Biography of Major Harrison Hannahs Excerpted from "Collections of the Kansas State Historical Society, 1911-1912", Edited by Geo. W. Martin, Secretary. Vol XII., State Printing Office, Topeka, Kansas 1912. submitted by Teresa Lindquist (merope@radix.net); (copyright) 2001 by Teresa Lindquist ----------------------------------------------------------------------- KSGENWEB INTERNET GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY COPYRIGHT NOTICE: In keeping with the KSGenWeb policy of providing free information on the Internet, this data may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages cannot be reproduced in any format for profit or other gain. Copying of the files within by non-commercial individuals and libraries is encouraged. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- In the month of February, 1911, Maj. Harrison Hannahs, being in Topeka attending the forty-sixth anniversary of the founding of Washburn College, called at the rooms of the Historical Society. In the course of conversation he had much to say of a very pleasant nature concerning General Thomas Ewing, which we asked him to make a matter of record. Upon his return to his home in Denver he promptly responded. This was most fortunate, because one week later, February 25, 1911, he died at his old home in Rome, N. Y. On the 18th of February, which was his seventy-ninth birthday, he celebrated by making an historical address at Washburn College. Topeka. An interesting feature of what he has furnished us in this article is something clever and unselfish about Lane, one of whose most formidable rivals for the senatorship was Ewing. Major Hannahs was horn in Marcy, N. Y., February 18, 1832. He was educated in the public schools and the Albany Normal College. He taught school in Illinois in 1855. He arrived in Topeka April 10, 1856, with a party of six free-state men. About the first thing he did was to confer with W. H. Fitzpatrick and John Richey about a college. In 1858 he married Elizabeth Helen Pease. In 1862 he enlisted with General Thomas Ewing in the Eleventh Kansas and was commissioned as first lieutenant of company H, serving to the end of the war. Up to 1892 he conducted a dry-goods business in Rome, N. Y., when he removed to Denver, Colo. He was for several years an elder in the Presbyterian Church, was interested in the Y. M. C. A. and in every betterment movement. About the last thing he did was to write this paper about his old friend Thomas Ewing, for whom he had acted as adjutant during most of his military service. (Included with the article: "General Thomas Ewing, Jr.", page 276)