lauretta Ingraham. Besides being a partner of his brother in the milling and lumber business, Tanner held a number of public positions, including Clay County Sheriff (1870-1878), Circuit Court clerk (1872-1876), State Senator (1880-1883) and U. S. Marshal for the Southern District of Illinois (1883-1885). Tanner was elected State Treasurer (1886), appointed to the Railroad and Warehouse Commission and served as Asst. U. S. Treasurer at Chicago (1892-1893). In 1894, Tanner was chosen as the chairman of the Republican State Central Committee which ran the party's campaign. Because of those efforts, he received the Republican nomination for Governor and defeated the incumbent Gov. John P. Altgeld (1896). He and Cora Edith English were married on Dec. 30, 1896. Shortly after leaving office, Tanner died on May 23, 1901 in Springfield, Ill. and is buried in that city's Oak Ridge Cemetery.
From the description of John Riley Tanner correspondence, 1897-1901. (Illinois State Archive). WorldCat record id: 35776596
