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. |