Autobiography, ca. 1913

This series consists of the unpublished autobiography of Charles Fleetwood Hanna, in which Hanna reminisces primarily about his life in Baltimore. The autobiography is handwritten in black ink with pages numbered from 1 to 132 in red ink. Hanna's recollections begin in summer 1847 when he and his brother were sent to board with the family of Dr. Isaiah Balderston in Pikesville, Maryland, and end abruptly with a description of his step-mother, Ann Pannell Porter Hanna.

Throughout the autobiography, Hanna describes the people and places in and around Baltimore in a detailed narrative style. He details who lived on specific streets and farms, what was located nearby, who married whom, the offspring of those unions, the occupations of individuals and their relationships with him.

Among Hanna's concerns was the need for "intelligent, zealous, honest and reliable service" in the federal government. The "iniquitous spoils of patronage" appalled him. He recommended a school for high school graduates that would train young men for positions in the Civil Service and presented his plan to President Chester Arthur and Treasury Secretary Charles Folger. He was a member of the Republican Party. Hanna also comments on African American people in the Civil Service.

William Hanna, Charles Hanna's father, organized the Union Reading Room during the Civil War, a place where Union soldiers could "meet each other and assist in fraternizing." The elder Hanna leased a farm to grow food for the patients of Newton University Hospital on Lexington Street.

Important subjects discussed in the autobiography include:

The Notes directly relate to items mentioned in the Autobiography and may be drafts. They are undated.