Hanby House

Hanby House. One of Multiple Markers. , While many American families defended slavery in the early nineteenth century, Benjamin Hanby’s family did not. Benjamin Hanby was born in July 1833 in Rushville, Ohio to Bishop William Hanby and Ann Miller Hanby. Ben’s father grew up in poverty in Pennsylvania. At age nine, he was bound over to a Quaker family to learn farming; at 16, he was bound over to a cruel master to learn saddle making. In 1828, William escaped with the help of a Virginia congressman’s family who sheltered him, and a ferry boatman who provided him passage across the Ohio River. In Perry County, just west of Somerset, William formed a harness making partnership with Samuel Miller, his future father-in-law, while studying to improve his literacy. In 1831, Hanby became a circuit preacher in the United Brethren Church, and later, during the 1845 General Conference, the 15th bishop of that church. Bishp Hanby participated in the Underground Railroad in Rushville, Circleville, and Westerville. He was a temperance crusader. He also served as one of the founding trustees of Otterbein University. William Hanby died in Westerville in May 1880, and is buried in Otterbein Cemetery.

As a child, Benjamin Hanby sang in the church choir and delivered the Religious Telescope, which was edited by his father. At the age of 16, Benjamin moved to Westerville to attend Otterbein University. While a student, young Hanby taught Infant School, a combination of preschool, kindergarten, and primary school up to the fifth grade. Hanby delighted in using music and singing in is lessons because he believed that school days should be joyous. He was known to have a great sense of humor.