W. A. Tenney Grant County, New Mexico

W. A. Tenney. a freight contractor of Silver City, has been a resident of New Mexico since 1873, when, at the age of thirteen years, he went to Valencia county with his father, N. C. Tenney, and entered the cattle business thirty-five miles southeast of Fort Wingate, in Little Onion. He was born and reared in Utah until the removal of the family to New Mexico. The father engaged in the cattle business until 1878, when, with his father, he went to St. John's, Arizona, and there he was killed while acting as peacemaker between the cowboys and the Mexicans in the great bull fight at that place.

W. A. Tenney was connected with his father in his cattle interests until 1878, when he secured a government contract for freighting from Albuquerque and Las Vegas to Fort Wingate, following that pursuit for four or five years, or until the Santa Fe Railroad was built to Needles. He has since engaged in freighting in New Mexico, Arizona and Old Mexico, making his headquarters in Silver City since June, 1903. His family, however, resides in, St. John's, Arizona. Mr. Tenney is a member of Silver City Lodge No. 13, I. O. O. F., and Silver City Lodge No. 7, A. O. U. W. He came to this section of the country in pioneer times, when the seeds of civilization had hardly been planted, and through almost thirty years has been an interested witness of the progress that has been made and the changes which have occurred, bringing about a wonderful transformation in business conditions and in the settlement of the country.

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Source: History of New Mexico, Its Resources and People, Volume II, Pacific States Publishing Co., 1907.