Perry F. Hanlin

PERRY F. HANLIN, D. C., of Liberal, is a chiropractor, and his work has served to popularize that profession as well as himself as its representative throughout Seward County. He is a member of the Kansas Association of Chiropractors. A few years ago, on account of his health, he became interested in chiropractics, his case being treated by one of the profession, and it was the successful results in his own case which caused him to take up the profession and perfect himself for service to others.

Doctor Hanlin was born September 25, 1873, on a farm in Jay County, Indiana. His grandfather, John S. Hanlin, Sr., was born near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was well educated and in early life followed teaching. He lived in Jackson County, Ohio, for a number of years and was quite active in local politics. He also held the office of recorder in Jay County, Indiana. He was a democrat, and a member of the Presbyterian Church. For a quarter of a century he lived practically an invalid. His death occurred in 1883, at the age of sixty-four. He married Martha Wilson, and their five sons were James P., William W., John S., Joseph N. and Thomas Benton. James P. served as a Union soldier from Indiana.

John S. Hanlin, Jr., father of Doctor Hanlin, was born in Jackson County, Ohio, March 7, 1850, and was six years of age when his parents moved to Indiana. He grew up on a farm and has spent his active career as a farmer. His has been a quiet and peaceful life, of usefulness to the community and to his family, and he and his wife are now living retired at Portland, Indiana. He married Sarah Axe, daughter of Charles and Mary (Antles) Axe. Her father came from Washington County, Pennsylvania, and was a farmer. The four children of the Axe family were: Mrs. John S. Hanlin, Mrs. Alice Young, George, and Emily, widow of Israel Garbrick. John S. Hanlin and wife had two sons, Perry F. and George B., the latter now managing the home farm in Indiana.

Doctor Hanlin grew up near Portland, Indiana, was a student in district schools and he paid his own way through the Portland Normal and Law School. After finishing his higher education he took up farming in Jay County, and about that time he also began the study of medicine with a view to catering medical college. These early studies have been of great value to him since he took up the profession of chiropractic. After his marriage he left Indiana, locating at Dayton, Ohio, where for two years he was a collector for the Larkin Soap Company. He was then induced to come on west, was at Kansas City a brief interval and then established his home on a farm in Cass County, Missouri, where he followed agriculture three years. Then selling out he arrived in Western Kansas in 1908, his wife's people having come here some time before. At Liberal Doctor Hanlin engaged in business as a grocery merchant five years, retiring from that work on account of failing health, as above indicated.

He prepared himself for his profession in the Oklahoma City Chiropractic College, and finishing his course opened an office at Talmage, Nebraska, but six months later returned to Liberal. He is the first representative of the Carver School of Chiropractic to locate in this southwestern region of Kansas.

On Jane 26, 1903, at Dayton, Ohio, Doctor Hanlin married Miss Mary C. Ashcraft, daughter of Elijah and Nancy C. (Cuskaden) Ashcraft. Her father, a native of Coshocton County, Ohio, spent his comparatively brief career as a farmer and died at Portland, Indiana, in 1887. Mrs. Ashcraft soon afterward brought her only child, Mrs. Hanlin, to the West and in 1888 entered land in Beaver County, Oklahoma. She proved up a homestead twelve miles west of Beaver, and her early home there was a sod house, and she and her daughter placed their chief dependence for revenues upon stock raising. Mrs. Hanlin also entered and proved up a claim, and both these homesteads are held by her and her mother as a reminder of their experience with the hardships of western life. Mrs. Ashcraft now resides with her daughter, Mrs. Hanlin, at Liberal. Besides working on the claim Mrs. Hanlin for several years taught school in Beaver County, Oklahoma. She is a graduate of the high school of Raton, New Mexico. Doctor and Mrs. Hanlin have two children, Francis B. and Mary Josephine.

Fraternally Doctor Hanlin took the subordinate work of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows at Portland, Indiana, and finished the Encampment degrees at Liberal. Mrs. Hanlin is interested in the Royal Neighbors. Both are active Methodists and he has served as steward of the Liberal Church and has occasionally taken an active part in the Sunday school.

Pages 2253-2254.