Charles Tenny was born in Hilton, New York and was educated at the State Normal School, Brockport, the University of Rochester, and Rochester Theological Seminary. He began his work as a missionary in 1900 in Kobe, Japan where he was put in charge of the field of Himeji. In 1905, Tenny was married to Grace E. Webb and the couple was designated to Kyoto for evangelistic work, being the first Baptists assigned to the capital city. From Kyoto, they were transferred to Yokohama, to the Japan Baptist Theological Seminary. When the seminary was moved to Tokyo, Tenny was head of the Department of New Testament and was professor of Greek and New Testament Literature. Mrs. Tenny died in 1910 and in 1914, Tenny married Elizabeth Pettee, who at that time worked with the American Baord.

In the work of reconstruction after the earthquake of 1923, Tenny rendered service for which the government of Japan accorded him public recognition. The merging of the Theological Seminary with the Mabie Memorial School at Yokohama brought new duties. He becmae President of the school, serving in that capacity until 1930, when ill health made it necessary for him to return to the U.S.

Grace graduated from Rochester Hight Shcool in 1900, second in her class. During this time she was a teacher in the primaty department under her mother, who was Superintendant. She graduated from Mount Holyoke with honors in 1904.