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‘President’ John Hanson:1972/1981

Richard D. L. Fulton

John Hanson was born in Port Tobacco Parish, Charles County, in 1721, to parents Samuel Hanson and Elizabeth Storey Hanson, and in 1781,  arguably became the first president of the United States, eight years before the election of George Washington.

On September 1, 1972, the United States Postal Service (USPS) issued a 6 cent postal card, commemorating Hanson for his patriotism he had demonstrated during the American Revolution, including his involvement in having helped establish America’s first “rebel” congress. 

Postal cards are official USPS-printed cards with the current stamps imprinted on them (as opposed to post cards, which are privately printed and to which a stamp must be affixed in order to mail them).

First-day-of- issue John Hanson postal cards were issued and canceled in the Baltimore Post office. The postal cards bore a portrait of Hanson, and additionally bore the inscription heading that read “John Hanson of Maryland, First President of the United States?”

On November 5, 1981, the USPS issued a 20-cent stamp, commemorating Hanson for his service as the president of the Continental Congress, and bore a portrait of Hanson, and first day of issue covers were canceled in the Frederick Post Office.

Hanson’s Early Career

John Hanson moved to Frederick City (as the city was once known to distinguish itself from Frederick County) in 1769, where he served as the deputy surveyor from 1769 to 1777. He also served as the sheriff of Frederick County beginning in 1771, according to the  Archives of Maryland article, John Hanson (1721-1783).

In 1775, Hanson served as the chairman of the  Frederick County Committee of Observation (which was involved in the assemblage of militia units to join the armed forces, then being assembled in Boston. In 1775, Hanson was also elected county treasurer.

Additional offices held by Hanson included having been a commissioner assigned in 1776 to assist with establishing an arms and ammunition factory in Frederick, and, in 1777, he was appointed as a loan officer to help raise funds for the Continental Congress.

From 1780 to 1782, he served as a delegate to the Continental Congress.

President John Hanson

Hanson served as a Maryland delegate to the Continental Congress from 1780 to 1783, and signed the Articles of Confederation in 1782, which had officially established the Continental Congress and the first United States of America.

Hanson assumed the title of president after he was elected  “President of the United States in Congress Assembled” on November 5, 1781, under the Articles of Confederation.

Bear in mind that the Articles of Confederation established the first United States of America. The current United States of America was established in 1788, when the “founding fathers” had successfully convinced representatives of the 13 original states that had then comprised the United States to secede from the Articles of Confederation in order to establish a new United States.

Under Hanson’s presidency, the “first consular service was established, a post office department was initiated, a national bank was chartered, progress was made towards taking the first census, and a uniform system of coinage was adopted (among many other accomplishments),” according to the Architect of the Capitol.

Nevertheless, Hanson retained the title of president until November 4, 1782.

On November 15, 1783, at the age of 68, John Hanson passed away at the home of his nephew, Thomas Ganson, at Oxen Hill, Prince Georges County, according to the  Archives of Maryland article, John Hanson (1721-1783).

Hanson’s Lost Grave

According to johnhansonmemorial.org, Hanson’s body was removed from a (family?) crypt and transported to the nearby Addison Cemetery in 1878.  But the grave was never marked or the identification (head) stone was lost.

The johnhansonmemorial.org reported that in 2017, “forensics examination of 40 sets of (previously unidentified) remains from (buried within) the  Addison Cemetery reveal a solitary unidentified elderly male who can only be John Hanson.”

All of the 40 sets of remains were removed and reinterred in the graveyard of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Fort Washington, including those of John Hanson.

1981 First Day of Issue John Hanson commemorative stamp and cover with 22k gold insert.

1972 First Day of Issue John Hanson commemorative postal card.

Maryland on Stamps…

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Naval Academy,1937/1995

Richard D. L. Fulton

You may fire when you are ready, Gridley. — Naval Academy Admiral George Dewey, Opening of the Battle of Manila Bay, 1898.

On May 16, 1937, the United States Postal Service (USPS) issued a five-cent stamp commemorating the establishment of the United States Naval Academy (USNA) at Annapolis. The stamp featured two midshipmen standing at attention, flanking the academy’s official seal. The first-day-of-issue stamps were postmarked at the Annapolis Post Office.

On October 10, 1995, the USPS issued a 32-cent stamp commemorating the 150th Anniversary of the academy, featuring an academy racing sloop (the 44-foot sloop named the Swift) with the academy chapel seen in the background. As per the 1937 stamp, these stamps were also postmarked in Annapolis.

Today, the Naval Academy has 20 sloops, 16 for training and four for racing, according to the USPS.

The Naval Academy was officially established on October 10, 1845, through the efforts of then Secretary of the Navy, George Bancroft, and was officially designated as the Naval School, an act he was able to achieve without requiring any congressional funding.

The school was established at the 10-acre Army Fort Severn, in Annapolis. According to the Naval Academy website, Bancroft selected Annapolis as the official home of the Naval School in order to deprive enrollees of “the temptations and distractions that necessarily connect with a large and populous city.”

There were several previous naval schools, including the Philadelphia Naval Asylum School and schools in New York City, Norfolk, and Boston. President John Quincy Adams had initially urged Congress to establish a naval academy in 1825, but his vision for one would not materialize until 20 years later.

Another precursor of the Annapolis USNA occurred in the form of the first naval training ship established on the American brig Somers in 1842. The “experiment” was rather short-lived, and ended in a mutiny, for which three of the instigators were hung from the ship’s yardarm (a timber spar/beam located on a mast from which the sails are set).

The first class enrolled at the Navy School (which became the Naval Academy in 1850) consisted of 50 midshipmen and seven professors, and included such courses as mathematics, navigation, gunnery, steam (powered engines), chemistry, English, natural philosophy, and French, according to the USNA.

Also in 1850, midshipmen (students) attended for four years, in addition to training aboard ships during the summers, and the academy grew from its original 10 acres to 338 acres in size, and the class grew from 50 midshipmen to 4,000, according to the USNA. Today, the enrollment numbers are around 4,500 students.

In 1933, Congress authorized the academy to award Bachelor of Science degrees. Today, graduates also receive commissions as ensigns in the Navy, or as second lieutenants in the Marine Corps.

There have been, and continue to be, many noteworthy graduates from the Naval Academy. Among the array, one noteworthy historic standout was Geroge Dewey, who became the only Naval Academy graduate to have achieved the rank of admiral. Dewey is best known for his command, under the rank of commodore, of the United States naval forces during the Spanish-American War, when his fleet engaged that of the Spanish in Manila Bay, Philippines, on May 1, 1898.

When Dewey’s fleet came within range of the Spanish, Dewey ordered the flagship’s captain, Charles Vernon Gridley, to open up on the enemy, with the famous command, “You may fire when you are ready, Gridley.”

By the end of the engagement, the Spanish fleet had sustained 167 men killed, and 214 wounded. Dewy’s fleet suffered only seven wounded.

The following year, Dewey was promoted to admiral, thus becoming the only USNA graduate to have held that rank.