Born 1774 in Henry County, Virginia. Emigrated to Fayetteville, Tennessee, and enlisted there when Andrew Jackson called for men in 1812. In 1817, he and his family came from Virginia and settled on a tract of land near Polly Martin Ford on the Warrior River, in what’s now the Locust Fork community, building a three-story log house that also served as an inn. That same year he found a rich seam of brown iron ore in Blount County - ground that later became the Champion Mines. With Joseph Posey, he put up blacksmith shops in the hill country near Blount Springs and Mount Pinson. Purchased land on Turkey Creek with his family by as early as 1822; his son David helped him build a mill and forge there in 1827.
A great-grandson, Captain John David Hanby, was superintendent of the Sloss Mines at Bessemer as of 1910.
Appears in: Building the L&N Through the Gap. Related: David Hanby, his son.