Rev. John Tanner

Tanner's Station, on the Ohio River, 22 miles below Cincinnati, was on the site of the present town of Petersburg.  It was settled by, and named after, Rev. John Tanner, the first Baptist preacher resident in the part of Kentucky; certainly before 1790.  In April 1785 a company from Pennsylvania, composed of John Hindman, Wm. West, John Simmons, John Seft, old Mr. Carlin, and their families, cleared 30 to 40 acres on the claim of Mr. Tanner; the first clearing in Boone County.  They remained there a month or six weeks. then went to Ohio to "make improvement," but did not remain there. 

In May 1790 John Tanner, a little boy of nine years, was made prisoner by the Indians, and in 1791 an older brother, Edward, nearly 15 (both sons of Rev. John Tanner.  Edward made his escape two days after his capture and returned home.  Except that the Indians told Edward of their having taken John, the year before, the latter was not heard of by his friends for 24 years.  He spent his life among the Indians, and in 1818 was employed by the United States authorities at Sault Ste. Marie as an interpreter.  The father removed in 1798 to New Madrid, Missouri, and died there a few years after.

from Richard Collin's 1878 Historical Sketches of Kentucky