Howard Melville Hanna

Howard Melville Hanna, president of the Globe Iron Works Company, was born in New Lisbon, Ohio, January 23, 1840. His ancestry is traced back to Patrick Hannay, as the name was then spelled, who in the twelfth century owned and lived in Castle Sorbie, in the southern part of Scotland. A daughter of Patrick Hannay married the son of Lord Gallaway, and the castle here named is still owned by her descendants. At the time of the practical depopulation of the North of Ireland by the King of England in the sixteenth century, the places made vacant were filled by the Scotchmen, who intermarried with the Irish and thus came the famous race known as the Scotch-Irish. Among those who thus went from Scotland to Ireland were members of the Hannay family, who about this time dropped the final "y" of the name, and since then it has been spelled Hanna. The first member of the family to emigrate to Ireland was William Hannay, who was made lord lieutenant of that country.

Thomas Hanna, great-grandfather of Dr. Leonard Hanna, came to America from the North of Ireland, in 1764. This grand-father died about one year after reaching this country, and his children, among them Robert Hanna, the grandfather of Dr. Leonard Hanna, were bound out as apprentices during the rest of their minority. Thomas Hanna, the founder of the American branch of this family, was in religion a Presbyterian, but as his son Robert became an apprentice in the family of a Quaker, being at that time about twelve years of age, he naturally adopted the religious views of his protector. From that time down to the present, the members of the Hanna family, descendants of Robert, have been Quakers in religious belief, and for the most part members of the Church or Society of Friends.

Robert Hanna married Miss Catherine Jones, of Welsh ancestry, both of whom were then living in the southern part of Pennsylvania. Almost immediately after their marriage they removed to Lynchburg, Va., where they were living during the Revolutionary war. Being excused from participation in the great struggle on account of religious and conscientious scruples, Robert Hanna remained at home throughout, undisturbed, and aided the cause only by nursing four wounded soldiers who were injured in the battles taking place near his home. Robert Hanna and his wife Catherine had six children, three sons and three daughters, as follows: Thomas; Benjamin; Robert; Esther, who married Charles Hole; Ann, who married Benjamin Hambleton; and Catherine, who married John Hole, a brother of Charles.

Benjamin, second son of Robert, was born June 14, 1779, at Lynchburg, Virginia, and remained there until 1802, when he removed to Columbiana county, Ohio, where he opened up two farms in the wilderness about ten miles from New Lisbon. Afterward he went into merchandising at New Lisbon, and was for 20 years president of the Sandy and Beaver Canal Company, this canal running from the Ohio canal at Bolivar to the Ohio river in the edge of Pennsylvania. Benjamin Hannah married Rachel Dixon, and they had thirteen children, as follows: Joshua, born November 7, 1804; Leonard, born March 4, 1806; Levi, born February 7, 1808; Zalinda, born February 22, 1810; Robert, born August 25, 1812; Triphenia and Triphosa, born June 12, 1814; Rebecca, born August 25, 1816; Thomas, born May 24, 1818; Hannah born March 3, 1821; Benjamin, born March 14, 1823; Kersey, born October 6, 1824; and Elizabeth, born June 12, 1827. Of these children only two are now living, viz.; Levi and Kersey. Levi is living at Greeley, Colo.; he married Nancy Watson, and had ten children, but only two of them are now living; George and Franklin. Kersey Hanna is assistant treasurer of the Cleveland City Railway Company; he married Mary A. McCook, daughter of Dr. George McCook, of Pittsburg, Penn., and their children have been as follows: Flora A., born March 23, 1850; Alice, deceased; James B., born August 26, 1854, married to Miss M.A. Beggs; Edwin, born November 18, 1857, married Miss Emma Slater, and has one son, E. Dison; Mary L., born June 12, 1860, and Margaret, born May 21, 1865.

Dr. Leonard Hanna was the only one of the family that became a physician, and he practiced medicine only when a young man, owing to the long rides he was compelled to take and the unsatisfactory state of his health. About the time of his removal to Cleveland the Sandy and Beaver canal failed because of the introduction of railroads, and this was really the cause of his removal to Cleveland. He came here in the spring of 1851 and brought his family the following fall. He had been a merchant some years before his removal, and he continued in this line the remainder of his life, dying in 1862. Dr. Hanna married Miss Samantha M. Converse, daughter of Porter Converse, of Unionville, Ashtabula county, Ohio. By this marriage he had the following children: H. Gertrude, born in 1836, and married to Henry Hubbell; Marcus Alonzo, now United Sentato from Ohio; H. Melville; Salome, whose first husband was George Chapin, and second was J. Wyman Jones; Seville, born in 1846, and married to Col. James Pickands, who died July 23, 1896; Leonard C., born in 1850, and Lilian C., born in 1852. Leonard C. Hanna married (first) Miss Fanny W. Mann, of Buffalo, and for his second wife, married Miss Coralie W. Walker.

Howard Melville Hanna, as stated above, was born January 23, 1840. After removing with his father's family to Cleveland in the fall of 1851, he attended the public schools of that city, and in 1858 went to Cornwall Collegiate Institute at Cornwall, N.Y. In 1859 he entered the junior class at Union College, Schenectady, N.Y. After remaining there a year he left on account of dangerous illness of his father, and went into his father's office and carried on the business. In the spring of 1862 he received an appointment in the United States navy as paymaster and joined Farragut's squadron, and served with Farragut until July, 1863. At this time he was ordered to New York to settle his accounts, and the succeeding fall was ordered to the United States Steamer Agawam, then at Portsmouth, N.H., a new vessel built at Portland, Maine. As soon as this vessel was placed in com- mission she went to the James river in Virginia as part of the North Atlantic squadron, being made the flag ship of Admiral Lee, and went up the James river with the fleet to within ten miles of Richmond. Mr. Hanna served in the North Atlantic squadron until the close of the war.

Returning home, the firm of Hanna Garretson & Co. having been dissolved, on account of the death of Dr. Leonard Hanna, Mr. Hanna went into partnership with his uncle, Robert Hanna, in the wholesale grocery business. He also became a member of the firm of Hanna, Doherty & Co., which firm was established by his brother, Marcus Hanna, for the purpose of refining petroleum, the firm of Robert Hanna & Co. being dissolved, and H.M. Hanna, buying his brother Marcus A.'s interest in the firm of Hanna, Doherty & Co. Mr. Doherty dying some time afterward, Geo. W. Chapin was admitted to partnership, and the name of the firm became Hanna, Chapin & Co., which firm lasted until 1876, when the plant and business were sold to the Standard Oil Company.

During the period from 1856 to the present time (1898), Mr. Hanna has been interested in the building of vessels, steam and sailing, which have been engaged in lake transportation. In 1873 he built the three-masted schooner Leonard Hanna, and soon afterward he joined his brother, Marcus A., in the building of vessels, for the Mutual Transportation Company. In 1886 he organized the Globe Iron Works Company, for the purpose of building modern steel vessels and modern machinery, and became the president of the company, which position he still holds.

In December, 1863, Mr. Hanna married Miss Kate Smith, of Hartford, Conn., daughter of Erastus Smith, a lawyer and noted scholar and bibliomaniac. Mr. and Mrs. Hanna have the following children: Mary Gertrude, now Mrs. Colburn Haskell; Kate B., now Mrs. Robert Livingston, Ireland; and Howard Melville, Jr., who is attending school.

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Volume I

This version of Volume II is based, with permission, on the work of the great volunteers at the Marine Captains Biographies site. To them goes the credit for reorganizing the content into some coherent order. The biographies in the original volume are in essentially random order.

Some of the transcription work was also done by Brendon Baillod, who maintains an excellent guide to Great Lakes Shipwreck Research.