The Tennant "Cancer Cure"

George Cardiff Tennant

George Tennant, son of Thomas and Mary Ann and grandson of Richard Tennant and Jane Cardiff, was renowned for his ability to apply the "Tennant Cancer Cure" to those he came across who had skin cancer. My dad and mom recount many times they heard and saw cancers being cured by George. Many of his "patients" were locals in the Chalk River and Pembroke area. George also cured several Railroaders as they travelled through Chalk River on the CPR line. George's son Wesley Tennant of Chalk River also had the cure and applied it up until just a few decades ago. My dad Thomas George Tennant has the ingredients for the "cure" but not the amounts required and thus for all intents and purposes it has been lost with time and modern medicine rules and regs.

Here is an excerpt from the Perth Courier of 1899:

Perth Courier, June 2, 1899
John Dunlop of Pembroke Township, we regret to hear, is troubled with a cancer in the lower hip. Mr. Dunlop is about 83 years of age but apart from the cancer is in excellent health. Mr. Tennant of Chalk River who, a couple weeks ago, treated Charles Cornwith so successfully for the same condition, came down on Monday and hopes to effect a cure in Mr. Dunlop's case in a short time.

Here is another quote from the Coppsville/Clarkesville website:
Chalk River is not without it's folk heroes and legendary sons. The Tennant family, prominent even today in the area, deserves special mention. It seems that Mr George Tennant Sr. , now deceased, had an uncanny ability to prescribe herbal cures for a variety of ailments. Mr Tennant's abilities were certainly well appreciated, considering that Doctors were few and far between in those days. Mr Dick Tennant, George's brother, performed many pioneer veterinary services for the areas sick animals. His sister-in-law, Mrs Andy Tennant who acted as midwife, delivered many of today's (1979) village residents. The Tennants and the services of this family were undoubtedly greatly appreciated by the early settlers of the area.

In the photo above we have from left to right:
George McKay, George Cardiff Tennant, Unkown, Richard (Dick) Tennant and William Cuthbert - CPR Yard Chalk River ON.





Interestingly in August of 2010 while visiting family and doing some genealogical research out in Egerton Alberta at the Egerton Cemetery my wife Jeannie and I met up with some long lost cousins. They too were in the wee town of Egerton cemetery conducting family research. What are the chances of two families that live 3000 kilometeres apart and unbeknownst to each other would pick the same time and day to visit the same cemetery to search for the same gravesites? Well the stars were aligned that day as Jeannie and I met up with Hugh Tennant (son of Robert Gordon Ttennant and Sara Symington), his sister Isabelle West (nee Tennant) and their neice Lynn Currier (daughter of Colleen Tennant) and Lynn's step father Carl.

Egerton Cemetery - August 2010

After introducing ourselves and a very brief enquiry as to whether or not they had ever heard about the Tennant cancer cure, Lynn and Isabelle recounted almost verbatim the detailed descriptions that my Mom and Dad and grandparents would tell of the Tennant cancer cure. It seems that the Tennants carried their not so secret cancer cure with them from the Wilberforce Township/Chalk River/Tennant Settlement area all the way out west to Alberta. Some of the details that Isabelle and Lynn recounted included the painful manner in which the cure slowly killed the cancer just under the skin, how it looked like a large spider with its tendrils and the hole or depression that it would leave after dying and falling off the body. They also mentioned how you had to let the cancer die completely and not to pick at it or remove part of it until it had all died before peeling it out of the hole in the skin.

A healing poultice would then be placed over the area until it "haired up and healed over". My Mom and Dad both explain in detail how the never ending pain kept those under the cure from getting any proper sleep for the 2-3 weeks it took the cancer to die.