Thomas Hannan (Virginia settler)
Thomas Hannan | |
|---|---|
| Born | December 25, 1757 Frederick County, Virginia |
| Died | April 18, 1835 Cabell County, Virginia |
| Years of service | 1774, 1776-1777, 1781 |
| Battles / wars | Lord Dunmore's War American Revolutionary War |
Thomas Hannan (December 25, 1757 - April 18, 1835) was an American Revolutionary War soldier and first Anglo settler of the Kanawha River region of Virginia (now West Virginia).
Biography
[edit]Early life
[edit]Thomas Hannan was born on December 25, 1757, in Frederick County, Virginia to Thomas Hannan and Lucretia Morris.[1] In 1781, he married Elizabeth Henry.[2]
Military service
[edit]Hannan first fought in Lord Dunmore's War at the Battle of Point Pleasant.[3][4] At the start of the American Revolutionary War, he enlisted in the navy for one year.[5] In 1781, several years after his initial term of enlistment, he was drafted into a rifle regiment and served at the Battle of Yorktown.[6]
Western Virginia settler
[edit]After the war, Hannan was granted nearly 1,000 acres of land and moved west,[7] becoming the first Anglo settler of Cabell County, West Virginia (the current location of Huntington, West Virginia)[8][9][10][11] and one of the earliest settlers of the Kanawha and Ohio River Basin.[12] He forged "Hannan's Trace," one of the original roads to the West from Virginia,[13] the first roadway through what would later become Mason County, West Virginia[14][15] and Cabell County, as well as a principal route from western West Virginia and the interior of Ohio.[16] This path linked the then-capital of the Northwest Territory, Chillicothe, Ohio, to points in the Eastern United States. Hannan was a friend and neighbor of several other early settlers in the Kanawha Valley region, including Anne Bailey[17] and Daniel Boone.[18]
Legacy
[edit]There is an historical marker for Hannan, erected in 2009 by West Virginia Archives and History, near Glenwood, West Virginia, on Huntington Road in Mason County.[1] A number of institutions have been named for Hannan and his trail:
- Hannan Trace Elementary School in Crown City, Ohio
- Hannan High School and Hannan Public Library in Ashton, West Virginia
- Hannan District, Mason County, West Virginia
References
[edit]- ^ West Virginia, Find A Grave Index, 1780-2012 (database on-line). Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. 2012.
- ^ Virginia, Select Marriages, 1785-1940 (database on-line). Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. 2014.
- ^ Averill, James P. 1882. History of Gallia County. H. H. Hardesty & Co. Publishers: Chicago.Deeds and wills.
- ^ Miller, Thomas Condit, and Hu Maxwell. 1913. West Virginia and Its People. New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company.
- ^ "Pension Application of Thomas Hannan (Hannon), R4578." June 24, 1834. Transcribed by Will Graves. Southern Campaigns Revolutionary War Pension Statements & Rosters. Cabell County, Virginia. Available online: http://revwarapps.org/r4578.pdf
- ^ "Pension Application of Thomas Hannan (Hannon), R4578." June 24, 1834. Transcribed by Will Graves. Southern Campaigns Revolutionary War Pension Statements & Rosters. Cabell County, Virginia. Available online: http://revwarapps.org/r4578.pdf
- ^ Davis-DeEulis, Marilyn. 1997. "Slavery on the Margins of the Virginia Frontier: African American Literacy in Western Kanawha and Cabell Counties, 1795-1840." In Diversity & Accommodation: Essays on the Cultural Composition of the Virginia Frontier, edited by Michael J. Puglisi. University of Tennessee Press.
- ^ Averill, James P. 1882. History of Gallia County. H. H. Hardesty & Co. Publishers: Chicago.Deeds and wills.
- ^ Laidley, W.S. 1901. "The West End of West Virginia." The West Virginia Historical Magazine Quarterly 1:5-41. The West Virginia Historical and Antiquarian Society.
- ^ Miller, Thomas Condit, and Hu Maxwell. 1913. West Virginia and Its People. New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company.
- ^ Brant, Fuller, & Co. 1891. History of the Great Kanawha Valley: With Family History and Biographical Sketches. Madison, Wisconsin.
- ^ Davis-DeEulis, Marilyn. 1997. "Slavery on the Margins of the Virginia Frontier: African American Literacy in Western Kanawha and Cabell Counties, 1795-1840." In Diversity & Accommodation: Essays on the Cultural Composition of the Virginia Frontier, edited by Michael J. Puglisi. University of Tennessee Press.
- ^ Cantor, George. 1997. Old Roads of the Midwest. University of Michigan.
- ^ Averill, James P. 1882. History of Gallia County. H. H. Hardesty & Co. Publishers: Chicago.Deeds and wills.
- ^ Cantor, George. 1997. Old Roads of the Midwest. University of Michigan.
- ^ Works Progress Administration. 1940. The Ohio Guide. New York: Oxford University Press.
- ^ Lewis, Virgil A., and C. Steven Badgley. 2009. The Life and Times of Anne Bailey. Badgley Publishing Company: Canal Winchester, OH.
- ^ Averill, James P. 1882. History of Gallia County. H. H. Hardesty & Co. Publishers: Chicago.Deeds and wills.
