TENNESSEE STATE RECORDS - BIOGRAPHIES - Levi Hanna
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Levi Hanna

Surnames:  Mitchell, Davis, Burcham, Miller, Carpenter,
Nichalson (Nicholson), Crawl, Sparks, Shepman (Shipman?),
Baker

Locations:  Lawrence Co., IN; Jackson Co., IN; North Carolina;
Portland, Oregon; Daviess Co., IN; Tennessee

When the ancestors of the subject of this sketch came to 
Indiana they found the vast forests inhabited by wild beasts
and red men, but they feared neither, and forced the wild
lands to yield a living. That same quality of persistence
has come down to Levi Hanna, who was born in Lawrence county,
Indiana, January 9, 1835, and who is now a farmer in Richland
township, Greene county. He is the son of Joseph T. and Lucy
(Mitchell) Hanna, the former a native of Jackson county, 
Indiana, and the latter a native of North Carolina, being
the daughter of Levi Mitchell and Celia (Davis) Mitchell,
who came from North Carolina to Lawrence county, Indiana, 
in the dawn of the nineteenth century, and entered the land
where the town of Bedford now stands, having come to this 
state in wagons over the mountain trails. Joseph T. Hanna
and Lucy Mitchell were married in Lawrence county, and came
to Greene county about 1858, settling in Wright township, 
where they bought wild land and raised the following children:
Ambrose; Levi, the subject of this sketch; Elizabeth; Isaac
and Jesse, twins; Celia, Rebecca Jane, Lemuel, Doctor; 
Abraham died in the army. Joseph T. Hanna was a minister 
of the Regular Baptist church for many years; also he devoted
much time to farming, and died in 1884, his wife surviving
until 1895. Levi Mitchell was also a minister of the Regular
Baptist church. Ambrose, Lemuel and Doctor, three brothers
of the subject, are ministers of the Gospel, all Baptists.
Jesse, another brother, was also a preacher.

When the Hanna family came to Greene county, Levi Hanna,
the subject, was a small boy, and he has spent his life 
farming in the same community ever since, living forty-three
years in Wright township, and in 1901 came to his present
farm in Richland township, consisting of one hundred and
forty acres. He married Elmira Burcham in 1856. Her father,
Solomon Burcham, was a soldier in the Mexican war. She died
in 1871. They had the following children: Jasper, living in
Portland, Oregon; Joseph, living in Jasonville, Indiana; 
Levi, who died in infancy; Alice, wife of John Miller, of
Stockton township; Schuyler, living in Jasonville. The 
subject's second marriage was to Sarah A. Nicholson on 
August 21, 1872. She was born in Daviess county, Indiana,
in 1849, the daughter of Levi and Rhoda Jane (Carpenter)
Nichalson, the former a native of Greene county, and the
latter a native of Tennessee. Levi Nicholson was a Mexican
war veteran, having performed gallant service all through
the campaign in Mexico. He was a Republican, and an active
worker in the Methodist Episcopal church. The Nicholson
family consisted of thirteen children, namely: Sarah, Isaac,
Lucinda, Timothy; Mary and Martha, twins; Abner, George,
Leah; Manda and Maranda, twins; Parnelius, Levi. 
Mr. Nicholson died April 25, 1898. His widow is still
living in Daviess county, Indiana.

The subject of this sketch and his second wife have had
five children, namely: Sarah Jane, the wife of Charles
Crawl, living in Worthington, Indiana; Lulu, wife of 
Samuel Sparks, living in Richland township; Aden, who 
lives on his father's farm, having married Goldie Shepman;
Martha, the wife of George R. Baker, living in Jasonville,
Indiana.

Levi Hanna, the subject, enlisted in Company K, the 
Fifty-first Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry, 
December 16, 1861, serving three years in the Third Division,
Fourth Corps. He was in the following battles: Pittsburg
Landing, Savannah, Hall's Gap, Blue Ridge, Vicksburg,
Antietam, Maryville, Murfreesborough, Sequachy Valley,
Franklin, and many skirmishes. He was one of the six hundred
soldiers sent to Rome, Georgia, to burn the foundry. He was
captured there and sent to Libby prison, where he remained
seven months. He got out of prison by pretending to be a 
Confederate soldier. He then came home on a furlough and
later guarded prisoners at Indianapolis, after which he 
rejoined his regiment. He was discharged at Franklin, 
Tennessee, in 1864, and came home.

The subject is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic,
and he and his wife are members of the Methodist church, 
and are highly respected in their neigborhood.



Source:  "Biographical Memoirs of Greene County, Ind. 
with Reminiscences of Pioneer Days", B.F. Bowen & Co.,
Indianapolis, IN, 1908.