Ole Hanson

Ole Hanson (January 6, 1874 – July 6, 1940) was an American politician who served as mayor of Seattle, Washington from 1918 to 1919. Hanson became a national figure promoting law and order when he took a hardline position during the 1919 Seattle General Strike. He then resigned as mayor, wrote a book, and toured the lecture circuit, earning tens of thousands of dollars in honoraria lecturing to conservative civic groups about his experiences and views, promoting opposition to labor unions and Bolshevism. Hanson later left Washington and founded the city of San Clemente, California in 1925.

Ole Hanson was born in a log cabin in Union Grove in Racine County, Wisconsin, the son of Thorsten Hanson and Goro Tostofson Hanson. He was the fifth of six children raised by the Norwegian immigrant couple.

As a teenager, the precocious Hanson worked as a tailor during the day and studied law at night. He passed the Wisconsin bar in 1893, despite being two years too young to practice law. In the end, Hanson never did work in the legal profession, instead going into the grocery business before moving west and going into real estate.

He worked as a real estate developer and co-founded Lake Forest Park, Washington in 1912 as a rural planned community for professionals in the Seattle area.

Entering political life, he served in the Washington House of Representatives during 1908 and 1909. In 1912 he supported Theodore Roosevelt for President of the United States. In 1914, Hanson himself ran for the United States Senate as the candidate of the so-called Bull Moose Party. Hanson garnered nearly a quarter of the vote in the five-way race, won by Republican incumbent Wesley Livsey Jones with a 37% plurality.

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