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FRED WOOD HANFORD
Vol. 3, p.1103
Book has photo

In the months following the opening of the Cherokee Strip Fred W.
Hanford established the pioneer hardware store at Alva. For nearly
fifteen years he was the leading merchant in that line in Alva, kept
his business growing along with the growth and development of the
city and surrounding country, and left it in such flourishing
condition and with such well established confidence among its
patronage that the store is still continued by his estate and enjoys
the prestige which long years of reliable merchandise service give to
any such institution. Fred W. Hanford was a fine type of the Oklahoma
pioneer, and a man whose business achievements and whose character
fitly deserve commemoration.

Fred W. Hanford was born June 12, 1866, in Lenawee County, Michigan,
and died at Alva, April 14, 1909. His parents were James and Emma
(WOOD) Hanford, the former a native of New York and the latter of
Michigan. Of the four sons all are deceased except R. G. Hanford, now
a resident of Spokane, Washington.

The late Mr. Hanford grew up on a Michigan farm in the vicinity of
Tecumseh, and his education was concluded with his graduation from
high school. At the age of twenty he and his parents moved out to the
new state of Kansas, locating on a farm in Pratt County. It was in a
hardware store at Pratt that the late Mr. Hanford learned the
hardware business, and when he came to Oklahoma he brought with him a
thorough experience and considerable capital. For a number of years
he was traveling representative for an agricultural implement house.
It was in October, 1893, that he opened a stock of hardware and
agricultural implements in Alva, and was one of the first merchants
in that town. Since his death the business has been continued under
the old name and under the management of the estate. Mr. Hanford left
a widow
and two children.

In politics he was a democrat, but was not an office seeker and
confined his efforts primarily to the development of a reliable
service as a merchant and to the fulfillment of those
responsibilities and duties which come to every individual in the
social sphere. He loved his home, was generous and clean minded, and
had a high place in the esteem of those who knew him best. He was a
member of the Baptist Church.

At Pratt, Kansas, on November 17, 1891, the late Mr. Hanford married
Miss Alice L. SIMPSON, daughter of James F. and Lee A. (HILBERT)
Simpson. Both her parents were natives of Ohio. Mrs. Hanford was born
at Rosemond, Illinois, July 2, 1871. During her long residence at
Alva, while primarily devoted to the interest of her home, she has
also become well known in church and club work, and is a factor in
the woman's activities and circles of that city. Her oldest child,
Ernest, born May 27, 1895, died in infancy. The daughter, Neva Jane,
born June 16, 1897, was graduated in 1915 from the Southern Seminary
at Buena, Virginia, where she specialized in the classics, music and
art. The son, Fred Wood, Jr., was born May 3, 1901

Typed for OKGenWeb by Lee Ann Collins, November 11, 1998.