MANDAN Historical Society

Working to Preserve & Promote Mandan's Heritage since 2004

Welcome

Membership

Activities

Ag Stn Centennial

History Harvest

TR-Coe Exhibit

WWII Exhibit

Museum & Office

Area History

Book: "Mantani"

The 1880s

Mandan Rodeo / Fair

School System History

The 1890s

The 1900s

1901 Pan Am Expo

1903 TR Visit to NDak

The 1910s

1910 Spring Flood

1911 Fair & Airplane Demo

1912 TR Whistle-Stop

The 1920s

Prohibition in Mandan

Mail Order Kit Homes

The 1930s

FDR Visit August 1936

The 1940s

The 1950s

1958 Lincoln Stamp FDC

Custer Drama / Trail West

The 1960s

The 1970s

The 1980s

The 1990s

1st of the 21st

2010-Present

Area Landmarks

Cary Bldg - Mandan Drug

CCC Camp Chimney

Christ the King Church

Collins Av Civic Bldg

First Lutheran Church

First National Bank Bldg

First Presbyterian Church

Great Plains Academy

Great Plains Expermt Stn

Lewis & Clark Hotel

Mandan Hill

Mandan Theatre

MV Produce Warehouse

Methodist Church

NP Beanery

NP "Colonial" RR Depot

NPRR Freighthouse

NP Rail High Bridge

Roughrider Statue

St Joseph Church

WWar Memorial Bldg

Youth Correctional Center

Gone Forever

Central School

Collins Ave Courthouse

Cummins Building

Deaconess Hospital

Eielson Field

Emerson Inst/Opera House

First St Federal Building

Havana Club

Hotel Nigey

InterOcean Hotel

Liberty Memorial Bridge

Mandan Creamery & Produce

Mandan Flour Mill

Merchants Hotel

NP "Queen Anne" Depot

Original Passenger Depot

Palace Theatre

Peoples' Hotel

Rock Haven

Topic Theatre

Young's Tavern

Heritage Homes

Altnow-Smith Home

Dunlap-Harris Home

Ellis-Uden Home

Freeburg-Esser Home

Lyon-Weigel Home

McGillic Home

Olson-Brick Home

Parkins-Cooley Home

Stutsman-Wyatt Home

Swanson-Reichman Home

Welch-Ness Home

Endowment Fund

Genealogy Links

Biographies A-C

J D Allen

Franklin Anders

Richard Baron

James Bellows

George Bingenheimer

Margaret Bingenheimer

Philip Blumenthal

Elijah Boley

Frank Briggs

Leo Broderick

William Broderick

Frank Bunting

Lyman Cary

James Clark

Henry Coe

Viola Boley Coe

Daniel Collins

Elizabeth Custer

George Custer

Biographies D-L

Alice Dahners

Henry Dahners

C E V (Charles) Draper

Esther Davis

Tony Dean

Joseph Devine

Ronald Erhardt

John Forbes

Palma Fristad

Gilbert Furness

Aloysius Galowitsch

Frederic Gerard

Zalmon Gilbert

Charles Grantier

James Hanley Jr

James Hanley Sr

Mary Harris

C Edgar Haupt

Michael Lang

William Langer

Albert Lanterman

William Lanterman

Richard Longfellow

Rolland Lutz

Hiram Lyon

Biographies M-R

George Marback

Gary Miller

Lee Mohr

Margaret Naylor

John Newton

Anton Ness

John Osterhouse

George Peoples

Arthur Peterson

Nels Romer

Hoy Russell

Walton Russell

Antonie Rybnicek

Ervin Rybnicek

Hynek Rybnicek

Biographies S-Z

Margaret Schaaf

George Shafer

Benjamin Shaw

William Simpson

Anna Knox Stark

Mary Stark

Benjamin Stephenson

J O Sullivan

John Sullivan

Era Bell Thompson

Andrew E Thorberg

Ida Thorberg

C L Timmerman

George Toman

Earle Tostevin

Edwin A Tostevin Sr

Edwin D Tostevin Jr

Walter Tostevin

Felix Vinatieri

A B Welch

Levon West

Frank Wetzstein

Harry Wheeler

Philomena Yunck

View Collections

Artifacts - Miscellanous

Newspapers

Pottery and Glass

Photos - Buildings

Photos - Downtown

Photos - Floods

Photos - People

Photos - Rail and Trains

What's New

James Martin Hanley Sr (1877-1947)
Throughout his life he was known as Judge Hanley, Jim or The Major. 

James was born in Winona Minnesota on Jauary 6, 1877.  His father Michael was from Ireland and his mother Eliza Cater was from England. He had one brother Jasper and two sisters. He graduating from High School in Kasson Minnesota at age 16.  Despite the lack of his father's approval, he attended Carleton College in Northfield Minnesota and studied law.

He left college when he was 18 to go to Waseca Minnesota where he worked as a city clerk while studying law under Peter McGovern.

While he was ready to take the bar examination when he was 21, he instead enlisted instead at the outbreak of the Spanish-American War in 1898.  Hanley served as a private in the 12th Minnesota Volunteers.  After being discharged in 1899, he took and passed the bar still at the age of 21.  Returing to Waseca, he established his law practice while also serving as deputy state oil inspector, city auditor, the local Board of Health and secretary to the Waseca Agricultural Society.

In 1902 while employed as an oil investigator and reporter, Mr. Hanley went to North Dakota on a business trip.  He stopped over in Mandan and met a local attorney, Henry G. Voss.  After multiple subsequent conversations, James was persuaded to relocate permenantly to Mandan and form a law partnership with Mr. Voss.  But he did not want to leave behind his "best-girl", Irma Lewis.  But satisfying the desire would not be simple.

The families were far apart financially and socially.  James' father ran a stable while Irma's father was a distinguished attorney. Her family adamantely opposed their match the couple eloped.  When her brother-in-law heard of the plan, he grabbed his gun and when looking for them but to no avail.  They were married in Minneapolis on March 3, 1903.  They settled in Mandan and had four children, James Jr., Josephine (McCormick), Irma Jane (Lium) and Lewista (Paris).  Hanley was so sure his youngest child was going to be a son, he preselected the name "Lewis."  When faced with the disappointment, he adapted in his typical forthright manner - just added the "ta" to her name.

On arriving in Mandan, he "turned Republican" reportedly since it was the only active part in North Dakota.   He was elected States Attorney for Morton County in both 1908 and 1910.  He was elected to the House of Representative in 1908 and 1910, and served as Speaker of the House during the 1911 legislative session.  The next year he sucessfully ran for the North Dakota Senate. 

In 1915 he was appointed Judge of the Twelfth Judicial District, by Governor Louis B. Hanna, he served in that capacity until 1919, when the judicial districts were revised he became Judge of the Sixth Judicial District from 1919 until 1920.

Mr. Voss died in 1907 and Hanley continued his solo law practice until 1909.  John Sullivan joined the practice now known as Hanley & Sullivan Law Offices.  The two also partnered in at least three ranches, two farms and joined in a host of trouble. Depression prices, inefficient tenants and back luck shattered his dream to retire as a gentleman farmer.  He was instrumental, however, with other Mandan businessmen, in obtaining funding for the Northern Great Plains Agricultural Research Station southwest of Mandan.


In 1906, he was instrumental in organization Company F-North Dakota National Guard to replace the local militia.  He was commissioned as a captain but in 1915 he was promoted to major.  

As a private in the short duration Spanish-American War, he never left the county. When the Mexican border trouble arose in 1916 and now as a major, he again hoped he would see action.  He took the 3rd Battalion 1st North Dakota Infantry to the border but never received orders to cross into Mexico after Pancho Villa.  He subsequently resigned to return to his duties as judge.

However his desire to see action was satisfied in World War I in France with the American Expeditionary Force as commander of the 148th Machine-Gun Battalion.  He and his men joined in battles at St. Mihiel, St. Die, and Lucey (Lorraine).

After the war, he returned to Mandan to resume his private law practice.  He was also a delegate to the caucus held in Paris to form the American Legion.  He subsequently attended the working group meetings in St. Louis and the chartering convention in Minneapolis for the national organization in 1919.  He was instrumental in forming the Mandan Legion Gilbert S. Furness Post No. 40 and served as temporary chairman.  In 1921, he was honored by being nominated for National Commander by his state's delegation.
In 1926, Hanley lost a bid to run for governor as the GOP's candidate.  He switched back to the Democratic Party and ran in 1946 for the US House of Representatives.  He was defeated for the position by Charles Roberson.

Outside of politics, Hanley was the first president of the Mandan Rotary Club in 1921-1922 and secretary of the Missouri Slope Fair Association in 1921-1922.  In addition, he belonged to the Elks, the Knights of Pythias, the American Legion, VFW and Presbyterian Church.  His first wife died in 1929 and remarried in 1943 to Mona Smith. 

Judge Hanley died on January 31, 1947 in Mandan at the age of 70.
  He and his first wife Irma are buried beside each other in Union Cemetery, Mandan, ND.  His second wife is also buried in Union Cemetery, beside her first husband, Dr. L. G. Smith.

The MHSoc's museum and office is located at 3827 30th Avenue NW; PO Box 1001; Mandan, ND 58554
Contact us at info@mandanhistory.org


Last Updated 03/28
/23    ©  2007-2023  Mandan Historical Society   All rights reserved