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ALEXANDER H. HANNA, who passed away December 13, 1903, at the home of his son John W. Hanna, the old homestead in Big Grove township, was a resident of Vinton some twenty years before his death. He had won a warm place in the hearts of his neighbors and fellow citizens, and was mourned by many. Mr. Hanna was born at Mount Eaton, Ohio, December 14, 1828, and is survived by one brother, Calvin, of Eugene, Oregon.
Mr. Hanna was reared on a farm and received a fair education. He spent two years teaching, and here met his future wife, Rosanna Watson, who was one of his pupils, and they were married October 4, 1852. She passed away but a short time before her husband. They lived three and one-half years on his father's farm in Ohio, and he entered land in Benton county, Iowa, in September, 1850, at one dollar and a quarter per acre. In March, 1857, Mr. Hanna brought his family to Iowa and erected a plank house fourteen by eighteen feet; he purchased a few acres of timber land, a team of horses, a wagon and a couple of cows, and broke forty acres of land. He and his wife endured the rigors of a pioneer existence, and for years had many hardships. Fourteen years after settling in the wilderness Mr. Hanna stated they had not yet had a physician wait on them. Bravely they accepted their share of hard work and privations incident to reclaiming the country from its wild state, and they won the respect and esteem of all in the community. They had few neighbors, though they early joined with a religious society. Alexander Hanna gave his heart and desire to spiritual things when he was twenty-one years of age, and always took great interest and deep comfort in his associations with the church. He had been reared in a Christian atmosphere, and in the same year he came to Benton county with his wife, in 1857, they joined the Presbyterian church of Vinton. They were publicly united with the church July 28, 1857, on the same day as the following others: Dorothy Lowe, R. H. Wilson, Mrs. Betsey Wilson, Robert Gilchrist, Mrs. Elizabeth Gilchrist, Mrs. Rebecca Lowe and Mrs. Jane Logan. He removed his membership two years later to the newly organized church at Big Grove, where at the same time he was ordained an elder, and he held this office until his removal to Vinton. He became an elder in Vinton. He was faithful in all his church duties, and gave freely of his time and means toward the support of the cause of the gospel. At the time of his death he had been visiting among his children, had spent two weeks with his son William and had been but a few days with his son John on the old homestead where he passed away, with only a few minutes' warning. He peacefully passed away, with his family around him, all of whom felt he was fully prepared for death. A short service was held at his son's home, conducted by A. S. Wright, of Garrison, and the regular service at the Presbyterian church in Vinton was conducted by his pastor, Rev. S. S. Hilscher, assisted by Rev. Wright; he was interred in Evergreen Cemetery.
Mr. Hanna and his wife had children as follows: Belle, unmarried, a teacher in Cornell College, at Cornell, Iowa; Howard, a physician at Goldfield, Iowa; James, an attorney at Greeley, Nebraska, at one time a judge in his district; and William and John, successful farmers of Big Grove township, Benton county.
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