09 March 2020

Portrait of a Notable N-A: Ole T. Hanson

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Mayor Ole Hanson
Source: Seattle Municipal Archives #22884030
2613-07: Engineering Department Negative,
box 84 • Photographer W. L. Dahl
Ole Thorsteinsson Hanson
Mayor of Seattle 1918-1919  •  33rd mayor
Election Results: March 5, 1918; Hanson 32,286, J.A. Bradford 27,677.
Took office March 18, 1918 • Resigned from office August 28, 1919

 "A now-and-then politician, Hanson was a real estate developer in Seattle whose political position changed from being a supporter of the Progressive Republicanism of Theodore Roosevelt to becoming one of the earliest and most visible opponents of Bolshevism and the Red Revolution."  
Terje I Leiren, Professor Emeritus, Scandinavian Studies and History, University of Washington (since 1977)

 Born: January 6, 1874 • Union Grove, Racine Co., WI
Parents: Thorstein Hansson-Andersson Hanson (Rusten) and Goro Kristoffersdotter
Died: July 6, 1940 • Los Angeles, Los Angeles Co., CA
age 66  --  cause, fatal heartattack 

 Description:  5ft 9in with brown eyes and thick red hair, which turned gray by his 40's.

QUOTES FROM OLE : Washington Posten (a Norwegian language newspaper), May 21, 1909.
"I am proud to say that my parents were born in Norway, and that I have never had cause to regret my Norwegian ancestry or hang my head in shame at the acts of any of my countrymen." (Speech - 5.17.1909)

"There shall be no compromise with wrong and no man shall be allowed to rise in the land proclaiming himself a representative Norwegian unless he at the same time represents all which is best in our American government.'' (Speech - 5.17.1909)

FAMILY FACTS
Ole married Nellie May Leona Rose on Sunday, May 12, 1895 in Racine, WI.
They had 10 children.

Nellie (Rose) Hanson was born April 26, 1878 • died May 11, 1944.
  1. Son, Ole Howard, born April 23, 1896 in Wisconsin • died March 7, 1969.
  2. Dau, Nellie Katherine, born October 28, 1899 in Pennsylvania • died November 2, 1976 in California.
  3. Dau, Doris Mildred, born May 26, 1903, born in Washington.
  4. Son, William Harwood Taft, born March 6, 1905 in California • died September 8, 1981.
  5. Son, Theodore Roosevelt 'Ted', born May 26, 1908 in Washington • died January 27, 1977 in California.
  6. Son, Robert LaFollette, born May 17, 1910  in Washington • died July 5, 1989
  7. Dau, Marjory H., born October 15, 1912 in Washington • died February 7, 1990 in California.
  8. Son, Eugene Field, born November 22, 1914 in Washington • died March 28, 1998
  9. Son, Lloyd George, born August 13, 1917 in Washington • died Aug 18, 2004 in Florida, age 87.
  10. Dau, Muriel, born December 23, 1920 in Washington • married Ross Gibbons (1949) • died June 10, 2013 in California.

CAREER  FACTS
 Seattle Daily Times •
 July 7, 1940



  • Ole passed the Wisconsin bar exam at the age of sixteen but could not carry out his planned law career because he was too young. 
  • Ole moved west with his wife and two children, in 1902, and went into real estate. 
  • Ole his wife's nephew, Alexander Reid, incorporated the North Seattle Improvement Company. He was also a co-founder of the city of Lake Forest Park in the Seattle region in 1912. 
  • Member of Washington state house of representatives, 1908-09, 43rd district. He chose not to run for re-election.  
  • Candidate for U.S. Senator from Washington, 1914 (came in 3rd) 
  • He had to deal with labor unrest there and was not popular as the result of his dealings with the unions. Anarchists almost killed him there in April 1919 and he resigned soon after. 
  • Mayor Ole Hanson, operating the first Municipal car over the University Bridge, 1919.
  • After failing to secure the Republican nomination for vice president in 1920, he moved to Southern California, becoming active in civic affairs. 
  • In 1925 he founded the City of San Clemente, California, the future home and Western White House of President Richard Nixon.
    • Authored by Ole Hanson
    Garden City etc: Doubleday, 1920
  • Ole lost his home and much of his holdings in the Great Depression, and later on, went on to develop real estate in Twenty Nine Palms, California.


BIBLIOGRAPHY
Terje I. Leiren,"Ole and the Reds: The 'Americanism' of Seattle Mayor Ole Hanson,"
Norwegian-American Studies,Volume 30, pg. 75.  This is an excellent article which provides a greater insight to the man, the strike and the life of Ole Hanson. It's a good read.
Ole Hanson, "Why and How I Became Mayor of Seattle," in TheWorld's Work, 39 (December, 1919), 123.

 Ole Hanson 'San Clemente: The Spanish Village'
San Clemente, California, 1929

 Annual Message of Ole Hanson, Mayor of Seattle Washington To the Honorable City Council • January 1, 1919

Exhibit: The Seattle General Strike of 1919

Book: Revolution in Seattle: A Memoir 
by Harvey O'Connor  •  Haymaker Books (Chicago, IL) 2009

Source: The cartoon; a reference book of Seattle's successful men, with decorations by the Seattle Cartoonists' Club, Frank Calvert, ed., 1911 • Printed by Metropolitan Press

Looking for more information on Lake Forest Park? 

Check out these links:






Early Homes in LFP, i.e. Reid Home, profiled in Bungalow Magazine
See Seattle Public Library, Special Collections Online • Bungalow Magazine, v. 3, no. 4, April 1914
Home of Alex H. and Clara S. Reid in Lake Forest Park, pages 203-217.

Lake Forest Park Community: Schools, Civic Organizations, Notable People







COMMENTARY... 

So, what makes Ole Hanson significant for me?

I too was born in Wisconsin, tho on the opposite side of the state and farther north. I too moved from the Midwest to Seattle. Ole did this in 1902 and I relocated 90 years later, in 1992. I spent the last 25 years living in Ballard, the Scandinavian neighborhood of Seattle and just a few months ago moved north and a bit east to the north end of Lake Washington. Specifically, the Lake Forest Neighborhood -- the same one that was developed by Ole and his nephew.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

THE REST OF THE STORY
There are several other websites that profile Ole Hanson. Here are links to just a handful of them

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