Thomas Douthitt Tennery
The Tennery family story begins with Zophar Tennery of Massachusetts. After the death of his parents, he was bound out to a family that moved to eastern Tennessee where he married his foster sister. Tennessee was a wilderness and very sparsely settled then. Zophar’s son Thomas Tennery was born in Eastern Tennessee Jan. 28th, 1786.
Around 1805 Thomas married Jane Wilson. Their four oldest children were born in Tennessee. Most of the early records for this area are missing hampering research. Sometime between 1817 and 1819 the family moved to Greenup County, Kentucky, on the Ohio River. Thomas Douthitt Tennery was born in Greenup County, Kentucky, December 22, 1819.
When Thomas D. was a boy his family moved to
the vicinity of Paris, Ill. and n 1845 to Jasper County, where his father Thomas
Sr. laid out the town of Granville. Thomas Jr. received a good education for his
time and remained with his father for about a year, when he moved to Effingham
County. There he purchased undeveloped land for which he paid $1.33 an acre. In
June, 1846, still unmarried though nearly twenty-seven years old, he joined the
Illinois Volunteers and went off with his friends and neighbors to fight the
Mexican War. 
The battle of Cerro Gordo
During his time of service he faithfully kept a diary. He fought in several
battles and was wounded in the leg at the battle of Cerro Gordo. Upon returning
home one year and one month after he had left, Thomas Tennery resumed the quiet
life he had interrupted. He purchased an additional 40 acres of land, this time
paying $2.59 an acre, and spent several years improving it. On February 7, 1850,
he married Sarah Allsop, the daughter of a neighboring family recently arrived
from England. In 1851 Tennery and his wife moved to his original farm, and in
1851 to a new farm they had purchased nearby. There they reared their family and
made their home until their death. 
Tennery served his township in many ways. He was a supervisor for several terms and a justice of the peace. He built on of the first churches in the community, and the first schoolhouse, in which he served as the first teacher. He continued to farm, although he was somewhat disabled from his leg wound. Thomas died August 28, 1891, in Beecher City Ill. and is buried in Pleasant Grove Cemetery, Effingham Co., IL. Sarah died May 05, 1893 in Beecher City.
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