Harvey Hannah

 by Jocelyn Woods Griffo 
 for The Oak Ridger 

 (Drawn from the late Snyder E. Roberts' histories of Oliver Springs)

Oliver Springs' most notable son cut a dramatic figure in his lifetime, not only in his hometown but also across the state of Tennessee and in national Democratic Party politics. He was handsome, dark-haired, dashing, wealthy, and bright.

Harvey Horatio Hannah was born to Major John Harvey Hannah and Elizabeth "Lillie" Gerding Hannah.

His father, born in Polk County, was a businessman and Confederate sympathizer who had fled to Louisville, Ky., at the onset of the Civil War. There he met and married Elizabeth Gerding.

Elizabeth was one of 14 children born to George Frederick Gerding, a successful New York City German immigrant who associated with the likes of Astors and Roosevelts and European royalty.

Gerding had staked his fortune on the establishment of a German-Swiss colony in Wartburg in Morgan County (1845-60), and brought his family to Wartburg in 1849 when Elizabeth was about 3 years old. Also a Confederate sympathizer, Gerding had fled with his family to Louisville for the duration of the war.

The Gerdings returned to Oliver Springs in the latter part of 1872, and Maj. John Hannah and his family followed soon after.

Harvey, born Aug. 30, 1868, in Louisville, was about 12 years old when his father died in Oliver Springs (Maj. Hannah is buried in the Robertsville cemetery). Elizabeth Gerding Hannah was remarried about a year later to Dr. Robert A. McFerrin, a local physician.

After the death in 1884 of 84-year-old George F. Gerding (Wartburg's founder and Elizabeth's father), Elizabeth Hannah used her share of an inheritance to purchase what is now the only remaining antebellum structure in Oliver Springs -- Colonial Hall at the corner of Spring and Main streets.

Here is where Harvey, his brother and sister and an orphaned Cuban girl were raised. Often, it was said, Elizabeth's relatives gathered in the home, conversing in the German tongue.

Harvey attended local public schools until the McFerrins moved to Cartersville, Ga., for a brief time. There he attended private school, and later the North Georgia Agricultural College at Dahlonega. He next entered the college of law at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and graduated valedictorian of his class.

He entered law practice in his hometown, but was shortly called to Nashville to fill the office of U.S. commissioner for three years, then was made private secretary to Tennessee Gov. Robert L. Taylor (who later became his uncle by marriage.)

He joined military service and served in Cuba as an officer in the Spanish-American War, achieved the rank of colonel, and was selected as military governor of a Cuban province under Gen. Leonard Wood.

(It was during this period that his mother, Elizabeth, came to visit him and returned to Oliver Springs with an orphaned Cuban girl whom she reared.)

Also in Cuba, Tennessean Cordell Hull, who later became U.S. secretary of state under Franklin D. Roosevelt, served as a captain under Hannah. Their friendship would last a lifetime.

After 1900, Hannah entered the political arena as a staunch Democrat. He ran unsuccessfully for Congress, ran unsuccessfully for governor of Tennessee, but served as adjutant general in the cabinets of two governors. In 1906 Hannah was elected as Railroad commissioner (30 years), and later, chairman of the Railroad and Utilities Commission (14 years). Both were positions of immense power.

He married Gertrude Taylor in 1909 in Oklahoma City, Okla. Gertrude was the daughter of James P. Taylor, whose brothers, Robert and Alfred, both became governors of Tennessee, and stood brother against brother in Tennessee's famous "War of the Roses" campaign in 1886.

In 1916, Harvey and Gertrude purchased the William Wiley home. It is likely he had the house remodeled to its present colonial style in 1928. Perhaps he did so due to the influence of his boyhood home, Colonial Hall. It can be said the two houses bookend the downtown district.

In the political arena, Hannah earned a reputation as a "silver-tongued orator" in the style of William Jennings Bryan. At the height of his oratory prowess in 1928, he delivered a rousing nominating speech for Cordell Hull for the office of U.S. president at the Democratic National Convention in Houston, Texas, saying distinguished Tennesseans stood "silhouetted on the horizon of Texas history" and that "Tennessee is the mother of Texas."

Although he spent a large percentage of his career in Nashville, Washington, D.C., and other far-flung places, Hannah always kept his residence in Oliver Springs, and was regarded by local citizens as loyal to his hometown and her citizens.

In 1936 at the age of 68, Hannah became ill and was confined at his home. Tennessee Gov. Hill McAlister came to the Hannah home to visit and asked if there was anything he could do. Hannah asked for enough state money to finish the Oliver Springs-Harriman highway. That highway is named "Harvey H. Hannah Highway."

Harvey Horatio Hannah never recovered, died Nov. 8, 1936, and is buried in the Oliver Springs Cemetery beneath a towering 22-foot-tall monument.