John Fletcher Hanson

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John Fletcher Hanson (born November 25, 1840 in Monroe County, Georgia) was a self-made industrialist who lived in Georgia and helped establish the Georgia School of Technology (later known as the Georgia Institute of Technology). The son of a farmer-preacher, Hanson learned about the brick and furniture industries in Barnesville, Georgia. He later moved to Macon, Georgia and started the Bibb Manufacturing Company in 1876; it was a textile company that built and acquired mills, particularly in Columbus, Georgia.[1]

In 1881, Hanson became the principal owner of the Macon Telegraph and Messenger, a republican opponent of the democratic Atlanta Constitution. It was reportedly at Hanson's request that Harry Stillwell Edwards composed a March 2, 1882 editorial in the Macon Telegraph that promoted a polytechnic college in the state of Georgia, in order to create a skilled workforce.

Major Hanson was also instrumental in electing Nathaniel E. Harris, another strong proponent of a technical school, to the Georgia House of Representatives in 1882.[1] It was Representative (later governor) Harris who introduced a bill in 1882 providing for the establishment of a state technical school,[2] which was chartered in 1885 and opened in 1888, and eventually became Georgia Tech.[2][3]

Through his connections, Hanson became president of the Central of Georgia Railroad in 1903.[1] One of Georgia Tech's residence halls, Hanson Hall, built in 1961, was named in his honor.[4]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 McMath, Robert C.; Ronald H. Bayor, James E. Brittain, Lawrence Foster, August W. Giebelhaus, and Germaine M. Reed. Engineering the New South: Georgia Tech 1885-1985. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press. 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "GAILLARD, Crawford County" (Georgia history, section G, page 3/93), PDF webpage: KKrakow-section-G.
  3. ↑ "The Hopkins Administration, 1888-1895". "A Thousand Wheels are set in Motion": The Building of Georgia Tech at the Turn of the 20th Century, 1888-1908. Georgia Institute of Technology. Retrieved 2006-12-30. 
  4. ↑ "Major John Hanson Residence Hall". Georgia Tech Office of Institutional Research and Planning. Retrieved 2007-07-09. 


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