Editing Mark Hanna (section)

== Early life and business career ==
[[File:Mark Hanna's birthplace in New Lisbon, OH.jpg|thumb|upright|Hanna's birthplace]]

Marcus Alonzo Hanna was born on September 24, 1837, in New Lisbon (in 1895 renamed Lisbon), Ohio, to Dr. Leonard and Samantha Hanna. Leonard's father, Benjamin Hanna, a [[Society of Friends|Quaker]] of Scotch-Irish descent, was a wealthy store owner in New Lisbon. Dr. Hanna practiced in [[Columbiana County, Ohio|Columbiana County]], where New Lisbon was located, until he suffered a spinal injury while riding. After the accident, he joined the family business, B., L., and T. Hanna, by then a major grocery and goods brokering firm. Samantha, née Converse, and her parents had journeyed west from [[Vermont]] when she was 11; she was of English, possibly Irish, and French [[Huguenot]] descent.{{sfn|Croly|pp=3–6, 11}}{{sfn|Beer|pp=22–23}}
[[File:Mark Hanna as boy.jpg|thumb|upright=0.68|left|Hanna as a boy|alt=A young North American boy of the 19th century. In this black-and-white photograph, the boy looks into the camera nervously, a straw boater perched upon his head. He wears a white shirt, dark jacket and a large, dark-coloured bow tie.]]
Mark's uncle Kersey Hanna described Mark as a boy as "short, strong and rugged, with a full round figure".{{sfn|Croly|p=19}}  Young Mark attended the local public school, which conducted class in the basement of the Presbyterian church.{{sfn|Croly|p=22}}  He competed in the local boys' debating society, and on the question of whether the black man had more cause for complaint than the Indian, carried the day arguing for the blacks.{{sfn|Croly|pp=23–24}}

Members of the Hanna family invested in a canal project to connect New Lisbon, distant from waterways, to the [[Ohio River]].{{sfn|Croly|pp=29–30}}  The canal was a failure, and the family lost large sums of money.  Most Hanna family members left New Lisbon in the early 1850s.  Dr. Hanna went into partnership with his brother Robert, starting a grocery business in Cleveland, and relocated his family there in 1852.{{sfn|Croly|pp=32, 36}}  In Cleveland, Mark attended several public schools, including Cleveland Central High School, which he went to at the same time as [[John D. Rockefeller]] and was one of his classmates.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://cdn.mises.org/Men%20of%20Wealth%20The%20Story%20of%20Twelve%20Significant%20Fortunes%20from%20the%20Renaissance%20to%20the%20Present%20Day_2.pdf |year=1941 |title=Men of Wealth : The Story of the Twelve Significant Fortunes from the Renaissance to the Present Day|pages=387|author=John T. Flynn|publisher=Simon and Schuster, New York}}</ref>  After graduation in 1857, Hanna attended [[Case Western Reserve University|Western Reserve College]], but was dismissed for distributing mock programs at a solemn ceremonial.{{sfn|Croly|pp=36–40}} Hanna served in various capacities in the family business, learning it from the bottom up.{{sfn|Croly|p=40}}