My Genealogy Hound

J. D. Hanan, a popular farmer, was born in 1827, in Marion County, Mo. He was but an infant when his parents went to Kentucky, and scarcely two years old when they went to Fulton County, Ill. They went from there to Van Buren County, Iowa, where our subject spent most of his youth. He attended school probably no more than a year, and is largely self-educated, but his untiring energy and management have given him success notwithstanding. His estate embraces about 645 acres. After a time in Scotland County he went to Clark County, and remained there twenty-seven years and then came back to his old county. He was married in 1853 to Alice Ewing. Their children are David W. and Oscar B. His wife died in 1860, and a year later he married Virginia I. Miller. The children of this marriage were John P., Hester A. (deceased), Isabella, James S., Margaret A., Edgar and Columbus W. He and his wife are members of the Baptist and Methodist Churches, respectively. Our subject is a Democrat in politics, and served as township trustee for eighteen months, and for the past twenty-five years as school director. His parents, Samuel and Patsey (Price) Hanan, are natives of Kentucky and Pennsylvania, and are of German-Irish and English descent, respectively. They reared a family of ten children, of whom our subject is the fifth. The father was a prominent Baptist minister, and two of his brothers served in the war of 1812. The grandfather, James M. Hanan, was a native of Ireland, and when quite small came to this country, and afterward served in the Revolution. His wife was taken prisoner by the Indians at one time, and kept for about three months, and nearly starved. While in the Revolution the father received a severe bayonet wound, and was taken prisoner, but on account of his supposed fatal wound was released, and made his way to his friends, with whom he afterward recovered.