John Hanna papers

John Hanna was born in 1827 as the seventh generation after Scot and Scotch-Irish mirgrant, Robert Hanna of the Clan Hannay, came to William Penn's colony about 1685. He was the first of five generations of Hannas, Berryhills, Youngs, and Bogies to become graduates of DePauw University. Born on a farm near Indianapolis, John became an orphan while in his early teens and kept his family of three younger sisters together for several years.

At age 18, he walked the 40 miles from Indianapois to Greencastle because he was determined to aquire an education. He entered Indiana Asbury, then a men's school of about 100 students under the leadership of Matthew Simpsom (who in 1848 became the first of the succession of DePauw Presidents to become a Bishop of the Methodist Church). Hanna secured employment as a janitor of the college, worked his way through school, and graduated with honors in 1850. His mentor and counsellor-friend was Professor William Larrabee, who held the chair of the mathematics and natural science department. It is unknown what motivated Hanna to seek a higher education but it is speculated that he was following his great grandfather, Robert Hanna, who was graduated from William and Mary in 1764, and who was a friend and classmate of Thomas Jefferson. In Hanna's senior year a campus romance developed with a young woman student in "Mrs. Larabee's Female Seminary", located in a cottage known as "Rosa Bower" on the site of the present Longden Hall. The romance flourished through a correspondance, dutifully noted in Hanna's hand in a little black notebook. Hanna and his beloved, Mahala Sherfy, shared their hopes and aspirations, their philosophies, and Hanna revealed his early commitment to a legal career. Some months after his graduation, in a letter to Mahala's parents, Hanna formally sought permission for her hand in marriage. John and Mahala were married on 22 May, 1851 in her home town for Perrysville, Indiana.

Following his graduation from Asbury, Hanna studied law and entered a partnership with Judge Delaney R. Eccles in Greencastle; then later with a local attorney, John A. Matson. He entered politics and was three times elected Mayor of Greencastle. In 1858, his strong anti-slavery views led him to go to the Kansas Territory, where he established residence and was elected to the Territorial Legislature. He became Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and (according to the journals of that session of the legislature) he introduced the bill that resulted in the abolition and prohibition of slavery in the territory. Following that enactment, Kansas came into the Union as a free state. Hanna returned to his family and his law practice in Greencastle and in the presidential campaign of 1860 campaigned for Lincoln, and voted for Lincoln in the Electoral College. President Lincoln then appointed him U.S. Attorney for the District of Indiana-a post he held throughout the Civil War. When he opposed President Johnson's reconstruction policies and introduced a resolution denouncing the President, Johnson fired him from his post as U.S. Attorney.

Hanna then returned to the practice of law in partnership with General Frederick Kneffler in Indianapolis. He became a noted criminal lawyer and successfully defended a Mrs. Clem in a notorious murder case of the period. Retaining his home in Greencastle, John and Mahala became parents of six children, the oldest being Mary Lydia (Lilly) who, in 1870, entered Indiana Asbury soon after her father had joined other in successfully advocating the opening of the college to women.

Following the death of his wife, Mahala, in 1870, Hanna was married a second time to Mrs. Emmaline Hobbs Patherhoff, and from that union five more children were born. In 1875, to house his growing family, John Hanna bought a large home on the outskirts of Greencastle on the site of a later house on Wood street that served for many years as the home of a succession of DePauw Presidents. In that same year (1875), Hanna ran for Congress and was elected. He represented the Capital District which included Indianapolis and Putnam County. As a Republican in the House controlled by the Democrats, he took strong stands against the Southern Democratic support of the doctrine of "Nullification" and their extreme states-rights position. He was angry at what he regarded as the Democratic conspiracy to buy electoral votes in the indecisive Presidential election that was finally resolved in the House by confirmation of the election of Rutherford Hayes by a majority of one electoral vote. He consistently advocated the remonitization of silver; he defended the validity of the Civil War "Greenbacks" and vigorously opposed furthur issuance of such currency; he opposed high interest rates; he defended the continuation of an army of 25,000 men.

He ran for reelection to Congress in the 1878 election but lost to his Democratic opponent. He then returned to his private law practice with General Kneffler. Meanwhile, In 1877, his daughter Lilly, who was graduated from Asbury in 1874, had married her fellow student, John S. Berryhill. Then, in 1879, Hanna's son-in-law became a partner in the firm of Hanna, Kneffler, and Berryhill. John Hanna's health began to fail in 1882, and he died from a kidney ailment at age 55. He was buried in the cemetary south of Greencastle on a family plot near the graves of several DePauw Presidents and faculty members.

Source: Materials within collection.