The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-02-16
HANNA'S LIFE STORY
Was Best Known and Least
Known Public Man.

Marcus Alonzo Hanna was born in
Lisbon Columbia county, Ohio, Sept "a,
1887. He was the son of Leonard and
Samantha Hanna. When he was five
years old his father moved to Cleve-
land, where he organized the firm of
Hanna, Garretson & Co., wholesale
grocers, with trade extending into the
Lake Superior region. 1t was in Cleve-
land that the man, who was later
known throughout the length and
breadth of the United States as Mark
Hanna, spent his boyhood and went to
school. Very little is known of this pc
riod of his life.
In 1862, the long illness of the elder
Hanna ended in death, and it fell to the
lot of the son to represent the interests
of his father in settling the affairs of
the concern, which was not completed
for several years.
In 1854 young Hanna married Miss
G. Augusta Rhodes, daughter Of Dan
iel d. Rhodes, Of Cleveland. Three
years after his marriage he organized
the firm of Rhodes & Co, which en-
gagged in the coal and iron business.
This business was designed to engage
the greater part of his energy and at
tention. The organization of the firm
marked his embarkation upon a period
Of independent commercial develop
ment
His next business ventures were the
organization of several collateral in
terests, which included the mining of
iron ore and coal, the building and OPP
Grafton of vessels on the lakes and the
formation of the Union National Bank
of Cleveland in 1888. In addition to be-
ing intimately interested in these pro-
jects, Mr.. Hanna was for more than
fifteen years president of the Cleveland
City Railway company, and besides
having a controlling interest in con-
Germs manufacturing pig iron in Buff
falo and Western Pennsylvania, he had
many manufacturing interests through
out Ohio.
1t has been said of Mark Hanna that
he was at once the best known and the
least known public man in the United
States. Once he tried and failed to
make John Sherman president of the
United States. Twice he was a poten-
tial personal factor in electing William
Mckinley to the presidency. No man
has been so conspicuous and influential
In helping other men to write history
within the span of his own days. Yet
in spite of all this, the American public
never learned to know the real Senator
Hanna.
Mark Hannas rise in politics was
by far the most interesting phase of
his career. Ever since the days of his
earliest manhood he has taken the
keenest interest in politics.
1t was in 1880, when Gen. Garfield
was the Republican nominee, that Mr..
Hanna first took an active part in a
presidential campaign. In that year,
with several prominent business men
of Cleveland, he organized the Bust
ness Mems league. From it's start
in Cleveland this organization quickly
spread through several states and
proved a powerful factor in the cleo
ton of Garfield.
1t was this campaign that gave Mr..
Hanna his first appreciation of the
enormous influence that could be
welded in politics by the systematic
organization of the business interests
of the country. To him must be given
the full credit for the discovery Of
this potent factor
In 1884 Mr.. Hanna took a still more
active part in the making of a presi-
dent, though this time success did not
crown his efforts. He was a delegate
at-large from Ohio to the national con-
terests of John Sherman, who failed
to win the nomination.
Four years later Mr.. Hanna again
shared Sherman's defeat at the Repub-
lican national convention. 1t was at
this convention that he saw Congress-
man McKinley's great sacrifice in
throwing aside, in his loyalty to Sher-
man, the possibility Of winning the
presidential nomination. 1t was at
this convention that there was first
born that friendship between Hanna
and Mckinley that later ripened into
love equaling the love of one brother
for another.
Mr.. Hanna attended the convention
in Minneapolis in 1892 chiefly as an on
locker interested in the mastery man
ner in which Mr.. Mckinley presided
over the gathering. At this convention
he saw the nomination of President
Harrison and the rejection of Mr.
Blaine, and saw for the second time