Septimus J. Hanna - Family Background

Family Background

Septimus J. Hanna's grandfather, Andrew Hanna, who came from Scotland not long after the American Revolutionary War, purchased and located on what has ever since been known as the "Hanna Farm," located in the beautiful Penn's Valley in Centre County, Pennsylvania. Andrew Hanna was a zealous Scottish Presbyterian of the strictest sort, a man of sterling character, industrious, thrifty, and patriotic withal, having served in the War of 1812 and participated in what is historically known as the battle of Perry's Victory. He married a daughter of James Cook, the latter described in an historical work as "a tall, dignified gentleman, a Federalist in politics, a man of large means, owning flouring and saw mills, and being an extensive landed proprietor."

Samuel Cook Hanna was born in 1808 in Centre County, Pennsylvania, and spent his boyhood there. He became a farmer. He was a man of exemplary Christian character, universally beloved by all who knew him. Samuel Hanna was an active worker in the Methodist church of which he was a member, and for a number of years superintendent of a Union Sabbath School in his vicinity. There was a sweet reference to his influence in this connection in the History of the Spring Mills Sunday School which Judge Hanna always treasured: "Among the superintendents who have gone to their rest, many who are here today will recollect the sweet and quiet face of Samuel Hanna. His words were few and always spoken with gentleness, but his life had a power whose influence was deep and abiding."

Judge Hanna's mother, Susanna Miles, was a descendant of the Miles family who were among the earliest settlers of Philadelphia. Her ancestors came over from Radnor, Wales, with William Penn in "Ye Good Shippe Welcome," although they were Baptists rather than Quakers. The head of this emigrating family was Richard Miles. He was of the same stock as the Rev. John Myles, the Baptist minister who was publicly flogged on Boston Common because of his religious convictions. Richard Miles' descendant, Samuel Miles, was a prominent citizen of Philadelphia and intimately associated with that city's earlier history. He was a general of Militia in the Revolutionary War, one of Philadelphia's early mayors, a captain of the famous and yet existing Philadelphia Troop, a member of the Committee of Safety during the war and a judge of the High Court of Errors and Appeals. His brother, Richard Miles, a captain in the Revolutionary War, was Judge Hanna' s grandfather.

Judge Hanna's mother was a woman of deeply religious nature, whose life of simple virtue deeply impressed itself upon her children. Although his father came of Scottish-Presbyterian and his mother of Baptist stock, both parents were zealous and active members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. After her husband's death, Susan mother moved to Kendall County, Illinois, to be with her children. From there she went to Chicago to live with a daughter, where she died.

Judge Hanna's father married Susanna Miles and they had ten children. He moved with his family from Center County to Crawford County in western Pennsylvania, locating at Cochranton, where he died.