Hanna, William H.

Born: 1823-10-05 Indiana

Died: 1870-08-05 Bloomington, Illinois

Flourished: 1849-1870 Bloomington, Illinois

William H. Hanna was a lawyer and real estate investor. In 1846, he married Frances M. Stipp, with whom he eventually had at least three children. He studied law in his native Indiana, but moved to Illinois in 1849. He established a law practice in Bloomington, Illinois, and became an associate and friend of Abraham Lincoln. Originally a Whig, after the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act Hanna joined the Republican Party. In 1856, he partnered with John M. Scott and the two practiced law together until Scott won election as a judge in 1862. Hanna invested in real estate and did well. In 1850, he owned $6,000 in real estate; by 1860, he owned $20,000 in real estate and another $1,000 in personal property. He died after being struck by lightning while sleeping in his home.

Douglas L. Wilson and Rodney O. Davis, eds., Herndon's Informants: Letters, Interviews, and Statements about Abraham Lincoln (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1998), 752; Indiana Marriages through 1850, Marion County, 1 November 1846, Indiana State Library, Indianapolis, IN; Abraham Lincoln to William C. Hobbs and William H. Hanna; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Bloomington, McLean County, IL, 20; Illinois Daily Journal (Springfield), 14 October 1854, 2:2; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Ward 4, Bloomington, McLean County, IL, 38; Gravestone, Evergreen Memorial Cemetery, Bloomington, IL; Bloomington Daily Pantagraph (IL), 8 August 1870, 4:2-3.