Daniel Tenney: Banker & trustee who also led creation of public water supply

Editor’s note: Recently, MethuenLife ran a three-part series of Ken Doherty columns focusing on the life, property and generosity of millionaire Edward F. Searles. Now Ken is honing on the Tenney family, specifically the wealthy brothers who helped shape Methuen.

Many people are familiar with the life of millionaire Charles H. Tenney and his success as a local hat manufacturer who went on to gain great wealth as the world’s top commissioned hat merchant in New York City. However, his three brothers – Daniel W., George W., and John Milton (known as J. Milton) – were also wealthy and notable figures in Methuen’s history.

Here is Daniel’s story.

Daniel Woodbury Tenney, born in 1832, was the oldest of the four sons born to John F. and Hannah (Woodbury) Tenney of Salem, N.H. The boys spent their early years working on the family farm on Old Rockingham Road in Salem. Daniel later attended Phillips Academy in Andover and went on to obtain a civil engineering degree from Dartmouth College in 1856.

Daniel and George shared a close relationship throughout their lives. About 1860, they relocated to Chicago where they started a market gardening business. Daniel married Sarah J. Sanborn there in 1864. Their son, George S., was born the following year. Sadly, their only other child, Mary A., died of cholera in 1869 at the age of 11 months.

The brothers returned to Methuen in 1865 and started a shoe manufacturing business in a small shop on Hampshire Street. Three years later, they built a large, four-story shoe factory at 2 Charles St., (currently being converted into apartments). They operated under the name of Tenney & Company (not to be confused with the C.H. Tenney Hat Co. on Broadway owned by their brothers Charles H. and J. Milton). This was during the post-Civil War years when the industrial manufacturing business was thriving in Methuen. Their business prospered and the brothers saw their incomes soar. They remained in the shoe business until 1888 when they both retired and sold the factory.

In 1866, Daniel and George purchased the home of the late Dr. Stephen Huse at the corner of Broadway and Pleasant Street. They both lived there together for a time. Daniel bought out his brother’s half of the property in 1875. In 1879, he built an elegant brick mansion on the site of the old house. It was one of the finest homes in the area. This was several years before Charles built his spectacular Grey Court mansion.

It’s not known how many rooms were in the house, but on the first floor were a kitchen, a spacious dining room, a library with an open fireplace, a sitting room, a conservatory and a parlor – all finely trimmed in black walnut with plastered and papered walls. The second floor contained the bed chambers and bathrooms. The building featured indoor plumbing for hot and cold water and also for heating – a rare convenience in those days. Census records indicate that the family was tended to by live-in servants. Daniel and his brothers all had large homes with single or widowed females as housemaids, cooks and such.

Daniel and George were very active in town business both before and after their retirement. Daniel, in particular, was involved in many of the town’s boards and committees. He was chairman of the school committee for several years. He also served as street commissioner and led the effort to macadamize Broadway in 1890. This was said to be the first stretch of road in Essex County to be surfaced with this new paving process.
His biggest contribution to the town, however, was his role as a leader in establishing a public water supply system in the early 1890s. This was a time when many communities were experiencing much illness and death from typhus and other diseases caused by contaminated drinking water. Perhaps he was spurred on by his daughter’s death years earlier. He served as an elected member and the first chairman of the Methuen Water Works Commission when it was incorporated in 1893.
In addition to his responsibilities with the town, he was a director of the National Bank of Methuen for 30 years – 17 of them as its president. He was trustee and treasurer for Nevins Home for the Aged and also for Walnut Grove Cemetery. He was very active in the First Church Congregational parish and played an important role in the construction of Phillips Chapel adjacent to the church in 1881.

Daniel’s wife died in 1900 at age 66. By that time, his son, George S., had become a successful junior partner with his Uncle Charles at the C.H. Tenney & Company in New York City.

Daniel died at his home in 1907 at age 74. He was buried with his parents at Walnut Grove Cemetery. Sadly, his son died suddenly at his home in New York City two years later in 1909 at age 43. His widow, Sadie, moved briefly with her two young children into the Broadway home in Methuen.

Elbertha H. McLanathan, an elderly widow from Lawrence, acquired the property in 1911. She lived there with her unmarried adult daughter until 1936. Undertaker John J. Harty and his wife, Kathryn, were the next owners until 1954 when they sold it to Thelma Muller of Salem, N.H. Thelma turned the building into the Broadway Nursing Home. She sold the property in 1961 to out-of-town nursing home partners. At some point, the new owners constructed a large addition to the front of the building and made other additions and modifications that largely obscured the original mansion. It later became the Sunbridge Care & Rehab Center. The facility closed around 2010 and was torn down shortly after. The site is currently a vacant lot awaiting a new life.

The next story in this series will focus on George W. Tenney.

Ken Doherty is a lifelong resident of Methuen. He served on the Methuen Fire Department from 1980 to 2010. He is the Fire Department historian and a former member of the Methuen Historical Commission. He wrote “Á History of Methuen and its Fire Department” in 1996. He is retired and still living in Methuen with his wife, Paula.