Representative George Washington Hanna View All Years

GEORGE W. HANNA.

MR. SPEAKER—Your committee appointed to prepare and submit to the House proper resolution commemorating the life and public service of Hon. George W. Hanna, a member of the House during the thirtieth and thirty-first general assemblies, beg leave to submit the following report:

George W. Hanna was born in Black Hawk County, Iowa, in 1850, of parents who were the very earliest settlers of that county and of the state of Iowa. Most of his early life was spent on the farm and in herding cattle on the broad and open prairies of Iowa. When a small boy one of his principal occupations was in helping his father take large herds of cattle to the prairies of Wright and Humboldt Counties, where he had charge of them during the summer herding season. Later he went into the cattle business for himself and had large and extensive herds of cattle on the open prairies in North Central Iowa in Wright, Humboldt and Kossuth Counties.

He received his education in the common schools and in the upper Iowa Universities and for a few years taught school in the winter and herded cattle during the summer. He became engaged in the mercantile business in a small way in Goldfield, Iowa. About the year 1878, when some of the railroads began to be projected, he moved to the prairies of southern Kossuth County, and with a partner built a lone store building on the prairie where the town of Luverne now stands and began to lay the foundation of the town and platted a piece of ground for the purpose. The M. & St. L. railway and the Northwestern railway were later built and crossed near the plat that Mr. Hanna had established in what is now the town of Luverne. The railways attempted to ignore his little plat and started to stake out rival plats, and for a time it looked as if his ambitions to found a town would meet with disaster, but later the railways surrendered and accepted the plat of Mr. Hanna as the foundation of the town of Luverne.

He continued in the mercantile business for a few years, he was the first postmaster in the village and the first mayor of the town after its incorporation. He became extensively interested in real estate and started at an early date to buy up real estate in the vicinity of Luverne, most of which he still owned at his death. He started the first bank in the town of Luverne, which was a private bank, known as the Bank of Luverne and which bank is still in existence and is one of the strongest private banks in the state of Iowa.

He owned at the time of his death around two thousand acres of land practically in one body within a couple of miles of the town of Luverne which he had improved and arranged for the extensive handling of live stock and up to the time of his death he kept many hundred head of cattle and hogs on what he termed his “ranch.”

He was prominently connected with all business affairs and developments of that portion of the state of Iowa and took very active part in early day political matters both county, state and national. He was a delegate to the National Convention in 1888 and without his knowledge or consent was named as the republican candidate for the House of Representatives in the 30th General Assembly and was elected to that and to the 31st General Assembly.

In addition to the large amount of real estate which he owned at the time of his death, he was the owner of live stock of considerable value, also all the resources of his bank at Luverne and was extensively interested in fruit ranches and other property in Mexico. He was a brother of the Hon. Phil Hanna, United States Consul General to Mexico.

He died at his home in Luverne, January 16th, 1918, leaving surviving his widow, three daughters, one son and one or two grandchildren. During all his life his best characteristic was his faithfulness to his family and his friends and steadfastness in the convictions which were honestly formed, and he was not in the habit of shifting in his opinions to meet every new and popular theory and the county in which he passed most of his life as well as his state and nation is distinctly bettered because of the life and service of George W. Hanna.

Therefore, Be It Resolved, That the House of Representatives in appreciation of his character and public service, adopt this memorial to the memory of a good citizen and a faithful public servant, and at the same time extend to his widow and relatives most sincere sympathy, and be it resolved that the clerk of this House be and is hereby directed to enter this resolution upon the journal of the House and forward a copy thereof to the family of the deceased.

T. P. HARRINGTON,

O. C. SORLIEN,

OSCAR ULSTAD.