The Old Bradford Burial Ground Address

By Barron Tenney

Barron, Melanie, Debby and Joe doing some grounds keeping (These folks are sooooo dedicated. As us for the story behind the story)

Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations; ask thy father and he will show thee; thy elders, and they will tell thee – Deuteronomy 32:7, and your MJ “Tenney Family”, 1904 genealogy.

Eighteen score and ten years ago our progenitor, Thomas Tenney, brought forth on this continent a new American family, the Tenney’s, conceived in religious freedom.

Now we are engaged in a great project, testing whether that family, or any family, so conceived and so dedicated, can properly honor our progenitor, Thomas Tenney. We will meet on the great burial ground (Old Bradford Burial Ground) of that honor. We will come to dedicate a portion of that burial ground in August, 2009, as the final resting place for Thomas Tenney, who here risked his life that that he might live in religious freedom. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave Tenney men and women, living and dead, who lived here in America, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say and do here, but we can never forget what Thomas Tenney did for us here in America. It is for us, the living, rather, to be dedicated to honor Thomas Tenney. It is rather, for us to be dedicated to the great project before us—that from Thomas Tenney’s honored life and death, we take increased devotion to our project to honor him —that we here highly resolve that Thomas Tenney shall not have lived and died in vain—that his family, under God, continue to prosper—and honor him, with a proper headstone dedicated at the TFA’s 2009 reunion.

OK, so I plagiarized Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address a little bit. Sue me.

My real point is that the Ensign Thomas Tenney Headstone Dedication Team is on a big-time roll, and we really, really need your help, donation-wise. After getting moral and administrative support from the City of Haverhill, who owns the Old Bradford Burial Ground (OBBG), meeting with OBBG clean-up and maintenance contractors for quotes, and meeting with Richard Atwood, who will cut and place the Thomas headstone, we are ready to begin the necessary work, and we aren’t even close to having the funds needed to even start the work. It will cost us several thousand dollars to achieve our goal, and we have a lot of work to do to complete it in time for our 2009 reunion. The reunion date of August 2009 will be here before we know it.

A special donation request for this important project appears elsewhere in this issue. Please, please take this opportunity to assist your Tenney cousins in honoring Thomas Tenney with placement of a proper headstone and a dedication ceremony. Literally, the success of this project depends on you. You won’t regret it.

By example, I will begin with a donation pledge of $50 (and I am still unemployed). Can you match this? Can you exceed this? Let’s see, Three hundred TFA members x $50 each will equal $15,000, a little more than we will need. Please give what you can. This isn’t public television.

Please allow me at this time to express my sincere thanks to the Headstone Team, the Tenney cousins who are making this happen by their traveling to the OBBG, and for their un-dieing efforts and guidance on the Team; Deborah Bianchi, Melanie Tenney and Joe Williams, THANK YOU. Thanks also for your trust in me.

TFA’s Obedient Servant

Barron Tenney