John Fletcher Hanson (November 25, 1840 in Monroe County, Georgia – 1910) 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).[1] 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.[2]

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.[2] It was Representative (later governor) Harris who introduced a bill in 1882 providing for the establishment of a state technical school,[3] which was chartered in 1885 and opened in 1888, and eventually became Georgia Tech.[3][4]

Through his connections, Hanson became president of the Central of Georgia Railroad in 1903.[2] One of Georgia Tech's residence halls, Hanson Hall, built in 1961, was named in his honor.[5] He died in 1910 and is buried in Riverside Cemetery (Macon, Georgia).[6]

References

  1. ^ Dunn, Lee C. 2016. Cracking the Solid South: The Life of John Fletcher Hanson, Father of Georgia Tech. Mercer University Press.
  2. ^ a b c McMath, Robert C.; Ronald H. Bayor; James E. Brittain; Lawrence Foster; August W. Giebelhaus; Germaine M. Reed. Engineering the New South: Georgia Tech 1885-1985. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press.
  3. ^ a b "GAILLARD, Crawford County" (Georgia history, section G, page 3/93), PDF webpage: KKrakow-section-G.
  4. ^ "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.
  5. ^ "Major John Hanson Residence Hall". Georgia Tech Office of Institutional Research and Planning. Archived from the original on September 2, 2006. Retrieved 2007-07-09.
  6. ^ "History of Riverside Cemetery". Riverside Cemetery. Retrieved April 27, 2017.


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