John B. Hanten Biography


	This biography appears on pages 955-956 in "History of South Dakota" 
	by Doane Robinson, Vol. II (1904) and was scanned, OCRed and edited 
	by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

	This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit 
	organizations for their private use. 

	Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or 
	transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written 
	approval of the file's author.

JOHN B. HANTEN, an eminent attorney of Watertown, Codington 
county, is a native of Minnesota, having been born on a farm in 
Scott county, January 20, 1859. He is a son of Henry and Anna M. 
(Leas) Hanten, who were born in Luxemburg, Germany. Henry Hanten 
was a man of erudition and sterling character, and was for a 
number of years engaged in teaching, in colleges and public 
schools, while finally he engaged in agricultural pursuits in 
Minnesota, whence he came to Watertown, South Dakota, shortly 
prior to his death, which here occurred on the 28th of March, 
1882, at which time he was fifty-two years of age. He was 
graduated in the institute at Luxemburg and later completed a 
four years' course of study in the university at Charles LeRoy, 
France. He was a son of Jean and Susanna (Thobes) Henten, the 
former having been a prosperous farmer in Luxemburg, Germany, 
where he passed his entire life, his son, the father of the 
subject, having come to America in 1854.

John B. Hanten accompanied his parents to Germany when seven 
years of age, and in the excellent schools of that land received 
his early education, having been graduated in the gymnasium at 
Larochette as a member of the class of 1873, and thereafter 
taking a post-graduate course in Luxemburg, Germany, where he 
remained until 1874, when he returned to the .United States and 
in 1878 located at Kranzburg, Codington county, South Dakota, 
where he was conducting a hotel until 1884, when he engaged in 
the hardware business in that town. In 1886 he was appointed 
clerk of the district court, and thereupon disposed of his 
business in Kranzburg and took up his residence in Watertown. He 
held this incumbency for six years, within which interval he had 
devoted much time to the reading of law, and in the fall of 1892 
he was admitted to the bar of the state, having thoroughly 
grounded himself in the science of jurisprudence. On the 23d of 
December, 1893, Mr. Hanten was appointed receiver of the United 
States land office in Watertown, remaining in tenure of this 
office until March 17, 1898, when he resumed the practice of his 
profession, in which he has met with' distinctive success. In 
the fall of the same year he was elected to represent his 
district in the state senate, serving one term, while he was the 
candidate of his party for a second term, in 1900, but met de-
feat which attended the party ticket in general throughout the 
state. He has ever been a stalwart advocate of the principles of 
the Democratic party, in whose cause he has been an active and 
effective worker. Mr. Hanten is at the present time president of 
the Business Men's Union, of Watertown, and likewise one of its 
directors. He served four years as a member of the National 
Guard of South Dakota, being raised to the rank of sergeant, 
while later he was assistant chief of supplies, with rank of 
major, on the staff of ex-Governor A. C. Mellette. He is 
identified with the Catholic Order of Foresters, in which he is 
state chief ranger at the time of this writing, having held the 
office from the time of the organization of the order in the 
state, in 1900. He and his wife are communicants of the Catholic 
church, being members of Immaculate Conception church, in whose 
work they take an active interest. Mr. Hanten was one of the 
organizers of the Watertown State Bank, of which he is 
president, and he ever shows a deep interest in all that makes 
for the progress and material prosperity of his home city and 
state. In 1878 his father purchased a large tract of railroad 
land in what is now South Dakota, and several of his sons, 
including the subject, came here to do their part in settling 
and developing the country, encountering the varied experiences 
and vicissitudes of pioneer life on the plains.

At Kranzburg, this state, on the 25th of January, 1881, Mr. 
Hanten was united in marriage to Miss Margaret A. Kranz, 
daughter of Matthew and Margaretha (Ludwig) Kranz, both of whom 
were born and reared in Germany, whence they emigrated to 
Minnesota, and then to South Dakota, being numbered among the 
first settlers of Codington county, while the town of Kranzburg 
was named in honor of Mr. Kranz. Mrs. Hanten was born at New 
Trier, Dakota county, Minnesota, on the 2d of July, 1862. The 
subject and his wife are the parents of nine children, namely: 
Henry M., assistant cashier and bookkeeper in the State Bank; 
Margaret; Louisa; John H.; Mary; Helen; Matthew W.; Eleonora and 
Raphael E.