CHARLES D. HANCHETTE

CHARLES D. HANCHETTE, senior member of the prominent law firm of Hanchette & Lawton, of Hancock, Houghton County, Michigan, was born December 13, 1859, at Woodstock, Illinois, and is the second son of Maj. Hiram Solon and Nancy Jane (Griffiths) Hanchette. Major Hanchette organized a company for the 16th Reg., Illinois Vol. Cav., during the Civil War, and was captured in 1864 and imprisoned in Cahaba, Alabama, and after the war was over, instead of being released, he was taken into the woods and shot by the officers of the prison, for personal spite. The family moved, in I864, from Woodstock to Chicago, Illinois, where our subject received his education and was a member of the class of 1878 of the old Central High School. Mr. Hanchette engaged in the music business for several years and in 1884 entered the law office of Hon. Thomas B. Dunstan, a leading member of the Houghton County bar. He was admitted to the bar of Houghton County in 1886. In September of the same year he was married to Nellie J. Harris, daughter of Capt. Samuel B. Harris, president of the First National Bank of Hancock.

Mr. Hanchette was elected and served for three terms as prosecuting attorney of Keweenaw County, Michigan. In 1889 he organized the Northern Michigan Building & Loan Association and was taken in as a partner with Hon. Thomas B. Dunstan, under the firm name of Dunstan & Hanchette. This firm was prominently identified with the development of the copper country, especially of the Ontonagon district, having secured the capital necessary to open up and develop the old Adventure, Hilton and Knowlton group, and the old Victoria mine near Rockland. In May, 1902, Mr. Dunstan died and Mr. Hanchette formed a partnership with Swaby L. Lawton, and he was elected a director in the First National Bank of Hancock, and a director in and the vice-president of the Victoria Copper Mining Company. Ever since its organization he has been acting as secretary and attorney of the Northern Michigan Building & Loan Association. He is identified with the leading business industries of the city of Hancock and the neighborhood. The law firm of Hanchette & Lawton is one of the leading firms of Houghton County.

Source: Biographical Record, Houghton, Baraga and Marquette Counties.  Chicago: Biographical Publishing Company, 1903.