The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

MARINE REVIEW. ro. XIV. CLEVELAND, O. SEPTEMBER 17, 1896. No. 12. ------ The Hannas of Cleveland, Since M. A. Hanna of Cleveland undertook, some time ago, the task of electing Major McKinley of Ohio to the presidency, at- tention has been directed to his ability asa business man and his genius as an organizer. On the lakes it is known, of course, that although not heard of in politics, Mr. Hanna's two brothers, H. M. Hanna and L. C. Hanna, have shared success with him in business, and have accumulated, along the same lines, fortunes about equal to that of the Republican leader. The fourth member of the accom- panying group, D. R. Hanna, is a son of the political manager. He found a place awaiting him in the firm of M. A. Hanna & Co., a few years ago, and has since taken an active part in managing its affairs. But no advantage, even of this kind, was offered the older mem- bers of the family. They attained wealth and prominence through their own efforts,and especially through a careful application to busi- ness. H. M. Hanna isnot a member of the firm of M. A. Hanna & Co., but he is closely associ- ated with his broth- ers in nearly all oth- er enterprises, espec- lally in the owner- ship of vessel prop- erty and in the inter- est which they hold in the Globe Iron 'Works Co. of Cleve- land. The Hannas have been associated with the development. of lake commerce for nearly half a centu- ry. Last+year the firm of M. A. Hanna & Co. handled, as agents, 2,100,000 gross tons of iron . ore. In this great volume of business they represented about twenty iron mining companies, in some of which they are leading stockholders. Much of this ore was moved in ships which they own and over railway terminals--iron ore and coal docks--which they control at ports on Lake Erie. Their iron furnace interests include two furnaces at Sharpsville, Pa., another -at Newcastle, Pa., and a fourth at Buffalo. They operate for the Mutual and Menominee trans- portation companies, in which they hold a controlling interest, nine Steel steamers engaged mainly in the ore trade of the lakes, and val- ued collectively at about $1,575,000. They are controlling owners of the Globe Iron Works Co. of Cleveland, a ship building concern that has built, during the past eight or nine years, sixty-seven steel Vessels, ranging in value from $150,000 to $250,000 each, and two of them, passenger ships, costing about $950,°00 each. In addition to this, M. A. Hanna personally owns the greater part of one of the two street railway systems in Cleveland, and all of the brothers are fonnected with other local enterprises of a less important kind, i | ane WN WX a = AS \ A. is Nv em | A» Leonard Hanna, father of the brothers who have built up these several business interests, came to Cleveland in 1852 from New Lis- bon, O., where the brothers were born. New Lisbon was a part of Ohio noted on account of a Quaker settlement. Leonard Hanna's family were members of the Society of Friends, but he lost his right in the faith upon marrying outside the church. His sons have never shown a disposition to follow in- the footsteps of their New Lisbon ancestors. Upon coming to Cleveland, Leonard Hanna, who had been a physician in New Lisbon, established a wholesale grocery business. He was senior member of the firm of Hanna, Garretson & Co. This firm afterward built up a big forwarding business in the trade to Lake Superior, which was all by boat from Cleveland up to about 1870, Previous to 1870 freight destined to the Lake Superior country was all ship- ped through Cleve- land,' Little was heard of Buffalo in the Lake Superior trade. Leonard Han- na died in 1862, but by this time the sons, Mark especially, were getting along to an age at which they were able to M.A.HANNA. take advantage of the start afforded them in the mercan tile business that had been left them. Mark Hanna followed up the interest of the estate in the firm of Hanna, Garretson & Co. and Robert Han- na & Oo., and still later in. Rhodes & Co. H. M. Hanna entered the navy, and after the war formed a_ strong friendship with Col. Oliver Payne, son of the late Senator H. B. Payne. Col. Payne had been in the army. The two men were congenial in character. Col. Payne became a power in the Standard Oil Co., and it was quite gen- erally understood that his friend, H. M. Hanna, who had also been 1n the oil business on a moderate scale, profited by a sale to the Standard and also by stock which he acquired in the early days of that big con- cern. During all this time the Hanna brothers kept increasing their interests in Vessel property on the lakes. In 1873-74 they built a ae of eight wooden vessels (known as the black line), on a three years contract with the Cleveland Iron Mining Co., to carry ore from Mar- quette to Cleveland, Ashtabula and Erie at $3 to $3.50 a ton. -- The rate at which ore between these points is being carried to-day is 60 cents aton. This is a very low rate but there would be a good profit in the business now at considerable less than a dollar a ton. These wooden vessels were followed later on by others of the modern steel type, and the yarious interests in mines, docks and furnaces referred