The funeral of North Dakota Governor Louis B. Hanna was held on this day in 1948. Louis Hanna served as North Dakota Governor from 1913 to 1917, but this was only one of the services that Hanna rendered to the state of North Dakota during his eighty-six years.

Born in New Brighton, Pennsylvania in 1861, Hanna attended school in Massachusetts and New York. In 1881, he and his brother Robert headed west with little more than hopes and dreams. The young men settled near Hope and filed homesteading claims. The two brothers built a one-room shanty and purchased two yoke of oxen to began wheat farming. After harvesting the wheat that fall, they stored the sixty bushels in their twelve-by-twelve foot shanty. The only other possessions the men had were an “iron cook stove, two trunks, a table, chairs, and a tick filled with hay for their bed”. Hanna later said of his early years in Dakota Territory, “Maybe it was a hardship to live like that but I don’t recall it as such. We were young and filled with hope for the future and never thought about hardships”. Hanna later sold his claim to take a banking position in Page. He also began investing in the lumber and elevator business. In 1899, he moved to Fargo to serve as the vice-president of the First National Bank of Fargo. Although no longer a farmer, Hanna kept a small stock farm in Bordulac as a hobby. From 1895 to 1909, Hanna served twelve years in the North Dakota State House and Senate. He was elected to the United States Senate in 1909, where he served until 1913. At that time he was elected to the governorship of North Dakota. While governor, Hanna was decorated with the Grand Cross of St. Olaf of the First Rank by Norway’s King Haakon VI. After his governorship, Hanna served actively in the first world war. He headed the Liberty Loan drives to raise funds, and joined the American Red Cross. The Red Cross commissioned him a captain and he was sent to France to aid in the war effort. He was later decorated as an officer of the Legion of Honor by the French government for services rendered to French wounded.

Governor Hanna passed away on April 23, 1948 in Fargo. In his memorial, he was cited as a man of “character, integrity, and honor.”

Sources:
Fargo Forum and Daily Tribune (Morning ed.). April 25, 1948: p.1, 4.
http://www.nd.gov/hist/ndgov3

--Jayme L. Job

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