Antonio Tobias Mendez 2011
See also Mendez' 2014 dual portraits of Jane and John Hanson on the Jane Hanson National Memorial in Frederick's Mt. Olivet Cemetery. John Hanson and Jane Contee were married sometime between 1743 and 1747.
For a short biography of John Hanson see Appleton's Cyclopædia of American Biography, or the Maryland State Archives.
A plaque on the base of the monument says this:
First President of the First United States Government,
The United States in Congress Assembled,Which Existed From 1781 until 1788.
“As the first elected president of our independent nation, President Hanson began the task of unifying the former colonies and Providing for their common defense, communication, and economic growth.” -- Senator Benjamin Cardin of Maryland in The Congressional Record, United States Congress, 2010.
and gives the following time-line:
April 14, 1715 ─ Born at Mulberry Grove, the Hanson family's ancestral estate in Charles County, Maryland.1757 - 1782 ─ Served in the Maryland House of Delegates, the Second Continental Congress, and the United States in Congress Assembled.About 1768 ─ Moved to Frederick , built his home on this property1774 - 1779 ─ Head of Frederick County Government. A colonial and then national leader in financing the Revolutionary War, mustering troops and production of war materiel.June, 1776 ─ Pivotal in persuading Maryland to sign the Declaration of Independence.1779 - 1782 ─ Maryland delegate to the Second Continental Congress. Persuaded states with large midwestern land grants to cede these lands to the nation, overcoming the last obstacle to forming the first government.March 1, 1781 ─ Final signer of the Articles of Confederation creating the first government.November 6, 1781 ─ Elected first President, United States in Congress Assembled, under the ratified Articles of Confederation.November 3, 1782 ─ Completed one-year term as President.November 22, 1783 ─ Died at his nephew's Oxon Hill Manor home. Burial place unknown.February 21, 1812 ─ Jane Contee Hanson, John Hanson's wife, died at their Frederick home.January 31, 1903 ─ John Hanson Statue unveiled in National Statuary Hall of the United States Capitol.
John Hanson's life has been consumed by myth. But, let's start at the beginning with Hanson's birth in Charles County in 1715 or was it 1723? Two historical markers point to Mulberry Grove in Port Tobacco as the birthplace of John Hanson. This 1953 historical marker can be found along the Chapel Point Road:
Mulberry Grove
Birthplace of
John Hanson
President of the United States
in Congress Assembled 1781-1782.
Died, Oxon Hill, Maryland
November 22, 1783
Erected 1953
Maryland State Highway Administration
Turning up Mulberry Grove Place we find a 1963 marker, placed by the Maryland Society - Sons of the American Revolution.
The marker sits in front of the brick house at 8600 Mulberry Grove Place.
When I visited in 2016, The house was for sale, with an asking price of $4,500,000. The place was purchased in 2017 by real estate agent Jay Lilly and his wife Mary. (See The Grandeur of Mulberry Grove, by L. Beth Bonifant in Southern Maryland Living.)
Although Shasho realty identified this as “Former home of John Hanson - First President of the United States and signer of the Articles of Confederation.”, this isn't John Hanson's house. That house burned down on July 25, 1934. The Architectural Style Survey form (CH-83) (1999/2012) concludes that:
The present house on the property is an inaccurate reconstruction of the original residence at Mulberry Grove.
Swepson Earle published this photo of “Mulberry Grove, Early Home of John Hanson” in his 1923 book The Chesapeake Bay Country:
There appears to be some doubt as to whether Hanson was even born in the older house. The Architectural Survey form says that
The original house on the property is believed to have been constructed by John Hanson, President of the United States under the Articles of Confederation, on land purchased by him in 1744.
That's not to deny that Hanson was born somewhere on the 1,000 acre plantation known as “Mulberry Grove”.
Nearby stands a rose granite obelisk placed on October 17,1959 by the Vasa Order of America, a Swedish American fraternal organization. (See Dr. Amandus Johnson's speech on the occasion.)
The plaque on the front identifies this as a monument to John Hanson.
John Hanson
1715 - 1783
President of the United States
In Congress Assembled
1781 - 1782
Was Born at Mulberry Grove
April 14, 1715
*
Erected by the Vasa Order of America
Although this marker does not explicitly claim that John Hanson was Swedish, it's placement by the Vasa Order indicates that they believed he was. The current consensus seems to be that Hanson was of British ancestry not Swedish. In a 2001 article entitled Was the First President of the United States a Swede? in The Swedish American Genealogist, Vol. 21, No. 2, Elizabeth Thorsell examines various claims and concludes:
So the story about the United States' first president, before George Washington, being of Swedish descent can now be relegated to the bottom of the myths.
The trivia point that John Hanson was the First President of the United States rests on an equivocation around the word “President.” (See Deborah Brower's note on the meaning of “President” in the 18th century.) John Hanson presided over Congress under the Articles of Confederation, the way the Vice-President presides over the Senate under the current constitution. He did not head the executive branch of government, in fact the Confederation lacked an executive branch. Though we should note that Hanson's position was perhaps the highest office under the Confederation. George Washington called it “the most important seat in the United States” in 1781.
The U.S. Postal Service summed it up this way:
John Hanson was the first president of the Continental Congress under the Articles of Confederation. He was elected on November 5, 1781, and thus is regarded by some as the “first president of the United States.” However, the office of president of the United States was not officially created until the U.S. Constitution was adopted, so Hanson was only president of the Continental Congress and not the chief executive of the United States.
But perhaps the strangest myth accruing to John Hanson is that he, not Barack Obama, was the first African American President of the United States. An urban legend conflates John Hanson 1715-1782 with John Hanson who died in 1860 and concludes that the first president of the United States was an African American. (See for example an article entitled John Hanson--the first Black president? by 10 year old Olayemi Odesanya in the Amsterdam News, 2/19/2009, Vol. 100 Issue 8, p11-34.)
The fact that this Augustus Washington photo of John Hanson was taken between 1856 and 1858 should disabuse us of the notion that he was the First President of the United States in 1781. This Hanson was associated with the American Colonization Society. He emigrated to Liberia and there became a Senator representing Grand Bassa County.
Similar claims have arisen based on the dark skinned appearance of Robert Morris on the reverse of the $2 bill.
John Hanson retired from public life in 1782 after his term as President of Congress in ill-health. He died on November 15, 1783, at Oxon Hill Manor the home of his nephew, Thomas Hawkins Hanson, who had married into the Addison Family, owners of the Manor.
Another Historical Marker in front of the John Hanson Montessori School on Oxon Hill Road tells the story.
John Hanson
---
President of the United States
In Congress Assembled, 1781-2
Died November 15, 1783, at
“Oxon Hill”
1 1/2 Miles West of Here.
The Original Mansion House, Built
By the Addison Family, Was Burned
February 6, 1895.
State Roads Commission
Oxon Hill Manor is now a County park but, as the marker indicates, this Grand 20th century Georgian house designed by Count Jules Henri de Sibour for Sumner Welles is not where Hanson died.
Hanson died in this version of the Oxon Hill Manor House, which the SAR monument below says was about 400 yards north of the current mansion.
By the front door of the modern mansion we find this monument erected by the MD Sons of the American Revolution.
On the front is a photographic image of a black and white reproduction of Charles Wilson Peale's portrait of John Hanson that hangs in Independence hall.
The SAR website refers to this image of John Hanson.
John Hanson from the Charles Willson Peale portrait in Independence Hall, Philadelphia.
(from Herbert J. Stoeckel, 1956)
Which in-turn reproduces the Peale portrait in Independence Hall.
John
Hanson
Honored
Patriot
of the
American
Revolution
Born 3 April, 1721,
Mullberry Grove,
Charles Co., MD.
Died 15 November
1783 at the original
Oxon Hill Manor
house (site about
400 yards north
of here) Prince
George's Co., MD.
John Hanson served
several terms as
a delegate to the
Lower House of
the Maryland
Assembly from
Charles County
between 1757 and
1769, and as a ...
member of the
Maryland House
of Delegates,
representing
Frederick County
from 1778 to 1780.
In 1775 he served
as a member of
the Maryland
Convention which
issued its famous
declaration known
as the "Association
of the Freemen of
Maryland."
He was elected
the first President
of the United
States in Congress
Assembled under
the New Articles
of Confederation
and served from
November 5, 1781 -
November 4, 1782.
While President
he tendered
George Washington
the thanks of
Congress for the
victory at Yorktown.
Dedicated
June 30, 1990 by
the John Hanson
Chapter, Maryland
Society, Sons of
the American
Revolution.
The 1974 painting below by Cedric Egeli, is a particularly lively treatment of Peale's portrait of Hanson. It hangs in the Maryland Statehouse in Annapolis.
John Hanson by Cedric F. Egeli after Charles Willson Peale, 1974
And the 1981 20c postage stamp by Ron Adair follows the pattern.
John Hanson from the 1981 20c Postage stamp by Ron Adair.
An NPS survey entitled Oxon Hill Manor: Description, Evaluation and Recommendation
Peter H. Michael wrote in the Frederick News Post March 25, 2012, that:
For Use as An Official Residence by the NPS Office of Archeology and Historic Preservation January 7, 1972 had this photo by Jack Boucher of “The John Hanson Mausoleum.”
Plate XV
Their description of the photo says:
Only two of the three 3 1/2' x 5' granite slabs that formed the floor of the "John Hanson Mausoleum" remain in situ.- Weather and recent vandalizing have destroyed evidence of the building's original design and use.
In 1984, Oxon Hill Manor was purchased for development by Lewis Enterprises which in 1986 commissioned surveys that included the crypt where John Hanson had been interred. A 1985 State survey had found the crypt and its vault intact and sealed, but by 1987 the archeologist of the Lewis survey states, "About 70 to 80 feet below the site of the plantation house was a deteriorating brick vaulted structure built into the hillside" which the archeologist reported “was the 1783 burial place of John Hanson" and "had been robbed."Sometime between 1985 and 1987, John Hanson had disappeared.Then, so did the crypt and vault. A 1993 photograph shows them having mysteriously vanished, graded into a parking lot. From 1984 to1993, Lewis Enterprises owned the property. Later, Lewis's development project went broke and the property was sold to the Peterson Companies, developer of the immense National Harbor. Efforts to track down James Lewis, head of Lewis Enterprises, have proved futile. -- Vanished: Discovering Hanson’s Grave and Reilluminating Him Today
The historical tablet erected by National Harbor says this about the disposition of Hanson's remains:
When John Hanson died, he was laid to rest in the Addison family crypt, which was found intact but empty in 1971. The crypt was demolished in 1987. The whereabouts of John Hanson's remains are unknown, the fate of no other president.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2026 Update:
Both the John Hanson Memorial Association and John Hanson's biographer Peter Michaels agree that this stone in the Addison family section of Saint John's Episcopal graveyard in Fort Washington, Maryland marks the final resting place of John Hanson (1715-1783).
1/3/2020 photo by ACB
Unknown
Male
60 Years Old
Unknown
3 - 4 Years Old
When I visited the old Addison Graveyard in 2011 it was inaccessible and barely visible from a parking lot surrounded by construction.
11/11/2011 photo by ACB
There were rumors at that time that John Hanson's body was in the Addison Graveyard.
The one visible headstone later turned out to be that of William Meade Addison. (See 40 Members of the Addison Family in HMdb.)
1/3/2020 photo by ACB
In 2017, all the human remains in the Addison Graveyard were moved to form a new section in the Church yard of Saint John's Episcopal Church in Fort Washington. (Here's a Capital Park and Planning Commission document on the disinterment.)
Illustration from Oxon Hill Manor House One Hundred Years Ago or The Life and Times of Rev Walter Dulany Addison 1769-1848 by Elizabeth Hesselius Murray 1895.
The Addison Family Section
St. John's Church
Broad Creek.
The John Hanson Memorial Association offers this modus ponens syllogism as proof that John Hanson's body is in the Addison Family Section of the the Saint John's Church Graveyard:
Proof of John Hanson's Presence at St. John's Episcopal Church
If John Hanson went from the crypt to the Addison Cemetery,and if all in the Addison Cemetery went to St. John's,then John Hanson is in the St. John's graveyard.
The Memorial Association further argues that “Michael's records of the Smithsonian Institution 2017 forensics examination of 40 sets of remains from Addison Cemetery reveal a solitary unidentified elderly male who can only be John Hanson.” The Association promises a “permanent monument” to be installed in 2026. Perhaps these flagged stakes behind the “unknown male 60 years old” marker portend the permanent marker:
5/12/2026 photo by ACB
John Rada sums up this story in a Dec 28, 2024 article entitled “Finding the lost president” in the Frederick News Post.
5/12/2026 photo by ACB
John Hanson shares this spot with an unknown 3-4 year old.
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