USA > Indiana > Allen County > Fort Wayne > The pictorial history of Fort Wayne, Indiana : a review of two centuries of occupation of the region about the head of the Maumee River, Vol. II > Part 36
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them have been born three children: Arthur F. Hall, Jr., 1902; William Fletcher Hall, 1905, and Aileen Hall, 1913. This family occupies "Beech- wood," one of the most attractive of the south side homes in Fort Wayne.
Chester I. Hall .- The profession of electrical engineering has an able and popular young representative in Fort Wayne in the person of Chester Irving Hall, who here holds a responsible position with the General Electric Company. Mr. Hall claims the Sunflower State as the place of his nativity, he having been born in the city of Topeka, Kansas. He is a son of Irving and Ella Carrie (Martin) Hall, both of whom were born at Grand Rapids, Mich., where the respective families settled in the pioneer days. The Hall family was founded in New England in the colonial era of American history, and Elias Hall, grandfather of the subject of this review, was born in the state of Massachusetts, and he settled in Michigan many years ago, the remainder of his life having been passed in that state. Irving Hall devoted the major part of his active business career to retail merchandizing and was a resident of Chicago, Illinois, at the time of his death, in 1905, his wife and daughter now being residents of Chicago. Chester I. Hall acquired his preliminary education in the public schools and his technical training in the Uni- versity of Illinois, in which he prepared himself for his present profession, that of electrical engineer. He did his initiative professional work in the city of Chicago and has been a resident of Fort Wayne since 1913. At Benton Harbor, Michigan, in 1912, was solemnized his marriage to Miss Lillian Mess, who was born in the city of Chicago, and the two children of this union are John Irving, born at High Lake, Illinois, in 1913, and Warren Chester, born at Fort Wayne, Indiana, in 1916.
Allen Hamilton, who is now serving with loyal efficiency as township trustee of Wayne township and who thus has an important part in directing the governmental affairs of the city of Fort Wayne also, has been a resident of Allen county from the time of his birth and is a representative of a family whose name has been worthily linked with the history of this county for an approximate period of seventy years, so that upon him rests a modicum of ancestral pioneer honors, this likewise being true in the maternal line. Mr. Hamilton was born in the village of Leo, Cedar Creek township, this county, on July 14, 1848, and is a son of James, Montgomery Hamilton and Johanna (Brecken- ridge) Hamilton, the former of whom was born in Ireland and the latter at Brookville, Franklin county, Indiana, where her parents were pioneer settlers. James M. Hamilton was born in the year 1822 and acquired his elementary education in his native land. He was a lad of twelve years when he accompanied his parents to the United States, in 1834, and he became one of the pioneer exponents of agricultural industry in Allen county, Indiana, where he established his home when still a young man. He was engaged in farming in Washington township at the time of his death, in 1864, and was one of the highly esteemed men of that section of Allen county, his political support having been given to the Republican party and both he and his wife having been earnest members of the Methodist Episcopal church. Mrs. Hamilton survived the husband of her youth by nearly half a century and was eighty-six years of age at the time of her death, in 1913, she having been one of the venerable and revered pioneer women of Allen county. Allen Ham- ilton acquired his early education in the common schools of Washington township and later attended the Jefferson school in Fort Wayne, as did
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he also the Methodist College for a short interval. He was a youth of sixteen years at the time of his father's death and he remained with his mother on the old homestead farm, in Washington township, until 1870, when he entered upon an apprenticeship to the trade of machinist, in the Fort Wayne shops of the Pennsylvania Railroad. He became a specially skilled artisan and continued in the employ of the Pennsyl- vania Railroad Company for nearly half a century, virtually all of his service having been in the Fort Wayne shops, and his final retirement, after an association of forty-six years, having occurred August 19, 1916. Mr. Hamilton has been influential in public affairs in his home city and county for many years and has been a zealous and loyal advocate of the principles of the Democratic party. He is now serving as trustee of Wayne township, to which office he was appointed, August 18, 1916, and he has served also as a member of the county council, as a member of the municipal council of Fort Wayne, in which latter body he repre- sented the Second ward, and for six years he was a member of the Fort Wayne board of education. In each of these positions of public trust his course has been directed with a high sense of stewardship and with a constant desire to conserve and advance the best interests of the community. He is now nearing the scriptural span of three score years and ten, but his mental and physical powers have not appreciably signalized the passing of the years, his sane and industrious life having been such as to leave him hale and strong as the shadows begin to lengthen from the crimson west. Mr. Hamilton has been in active affil- iation with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows since 1873 and he is one of the well-known and unequivocally popular native sons of Allen county. On September 2, 1875, wa ssolemnized the marriage of Mr. Hamilton to Miss Cecilia Fink, daughter of the late Charles and Elizabeth Fink, of Fort Wayne. Mr. and Mrs. Hamilton have four children : James M. is now a resident of the city of Cleveland, Ohio; Walter G. and Frank G. still reside in Fort Wayne; and Edmund C. is a resident of the city of Chicago.
Oliver S. Hanna .- A representative of one of the oldest and most prominent of the permanent families of Fort Wayne, Oliver S. Hanna has remained an active factor in the commercial and financial circles of the city through a period marked by a wonderful physical develop- ment in his native place. Mr. Hanna was born in Fort Wayne, August 12, 1847, the son of James B. and Mary King (Fairfield) Hanna. James B. Hanna was the oldest son of Judge Samuel Hanna-admittedly Fort Wayne's foremost citizen of all times-and Eliza Taylor Hanna. He was born in Fort Wayne, June 11, 1823. For several years in the pioneer days of the village Judge Samuel Hanna and James B. Hanna, under the firm name of S. Hanna and Son, were engaged in mercantile trade here. James B. Hanna died in 1851, at the age of twenty-eight years. The wife of James B. Hanna was born September 8, 1823, at Kenne- bunkport, Maine, a descendant from two prominent families of the "Pine Tree" state, the Fairfields and the Kings. To James B. Hanna and wife were born three children: Clara L. (Mrs. W. L. Carnahan, of Fort Wayne), Oliver S. and James T., the latter deceased. Oliver S. Hanna was educated in the public schools of Fort Wayne and later at Stamford, Connecticut, and Poughkeepsie, New York. On December 4, 1878, he was united in marriage with Mary Ella Nuttman. To this union two children have been born: Gertrude King, now Mrs. Asa W. Gros-
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venor, of Fort Wayne, and Julia N., now Mrs. Creighton H. Williams, of Fort Wayne. The commercial career of Mr. Hanna was begun in the First National Bank of Fort Wayne, of which institution he became a director. Later, he entered the wholesale boot and shoe house of Carnahan, Hanna & Company. Afterward, he organized the wholesale dry goods and notion house of Hanna, Wiler & Company. In 1882 Mr. Hanna entered into co-partnership with James D. Nuttman in the establishment of the banking institution of Nuttman & Company, the presidency of which he has held during a period of years. Mr. Hanna is a Republican in politics, though he has not entered actively into polit- ical affairs. He is a member of the congregation of the First Presby- terian church. He is a member of Mizpah Temple, A. A. O. N., Mystic Shrine, having taken both York and Scottish Rite degrees. He is a loyal member of the Commercial Club of Fort Wayne.
Hon. Robert Blair Hanna is of the third generation of the Hanna family of Fort Wayne, and it would indeed be difficult to write a history of Fort Wayne without writing a large portion of the history of that branch of the Hanna family. He was born on his father's farm, located on the east bank of the St. Mary's river in Washington township, Allen county, Indiana. His father was Henry Clay Hanna, a son of Samuel Hanna, whose history is recorded elsewhere in this work. His mother was a daughter of William W. Carson, born in Castel Bar, Ireland, then moved to Crossinalina, where he served as a military officer of high rank, then immigrated to Cobourg, Canada, with his family, where he followed farming and where Elizabeth Catharine Carson was born. After the death of her father, she and her mother came to Fort Wayne to live with her brother, William W., who as town attorney drafted Fort Wayne's first city charter, served as a Democratic member of the Indiana legisla- ture and as judge of the common pleas court of Allen county. Her's was a family poor in purse but rich in culture, and she was indeed a woman of unusually fine social qualities and a most devoted daughter, wife and mother. Robert's parents were married October 25, 1854, in the little brick house still situated near the northeast corner of Barr and Berry streets. To their union were born eight children: Samuel Carson Hanna, born December 18, 1855, died December 31, 1855; Joseph Thomas Hanna, born February 18, 1857; Henry Clay Hanna, Jr., born June 11, 1858; Minnie Eliza Hanna, born April 18, 1862, died December 13, 1871; Char- lotte Hanna, born August 16, 1864, died February 20, 1884; Annie Louise Hanna, born January 19, 1866, died September 15, 1893; Robert Blair Hanna, born March 25, 1868; and Elizabeth Catharine Hanna, born De- cember 31, 1870, died December 15, 1872. The father died July 25, 1881, at the age of fifty-two years, five months and seven days, and the mother died September 8, 1916, at the age of eighty-seven years, five months and twenty days. For the first seven years of his school life, R. B. Hanna attended the German-Lutheran school on Barr street; then the public grade and high schools and the Fort Wayne Business College. After reading law for three years in the office of his brother, Henry C. Hanna, and being admitted to the bar in 1890, he formed a partnership with his brother and was with him for several years, and then alone he continued successfully in the practice of law until being appointed postmaster in 1906. Public affairs attracted "Bob" Hanna early and in 1892 he was elected to the city council as a Republican candidate by a majority of 62 from the then first ward, which was strongly Democratic. He was
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largely, instrumental in establishing many municipal improvements and civic policies, including garbage collection and crematory system; estab- lishment of a fund for a suitable covered market to be erected on the space donated to the city for that purpose by his Grandfather Hanna; leasing the life estate reserved to his heirs by Col. Swinney when he willed to Fort Wayne what is today Swinney park; building the lake and beau- tifying the grounds around the reservoir, now known as Reservoir park; starting the Anthony Wayne monument fund, and on July 25, 1893, he introduced the resolution which looked to securing for the people interest on the school funds, which was finally accomplished upon the election of Samuel M. Foster to the school board. While only twenty-four years old, and politically a minority member, he was made a member of the councilmanic commission which controlled the police and fire depart- ments. Shortly before the close of his term, the council was called upon to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Mayor Charles A. Zollinger; politically the council stood 12 Democrats, 8 Republicans, and the final ballot stood 12 for Henry P. Scherer and 8 for R. B. Hanna. In 1898, he was nominated, in his absence and against his wishes, a candidate for state senator on the Republican ticket in the Democratic county of Allen. He ran 1,500 ahead of others on his ticket, carrying the Democratic city of Fort Wayne but losing the county by 900. During the campaign he advocated placing justices of the peace on a salary instead of allowing
them fees, and at the session of the legislature, two years later, he secured the passage of the bill he had framed reducing the number of justices of the peace for Fort Wayne and placing them on a salary. He was one of the organizers of the Fort Wayne club in 1892 (afterwards the Anthony Wayne club), and of The Fort Wayne Commercial club in 1899, and a director in each for several years before and after their consolidation into the present Commercial Club of Fort Wayne. He was secretary of the Fort Wayne Commercial club for five years. The bringing of fac- tories and interurban electric roads to Fort Wayne; the arbitration and satisfactory adjustment of the long disputed gas question; the elevation of the railroad tracks; and the building of the Anthony hotel were among the many questions with which the club successfully dealt during Mr. Hanna's term as secretary, and the famous "Made-in-Fort-Wayne Expo- sition" given during that time was his idea. Mr. Hanna was appointed postmaster of Fort Wayne January 18, 1906, and he was re-appointed May 1, 1911. He devoted all of his time to his official duties and at the time he re-appointed him, President Taft said that his record was one of the very best in the whole United States. Upon retiring as postmaster he was given a surprise banquet and presented with a diamond ring by the postoffice employees-the ring being of Masonic design as Mr. Hanna is a member of Sol D. Bayless Lodge No. 359 F. and A. M. and a Scottish Rite Mason of the thirty-second degree. Truthfully, indeed, has it been said that "Wherever the spirit of civic patriotism breathes in Fort Wayne 'Bob' Hanna is sure to be found," for no sooner had he resigned as secretary of the Commercial club than he found himself in the non- salaried position of secretary of the Fort Wayne Civic Improvement Association, an organization then recently promoted by the Commercial club. The activities of this association resulted in a community-wide civic awakening, a civic revival, in which practically every organization of men and women in the city took part, and the civic pride of the people was stirred as never before. Mr. Hanna is a student of community prob-
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lems, and the vast amount of civic, community and public welfare work which he has done in Fort Wayne during the past twenty years can only be suggested here. He is now giving of his time and talents as a member of the Allen county Liberty Loan executive committee ; the Fort Wayne Red Cross subscription committee; chairman of the Rotary club intensive farming and city lot gardening committee, and in many other ways and along still other patriotic lines. As a public speaker, Mr. Hanna is much in demand at Republican political meetings, community gather- ings and business and professional men's meetings and banquets, both in Fort Wayne and in nearby cities and towns. He is engaged in busi- ness, with an office at 919 Shoaff building, under the title of realty engi- neering, the nature of which brings into play his legal training, his ability to plan and organize and promote, his knowledge of modern city plan- ning, particularly as it relates to laying out new additions to the city. One of the adjuncts to his business is his connection with the Bedford Stone & Construction Co., which is one of the largest building companies in the country. Robert Blair Hanna and Eva Theodosia Nelson were married in Trinity church, Fort Wayne, February 2, 1906. Her father was Amos DeGroff Nelson, former sheriff of Allen county, a son of Isaac DeGroff Nelson, commissioner of statehouse construction at Indianapolis and president of Lindenwood cemetery association, in which stands a handsome monument erected to his memory by that association. DeGroff was a brother of the late William R. Nelson, owner and editor of the Kansas City Star; DeGroff Nelson's mother was Elizabeth Rockhill, a daughter of William Rockhill, who was a representative in the United States congress. Mrs. Hanna's mother was Helen Catharine, daughter of Samuel Edsall, at one time elected to the Indiana legislature from Allen county on the Democratic ticket and also a member of the state militia; her mother was Cynthia Harrison, who was a cousin of William Henry Harrison. To Mr. and Mrs. Hanna's union has been born two children, Robert Blair, Jr., born January 19, 1907, and Agnes Taylor, born September 15, 1912. The family attends the Trinity Protestant Episcopal church.
Samuel Hanna .- "Judge Hanna belonged to the higher type of the pioneer class of men. He was a planter and builder, more than a legis- lator. He had the hope, the courage, the forethought, the fertility of resource, the unfaltering purpose and will that characterize the planters of colonies and the founders of cities." So spoke the Hon. Joseph K. Edgerton on the 12th day of June, 1866, the day after the death of the man whose name stands above every other in the history of the city which bears the name of Fort Wayne. To one who knows not the story, it is held out as an example of all that makes for real, true usefulness in every phase of society and in every condition of men. Samuel Hanna was born October 18, 1797, in Scott county, Kentucky, just three years after General Wayne completed the building of the fort 'round which grew the village which developed into the modern city. His father, James Hanna, removed to Dayton, Ohio, in 1804, and purchased a farm lying just outside the town. Here Samuel assisted in clearing the land and laying the foundation for the family's future years of work and enjoyment of the home. The educational advantages were limited, but the boy was given every opportunity to attend the schools of the neigh- borhood. His earliest employment away from home was that of post- rider, delivering newspapers from the place of publication to the more
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distant subscribers. His journey carried him to many points in western Ohio. This was before the postal delivery system was in contemplation in these sections. In his nineteenth year, Samuel Hanna occupied the position of clerk in a store in Piqua, Ohio. He and another young man, also a minor, bought out the proprietor, giving their notes for $3,000. Soon after these notes were transferred to an innocent purchaser. About the same time, the goods were taken from them by writ of attachment, leaving the young men without means and heavily in debt. Hanna's . partner soon relieved himself of liability by the plea of infancy. Not so, Samuel Hanna. Although his friends advised him in the same course, representing that he had been swindled, he nobly declined, declaring he would pay the last dollar of the debt. It was paid in full with interest. The incident is quoted to show the character of the man as manifested all through his eventful life. After teaching a country school for a time, he attended an Indian treaty council at St. Mary's Ohio, in the capacity of sutler-a person licensed to provide the representatives of the United States with supplies of various kinds-and, with his brother, Thomas, hauled the goods from Troy, Ohio. The small profits from this venture formed the foundation of his future fortune. His success in this direction also determined him upon the plan to locate at Fort Wayne, then a little village huddled about the old stockaded fort. He arrived in 1819, while in his twenty-second year, and just one year before the troops evacuated the fort. The place at that time was but an Indian trading post, with few white inhabitants. Immediately, he entered upon mercantile pursuits in a small way in partnership with his brother-in-law, James Barnett, in a log building located on a spot which is now described as the northwest corner of Barr and Columbia streets. The town had not yet been laid out, and the streets were merely the trails which had served the Indians and the soldiers for many years. By a course of fair dealing, first with his Indian customers and then with the whites, he acquired a high degree of regard and consideration on the part of the people among whom he lived so many years. From the moment he came to Fort Wayne, Samuel Hanna, at all times and on all occasions, evinced a strong desire to build up the town, to advance its material interests in every way, and to improve and develop the resources of the surrounding country, and though not inattentive to his own interests, the cardinal purpose was kept steadily in view during his whole life. In all meetings of the people for the promotion of the public welfare, he was always a con- spicuous and leading actor. He early conceived the indispensable neces- sity of opening and improving roads and other facilities for travel and inter-communication; but to fully appreciate his designs in this respect, it is necessary to revert to the condition of things at that time. The chief supply of provisions and almost every necessity of life had to be brought from a distance, mostly from Miami county, Ohio, by way of St. Mary's, being transported by wagon to the latter place and thence to Fort Wayne by flat-boats down the St. Mary's river. The difficulties attending the transportation of goods by these means is inconceivable in the present day. The facilities for obtaining goods for sale in the Hanna store were little or no better. They were, mostly, purchased in New York and Boston and brought up the Maumee in pirogues, a most laborious task, or packed through the wilderness from Detroit, on horses. Soon after locating in Fort Wayne, Samuel Hanna was appointed agent of the American Fur Company, a responsible position which he filled with
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credit. When Allen county was formed he was one of the two first associate judges of the Circuit Court. During these years he extended his trading operations to Lafayette and Wabash, Indiana, where he was connected with his brothers, Joseph and Hugh. He purchased large tracts of land in the Wabash valley. Students of the development of the plan to construct the Wabash and Erie canal unite in the declaration that while the idea of the waterway may have originated in the mind of the great Washington, it remained for Samuel Hanna to point out the practicability of the enterprise and to devote his energies to the completion of the work. It was while in familiar conversation with David Burr in a little summer house attached to the Hanna home that the canal subject appears to have assumed a definite shape. Hanna and Burr opened correspondence with the Indiana senators and repre- sentatives in congress and secured their favor and influence for the great undertaking. These efforts resulted, in 1827, in a grant by congress to the state of Indiana of each alternate section of land for six miles on each side of the proposed line, through its whole length, to aid in the construction of the canal. Against powerful opposition Judge Hanna, now elected to serve in the state legislature, fought the plan through to success. The state first appropriated one thousand dollars to pur- chase the necessary surveying instruments and procured the survey and location of the summit level of the waterway. Judge Hanna was selected as a member of the canal commission. He went to New York, purchased the engineering instruments and returned by way of Detroit, from which place he rode on horseback. Judge Hanna and Mr. Burr surveyed the feeder canal to connect the waterway with the St. Joseph river. The legislature acted favorably on their report and the work was ordered continued to the end. Judge Hanna was fund commissioner for the canal for several years and negotiated for most of the money with which the work was carried on. Perhaps the wisdom and ability of Judge Hanna were never more strikingly displayed in any single act of his life than in the establishment and organization of the State Bank of Indiana. When the derangement of the currency and financial embar- rassment, consequent upon the veto of the United States Bank and other kindred measures occurred, he was a member of the state legislature. The president had recommended the creation of more state banks to supply the circulation, retired by the closing of that institution. Accord- ingly, a charter was introduced into the state legislature of such a char- acter that Judge Hanna and other judicious members thought it ought not to pass. He opposed its passage with great power and ability, and was principally instrumental in defeating it; but it was clearly seen that a charter of some kind would pass the next session. A committee was appointed to prepare a proper charter during the vacation, to be presented when the legislature again convened. Judge Hanna was made chairman of the committee and to him was confided the duty of drafting the proposed new charter. It passed both houses with but little oppo- sition. Thus was created the State Bank of Indiana. A branch was at once established at Fort Wayne, of which Judge Hanna was president, much of the time, and Hon. Hugh McCulloch, cashier, during the whole time of its continuance. In 1836 Judge Hanna purchased the large remaining land interest of Barr and McCorkle, adjoining and surrounding the plat of Fort Wayne and comprising much of the most valuable down- town real estate of today. For several years he devoted himself to the
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