Marcus Alonzo Hanna, one of the most prominent figures in national
republican affairs, was born September 24, 1837, at New Lisbon (now
Lisbon), Ohio. His father was a grocer in that village. Young Hanna
was educated at local schools, and in the Western Reserve college and
Kenyon college, Ohio. When not in school he was helping his father
in the latter’s store, and cut short his academic course in order to
clerk for his father, who had decided on opening a place of business in
Cleveland. Until he was twenty he thus worked, receiving a small salary
for so doing. In 1861 his father died, and young Hanna became heir to
the business, which he continued to run until 1867. During that year
he sold out and laid the foundations of the vast fortune which he now
possesses. Mr. Hanna is interested in banks, railroads, mines of many
sorts, especially coal, steamship lines, etc. At a comparatively early
age he became interested in political questions, into the solving of
which he threw himself with characteristic earnestness. For many years
he has been chairman of the republican national committee, and in that
capacity he secured the nomination of the late President McKinley, as
well as obtaining a second term for him. Mr. Hanna is United States
senator from Ohio, having been elected to that office in 1897. In his
own words, his success may be explained thus: “I was never penniless,
because I always saved. I was never hopeless, because I would not be
discouraged, and I always felt assured that present endeavors would
bring forth future fruit.”