Sedgwick County KSGenWeb

Portrait And Biographical Album of Sedgwick County, Kan.

Chapman Brothers 1888

Page 708

JAMES T. HANNING, proprietor of the Kansas Steam Laundry, is a practical, well-educated man of sound judgment and good business talents, which have made him preeminently successful in the management of his present enterprise. Mr. Hanning is a native of Scotland and was born in the town of Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, July 13, 1844. At the age of seventeen our subject left his native land and crossed the waters to Canada, where, to complete his education, he enrolled himself as a student in the famous University at Toronto the year succeeding his arrival in America, and was graduated therefrom in 1864, having attained high rank as a scholar. After leaving college he came to the States, and engaged in real-estate business until the summer of 1873, when he connected himself with the Meriden Cutlery Company, of Meriden, Conn., and was for thirteen years the Western agent of that company, with headquarters in Chicago and St. Louis. In 1883 he became interested in Kansas and bought a cattle ranch near Goddard, of which he is still the owner, and under his care it has become one of the most valuable ranches for rearing cattle in that township; he devotes it principally to raising Shorthorns.

             In 1886 Mr. Hanning moved into Wichita, became interested in the real-estate business, and is now the owner of valuable property here, including the lot and building of the Kansas Steam Laundry. The enterprise in which he is at present engaged was first started by Mrs. Hanning, a woman of great energy of character and superior capabilities, who is an Albany (N. Y.) lady, and is perfectly familiar with the laundry business in all its details. She met with such good success and the business increased to such proportions that she handed over its management to Mr. Hanning. It is one of the most extensively patronized laundries in Wichita, and is capable of turning out a large amount of fine work, and is justly famed for the superior manner in which the clothes are laundered, being thoroughly cleansed by the steam washers, the laundry being fitted out with the best Troy machinery. Among other machines is a Minneapolis neck-band ironer, which irons the neck-bands of shirts in a far superior manner to those done by hand and saves the help of two girls. Their business consists largely in doing up gentlemen's collars and cuffs. Mr. Hanning is about to erect a large addition in brick to his laundry to accommodate the large and constantly increasing business, which is now established on a firm basis and is very profitable, so that he is rapidly acquiring a fortune; the laundry plant is worth at least $12,000.

             Mr. Hanning is a man of superior education, stands well in the social world and in financial circles, has a fine reputation for using systematic methods and good business principles, and his credit is unquestioned.

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