Bios: Sarah E. (Morrow) Hanna: from Westmoreland County, PA

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History of Henry County Illinois, Henry L. Kiner, Volume II, Chicago:
The Pioneer Publishing Company, 1910

JOHN ROBERT HANNA

John Robert Hanna, who is overseer of the ten miles of the Illinois and
Mississippi Canal, from forth-three to fifty-three, and whose home is
one and a half miles north of Geneseo, was born in the township of that
name, February 10, 1854.  His parents, Peter and Mary J. (Cherry) Hanna,
were residents of the city of Geneseo where the father carried on a
large trade in horses.  There our subject grew to manhood, receiving a
fair education in the public schools.  At the age of sixteen he began
work on a farm in Geneseo Township and then went to Iowa, where he spent
two years, as he had an interest in a threshing outfit which was
operated there.  Disposing of his property in that state he returned to
Geneseo and engaged with his father in the horse business, but the risks
attached to the work discouraged his pursuit of it and in 1883 he joined
the police force of Geneseo, on which he served for seventeen years, or
until in 1901, when he became foreman, in the employ of the United
States government, on the canal that was then being constructed.  He was
given the supervision of some of the buildings and of some of the
culverts and locks and of the excavation for miles along the route of
the waterway and then when the actual construction was completed, in
recognition of the value of his services, he was made overseer of the
ten miles before mentioned.

In Geneseo, May 10, 1873, was celebrated the marriage of Mr. Hanna and
Miss Sarah E. Morrow, who was born in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania,
and was but two years of age when her father, Isaac Morrow, came to
Illinois.  He was one of seven brothers who came to Henry County among
the early pioneers and swelled the number of her valiant sons who joined
the Union Army during the Civil War.  Two of his brothers died in the
service, but Mr. Morrow was spared to his family.  His wife was Miss
Jane J. McCracken in her maidenhood.  Mr. and Mrs. Hanna have had nine
children.  John Otis, who lives in Freeport, Illinois, married Miss
Lydia Rose and they have four children.  Howard died in childhood.
Daisy Pearl is the wife of Lenas Odstrom, a photographer of Geneseo, and
they have one child.  Maude E. married Albert W. Krueger, who is a lock
tender under Mr. Hanna.  Bud H. is assistant locktender under his
father.  Robert Ray died in childhood.  Emory C. is at home with his
parents.  The two youngest children, Fred R. and Hobart Garrett, are
also at home.

Mr. Hanna has always given his support unswervingly to the Republican
Party for whose candidate in 1876, Rutherford B. Hayes, he cast his
first presidential ballot.  With his wife he is a devout member of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, while fraternally he is a
thirty-second-degree Mason and a member of the Knights of Phythias.  In
the former organization he has become a Noble of the Mystic Shrine and
has filled various offices.  A man who gives his whole attention to
fulfilling his duties, he has won the confidence of his employers and of
the citizens to whom indirectly he owes his time and efforts.