JOSEPH SMITH TANNER was 25 years old when he returned from California and settled in Payson in 1858. At this time he had the distinction of helping to accompany Colonel Thomas L. Kane from California to Utah. Colonel Kane "had been appointed by President Buchanan to mediate between the Federal Government (Johnston's Army) and the Mormons." Joseph relates, "Ebenezer Hanks, representing the church, furnished a buggy and I furnished part of the team. (He gives a day-by-day account of the journey; they had to travel slowly because of Col. Kane's poor health). The party reached Parowan on the 20th of February, 1858, where new teams were furnished." Joseph did not accompany Kane the rest of the way to Salt Lake, but returned to the Tanner family's wagons which were on the Santa Clara, and they continued on to Payson where they arrived March 8, 1858. He married Elizabeth Haws in 1860 and they had 13 children. He was called to the Muddy Mission, to start a settlement on the Muddy River in 1868, and after two years he returned to Payson. After his wife's untimely death he married Janette Hamilton in 1882, and this couple had 12 children. Also he married in plural marriage in 1885, to Ellen Elizabeth Fogelstrand, and she had six children, for a total of 31 children, all born in Payson. He had the most children of any of the Tanners. His oldest child, Mary Elizabeth Tanner, born in 1860, was forty five years older than his youngest child, Sterling Elmer Tanner, born in 1905. In his reminiscences he wrote that he was able to rejoice that his children "thus far are all in the Church," and he had a good conscience because he had "discharged the duty resting on me towards my older children as a father in preparing them to meet the trials of life; four of my sons having filled missions (thus far)."

Joseph S. Tanner was a successful farmer and dairyman, a large and powerful man who was highly regarded in Payson. He served as a member of the city council, and as mayor from 1879 to 1883. He was also on the boards of the Cooperative Dairy, Provo Woolen Mills, Cooperative Meat Market, and the Payson Bank. He was a bishop for twenty years, first in Payson, and then later he was also bishop over the whole district including Santaquin, Spring Lake, Salem, and Benjamin. It is said that "Joseph Tanner's home was the public stopping place for thousands who were traveling in those days from north to south over the territory."