Graduated from Cane Hill, Arkansas College in 1859 and went to Washington Territory as a bridge builder and civil engineer. Later was a Methodist minister and held important charges in Washington. Married daughter of Chief of Lummi Tribe of Indians and had 2 sons, both of whom died in their teen age.

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John Tennant. 1829-1893. Tennant was a native of Arkansas, where his father, Thomas Tennant, lived to the age of 114 as the oldest Methodist minister in the country, even though he periodically left the church over various disputes. John came west on a cattle drive in 1853 and migrated to Whatcom in 1856. He took for a wife a [Lummi] Indian woman named Clara (whose brother was chief of the Lummi tribe) and Tennant staked the first settler claim on the Nooksack River in 1859. He planted planting pear and apple orchards near Ferndale and in 1868, he was part of the small group who were the first white men to ascend Mount Baker to its summit. After becoming Whatcom County Sheriff in 1859, he held a series of positions, including: Methodist minister, justice of the peace, probate judge, county school superintendent, territorial legislator and real estate developer, along with occasional stints as a surveyor and civil engineer, skills that he learned at a small college back home.

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John and Clara Tennant
John and Clara Tennant were settlers, missionaries, teachers, civil servants, and as a couple are representative
of the ways in which native and Euro-American cultures were merging and interacting in the early settlement period.
Born in the family longhouse at Lummi Peninsula, Clara's father, a Lummi tribal member, and his wife, a Duwamish
woman from the White River area east of Tacoma were leaders in the Lummi tribe. In her childhood, Clara learned
farming practices, the schedule of seasonal fruits, shellfish harvesting, uses of medicinal plants, childcare, cooking,
and food preservation and basketry, an art she practiced the rest of her life. By the time she was about 14, she had
completed her education, and was ready to marry and participate in village and family life as an adult.
John Tennant (1829-1893) was the son of a part-Quapaw woman and a famous Arkansas Methodist preacher.
One of 13 children, John grew up in the Ozark hills where life was a seasonal round of constant work. Farming and
religious devotion dictated the family's calendar while his father pursued his preaching career. John arrived in
California on an 1853 cattle drive and migrated to Whatcom in 1856. Before leaving Arkansas, he studied surveying
and civil engineering at a small college near home, and began to study law after arriving in Whatcom.
In 1859, Clara married John Tennant and moved to a cabin on his land claim at the edge of the reservation,
established by the Point Elliot treaty. Their home was at today's "Tennant Lake" near Ferndale, but called by its
Lummi name "Si-lat-sis" by John. Like other farm wives of the period, Clara was half of an economic partnership,
whose agricultural and food preservation skills were crucial to their survival. She contributed to their income with the
sale of butter and eggs to the McDonough Trading Post. Their second house, built in 1872, became the social
center of the rural neighborhood. They hosted many all-night dances and seasonal celebrations. In 1863, Clara had
a son that died at age 2, but son Bayard was born fourteen months later. The center of her and John's lives, Bayard
acquired tuberculosis while attending the Territorial Institute in Seattle, and died at age 17.
John Tennant's activities from 1856 to 1878 were an ambitious list, even for a man who seemed tireless.
Foremost, he was a farmer, but carried his interest in gardening to the development of new fruit varieties. He became
a mountain climber, and with 3 others in 1868, was the first to scale Mt. Baker. In 1870, he worked as interpreter,
guide, and tribal negotiator for a railroad exploration trip across the North Cascades. By the time of his marriage, he
had already been a legislator, deputy sheriff, deputy county auditor and Democratic Party worker. At various times in
the next 20 years, he was a lawyer, probate judge, county school superintendent, county commissioner, assistant
U.S. surveyor, assistant Indian Agent, real estate agent, and found other tasks of public service. However, it is for
their missionary work that John and Clara Tennant are most remembered. Clara was Catholic, and John, a Methodist,
had left his faith behind in the California gold fields where drinking and gambling were the main pastimes. Even so, in
1876, John organized a Sunday school for the children around Ferndale. The next year, he helped with the first
camp meeting held at Ferndale by itinerant Methodist ministers. These meetings were welcome summer gatherings
for everyone, native and non-native. The next summer meeting, John officially returned to Methodism, and Clara and
Bayard also converted. Clara became a Methodist leader among the Nooksacks, at the same time as her brother,
Lummi Chief Henry Kwina, became the Catholic lay leader of the area. Clara's connections with the tribes and her
knowledge of languages were an asset for John's work. Other missionary projects included a church on Orcas Island
and the development of the Nooksack Indian Mission church and school. Their friend, Chief Jim Seclamatan of the
nearby Nooksack village, donated part of his own land for the school.
In 1887, John suffered the first of 3 strokes at their Lynden home and died in 1893. Clara administered his will, in
which he gave all he had to "my beloved wife." Clara was widowed for ten years, and managed the funds and real
estate the couple had accumulated over the years. She continued to fulfill her role as a Lummi family elder, and was
a Methodist woman leader among the Nooksacks and others. In 1903, the now 60ish Clara married her old friend
Chief Jim Yellakanim Seclamatan, known to non-native residents as "Lynden Jim." They shared a common interest in
the Nooksack Indian Mission and Stickney School. Clara Tennant Yellakanim died of pneumonia 3 months after her
second marriage. She was buried next to Reverend John Tennant and their children at Lynden Cemetery.829

Arkansas Gazette, Little Rock, Arkansas, April 11, 1937

ARKANSAS WAS HOME OF WORLD'S OLDEST METHODIST MINISTERS

The Rev. Thomas Hardester Tennant lived to be 114 years old and the Rev. George Washington Brinsfield attained the age of, 107 years, and nine months.
By Laurez Earley.

Arkansas has the distinction of having been the home of the oldest Methodist preachers in history.

According to local history, the Rev. Mr. Tennant was a great hunter of deer and a man of exceptional strength. He was a great exhorter, not only in name, but litterally, for it is said that his voice in the surrounding hills would carry for a distance of seven miles.

He was a native of Virginia, but his boyhood was spent in Kentucky and Tennessee. In 1818, he was admitted on trial into the Missouri Conference and appointed to the Arkansas Circuit, which comprised the country on both sides of the Arkansas river from Arkansas Post to Fort Smith.

The circuit riders were men of strength and courage--qualities that were required for them to carry on their hazardous work. They were continually faced with the dangers of human foes and wild beasts. But nothing could stop them from preaching the Word. Through the wilderness they made their way; exhorting, condemning when necessary, and consoling the repentant and the sorrowing. They entered the work because the felt called to it, not with any thought of worldly gain. Their "quarterage", as fixed by the church law, was only $100 per year. Sometimes it was difficult to collect even that meager amount. One of the stewards of those days related a story of the effort to raise the sum covering the preacher's salary. Failing to obtain the money, he collected coon skins and rode to the quarterly conference. When he arrived, his horse was covered with the skins. This was by no means an uncommon occurrence, as pelts were often used to pay the salary of preachers.

Another quality possessed by the Rev. John Tennant and others of his calling was perseverance. An amusing story has been told of the man who moved to several states in turn because he had fallen out with a Methodist preacher in North Carolina. Finally he landed in Louisiana, down among the swamps. He selected a spot high enough to settle upon and commenced to unload his wagon. A man rode up, and finding out he was a circuit rider, the other almost pawed up the earth in his anger. He told how he had been moving to get away from circuit riders. "And now," he stormed, "here your are before I can get my wagon unloaded."
The preacher mildly replied, " My friend, you are pursing a forlorn hope. If you leave here and go somewhere else, it will not be long before one of us will be there; if you die and go to Heaven, you will find plenty of us there; if you die and go to hell, you will find some of us there. You might as well give up."

This incident illustrates the circuit rider's tenacity of purpose. He risked his life to preach to those who would listen, be they settlers in log cabins or savages in the forests.

He married Miss Christine Haek. She owned a few slaves, and one of these, a Negro man, was stubborn and unruly. He caused the Tennant family much trouble. In those days, when a slave was freed by his owner, it was necessary for the owner to give bond for his good behavior. The Rev. Mr. Tennant could not afford to do this; neither could he keep the troublesome man; therefore he sold him.

Some time after the sale, charges were preferred against the preacher for selling a slave. As a result, he was expelled from the ministry. He felt that a great injustice had been done him in the matter, and never asked to be reinstated. He retired to Washington County, where he lived a quiet life on his little farm. But he did not stop preaching. Whenever the opportunity presented itself, the mighty voice rang out and he always took an active and important role in the yearly Bethelehem camp meeting near his home.

Though history records that he was expelled from the ministry, in the eyes of the South his expulsion never was lawful. Already there were deep rumblings of the war to come. From 1825 to 1829 was a period when the slavery question was becoming acute in Arkansas, and Jesse Haile, an uncompromising Abolitionist, was the Rev. Mr. Tennant's presiding elder at the time. However, "Brother" Tennant continued to preach until his death and his right to do so was recognized by the people among whom he lived.

He was married twice and became the father of 13 children. His eldest son, John A. Tennant, was graduated from Cane Hill College. He went to Washington Territory, where he married an Indian woman, settling in Walla Walla. Later he was licensed to preach. All of the Tennant children were devout Christians.
NOTE:  John A Tennant did not settle in Walla Walla.   He settled in Lynden, Whatcom County, WA with his Lumi Indian wife.