How William Hanna helped build Gilroy
During Gilroy’s early years, William Hanna owned a large parcel
of land that stretched west of town in one vast expanse towards the
foothills. The sprawling tract originally ran from Second to Sixth
Streets and from Hanna Street to what is now Christmas Hill Park. A
large western portion was later sold to cattle baron Henry
Miller.
How William Hanna helped build Gilroy
During Gilroy’s early years, William Hanna owned a large parcel of land that stretched west of town in one vast expanse towards the foothills. The sprawling tract originally ran from Second to Sixth Streets and from Hanna Street to what is now Christmas Hill Park. A large western portion was later sold to cattle baron Henry Miller.
The remainder, known for decades as Hanna’s Field, ran from today’s Hanna Street to Miller Avenue. Until the town grew in that direction, Hanna’s Field was sometimes used for growing crops. Particularly during the 1870s, the acreage was planted in tobacco for the local cigar factory owned by James Culp.
In later years, the land stood empty, until airplanes hit the skies. In those early, pre-airstrip days, Hannah’s Field was on occasion a convenient spot where barnstormers would land. Local air ace Bob Fowler claimed that in 1910 he was the first pilot to land in Hanna’s Field, on a flight from San Francisco to Gilroy to visit his parents. When the plane wouldn’t start for takeoff, locals had to pitch in and give him a running push to help get his craft off the ground.
Although William Hanna was an early pioneer, arriving in Gilroy on January 1, 1860, he wasn’t the first family member in town. According to an 1881 Santa Clara County History, his other three brothers, had already gotten a head start. Samuel, James and Green Hanna had settled in Gilroy in the early 1850s, two years after crossing the plains. The Indiana-born brothers engaged in farming, stock raising and lumbering. Instead of making the arduous trek across the American continent as his brothers had, William sailed with his family to Panama, crossed the Isthmus on foot, and then took another ship up the coast to California.
It wasn’t the first time that brothers in the Hanna family had stuck together. During the Revolutionary War, a family story claims that four Hanna brothers had married four sisters. When a fifth brother wanted to marry into the same family, his intended said she thought four Hannas were enough.
In 1867, William Hanna purchased a mill in the redwoods west of town from George H. Bodfish and took over the well-established lumbering business, which Bodfish had begun in 1853. With his partner, W.N. Furlong, he ran the mill for four years. Then, in 1869, he added to the successful business, including a planing, finishing and shingle mill to his lumberyard in Gilroy. The site, which occupied the block from Sixth to Seventh Streets along Church Street, covered approximately the areas currently occupied by Wheeler Auditorium, stretching along Church Street to the current police department parking lot.
Post-Civil War Gilroy was growing rapidly. The little settlement had incorporated as a town in 1868, and was enjoying the influx of many Civil War veterans who decided to move West and start a new life. The newcomers needed homes, and many of Gilroy’s earliest homes and downtown buildings during the era were built with lumber from the Hanna mills. An item in the Gilroy Advocate on October 24, 1868 noted that it was “important for Hanna mills to keep up lumber demand.” By December 1869, Hanna had erected the Firemen’s Hall on the northwest corner of Eigleberry and Sixth streets. The building was used for many years as a public hall.
In 1870, Hanna built a three-story, 55-room hotel on Monterey Street. At first it was known as the American Hotel, its name was soon changed to Hanna House. As with the Firemen’s Hall, Hanna House for decades was the scene of public gatherings, fraternal society meetings and organizational dinners.
In 1871, Hanna sold the Mt. Madonna mill to Lyttleton Whitehurst, and Pleasant Hodges. Even though for the next five decades the mill would be known as Whitehurst and Hodges, a 1905 Gilroy Advocate description of the operation still referred to it as William Hanna’s mill. The seasonal lumbering operation was a busy one. “Thirty men are employed here and the payroll is a great help to the town, three teams of eight horses are engaged in hauling lumber. It is an interesting sight to watch the 6 yoke of oxen, some of which weigh a ton each, coming down the skid road with a long string of logs, chained together. Then to see the logs rolled into place and how quickly the two big buzz-saws convert it to 14 x 16 rough boards. Another saw splits them into various size and so they pass on. The ends are trimmed and they are ready to be loaded onto wagons for town.”
Within a few years of his arrival, William Hanna was already heavily involved in community affairs, having become a member of Gilroy’s first Board of Trustees following the town’s 1868 incorporation. Within two years he became a member of Gilroy’s first City Council after Gilroy received its charter.
Always enterprising in business, by early 1872, William sold the Hanna House Hotel to E.J. Swift for $11,000. In early 1874, he began construction on Gilroy’s new Music Hall, located on Fifth Street between Eigleberry and Monterey Streets. Intended to provide more seating for public gatherings than Firemen’s Hall, which had outgrown the rapidly expanding population, the new 700-seat auditorium at the Music Hall was built for $5, 683.28. Later renamed the Opera House, the hall until the 1920s hosted traveling troupes, circuit orators, and large local gatherings and dances on public holidays.
In 1876, William Hanna was elected mayor of Gilroy, and two years later became a State Assemblyman. His 1881 biography noted additional accomplishments: “He is an inventor and patentee of two improvements in mechanisms which bid fair to revolutionize steam propelling power on land and sea. He is well-regarded in the community.”
William’s brother, Green Hanna, had served as Deputy Sheriff in Gilroy’s earliest days. He was known for his bravery in an era when cattle thieves roamed the region. When James Culp began to cultivate tobacco for his local cigar factories in the mid-1870s, Green Hanna joined in, adding tobacco acreage at his farm south of town at Carnadero. According to an article in the April 23, 1875 Gilroy Advocate, “He commenced resetting his plants last Monday and will push the work rapidly forward with the energy for which he is noted for doing everything he undertakes.”
In later years, Green, James and Samuel moved to Livermore. When James died in 1912 and his remains were brought back to be buried in the Hanna family plot, the obituary noted that “Old pioneers of the valley will remember this pioneer.”
William Hanna died in Gilroy on October 10, 1894 and is buried at Gavilan Hills Cemetery, along with his brothers. Many of his descendants have remained in the Gilroy area. Like their famous forebear, they have continued through the generations to contribute to the welfare and culture of the community.
