HANNA, MARCUS ALONZO American politician, was born at New Lisbon (now Lisbon), Columbia county (0.), on Sept. 24, 1837. In 1852 he removed with his father to Cleveland. He received his education in the public schools of that city and at the Western Reserve university. He was asso ciated with his father in the wholesale grocery business and be came a member of the firm. In 1867 he entered into partnership with his father-in-law, Daniel P. Rhodes, in the coal and iron business. In 1877 the firm became M. A. Hanna & Company and was extended to include the ownership of a fleet of lake steam ships constructed in its own shipyards and the control and opera tion of valuable coal and iron mines. Hanna became largely interested in street railway properties and in various banking in stitutions, and after 188o became prominent in the affairs of the Republican party in Cleveland. In 1884 and 1888 he was a dele gate to the Republican national convention and was associated with William McKinley in the management of the John Sherman canvass. It was not, however, until 1896, when he personally managed the canvass that resulted in the Republican presidential nomination for William McKinley that he became known throughout the United States as a political manager of great adroitness, tact, and resourcefulness. He was chosen chairman of the Republican national committee and managed with consum mate skill the campaign of 1896 against William Jennings Bryan and "free-silver." In March 1897 he was appointed, by Governor Asa S. Bushnell (1834-1904), U.S. senator from Ohio. In the Senate, to which in Jan. 1898 he was elected for the short term ending March 3, 1899, and for the succeeding term, he was rec ognized as one of the principal advisers of the McKinley adminis tration and his influence was large.
He took a deep and active interest in the problems of capital and labour, was one of the organizers (1901) and the first presi dent of the National Civic Federation, whose purpose was to solve social and industrial problems, and in Dec. 1901 became chairman of a permanent board of conciliation and arbitration established by the Federation. After President Roosevelt's policies became defined Senator Hanna was regarded as the leader of the Con servative branch of his party and a possible presidential candidate in 1904. He died at Washington on Feb. 15, 1904.
See C. R. Singdey, Since the Civil War (1926) ; R. F. Dibble, Strenuous Americans (1923) ; Mark Sullivan, Our Times; Thomas Beer, Hanna (1929) .