Journeys By Land and Sea

Journeys By Land and Sea is written by "George C. Tenney was an American minister, educator, and author who served as editor of the Bible Echo and Signs of the Times in Australia from 1888 to 1892, and, after returning to the United States, filled editorial roles with the Review and Herald and other periodicals.

Born on August 24, 1847 in Liberty Township, Bedford County, Pennsylvania, George Cyrus Tenney was the fifth of Alpheus and Charlotte (Starkweather) Tenney’s eleven children. George’s siblings were: Minerva or “Minnie” (b.1838), Harriet Ellis (b. 1840), Emily Electra (b.1941), Laura Delphine (b.1844), Charles Silas (b.1849), Edwin Elsworth (b.1851), Mary Janette (b.1854), Ellie (b.1855), Martha Calista (b.1856) and John Ellis (b.1861).  The 1855 New York State Census records the family as having moved to Chenango, Broome County, New York State, where Alpheus worked as a miller.

According to his obituary, George graduated from an unnamed “special preparatory college” in 1876.   He married Elsie Louisa Shepard at Beaver Dam, Dodge County, Wisconsin, in May 1876.

Well into 1893 George Tenney’s name remained in the masthead of the Bible Echo but it was his assistant, Eliza Burnham, who was carrying the work for Tenney had embarked on extended world travel late in 1892.  He first attended the 1893 General Conference session in Battle Creek, rendering a report from the Australian Conference. It was a shallow report, padded with much geographical and demographic information but offering no financial summary or details about the tract society efforts. His most telling admission was, “I have never had much time to visit a great deal among the churches, or to hold a course of meetings.”

After the session Tenney continued his “extended tour.” He accompanied O.E. Olsen, General Conference president, in traveling through Europe, before re-joining his family in Battle Creek towards the end of 1893. Articles about his journey appeared regularly in the Bible Echo and were published as a book under the title Journeys by Land and Sea: A Visit to Five Continents.  It was first sold by canvassers and then revised and re-issued in 1904 with the title Travels by Land and Sea. It was advertised as a volume for church schools because it contained “much profitable information in connection with their geography study.”  https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=AA9S