Woman of the Century/Sarah Jackson Hanna

2278107Woman of the Century — Sarah Jackson Hanna

HANNA, Miss Sarah Jackson, musical educator, born on her father's sugar plantation. near New Orleans, La., 4th December, 1847. She is the oldest daughter of lames Jackson Hanna and Ellen Cooper. Her father was born in Ireland. The family comes of Scotch-Irish lineage of noble birth. The mother of James Jackson Hanna belonged to the same Scotch-Irish stock. SARAH JACKSON HANNA. She, and her brothers and sisters, after being actively interested in the Irish rebellion of 1803, sought refuge in the United States. Coming to this country In 1810, they settled in Tennessee, and then went to the rich cotton belt of Florence, Ala. From there Mrs. Hanna, the grandmother of Miss Sarah Hanna removed to southwestern Louisiana, where she devoted all her energies to the culture of sugar, in which she succeeded, leaving a valuable property to her heirs. On her mother's side Miss Hanna is-the granddaughter of Dr. Thomas Cooper, a native of Manchester, England. He was a distinguished scientist and man of letters, and for many years before and at the time of his death president of South Carolina College, in Columbia, S. C. In 1860 Miss Hanna resided in New Orleans. Having shown in early childhood unusual musical talent, her father gave her every advantage. The last few years of her student life she spent under the instruction of Madame Francoise Lacquer. Her father's fortune having been swept away by war and lost in litigation, when he died, in 1867, she resolved to support herself as a teacher of the piano. She first went to Florence, Ala. Later she accepted a position in Ward's Seminary, Nashville, Tenn. There she met Thomas B. Binyon, to whom she was married in 1870. They went to Atlanta, Ga., where she has since resided. Later domestic and financial troubles compelled her to adopt again the teaching of music as a profession, which she has followed since, uninterruptedly and with marked success. For three years she was organist of St. Luke's Cathedral, organizing the first surpliced choir in Atlanta. Her health failing, she resigned that position and devoted herself exclusively to teaching. In 1885. by permission of the Superior Court of Fulton county, Ga., she resumed her maiden name.