Hiram A. Hanson (1825-1907) was born in Williamstown, Massachusetts, and died in Chicago, Illinois. By 1950 he had moved to Buffalo, New York, where he began working as a bookkeeper and married Adelia "Delia" C. Hanson (b. Perry) in 1856. Shortly thereafter they moved to Dubuque, Iowa, where he worked as clerk, and by 1870 they had relocated to Chicago, Illinois, where he worked first as a cigar dealer and then as a sugar broker and agent for the Standard Sugar Refinery. Delia experienced healing through Christian Science treatment in 1886 and subsequently became a student of Mary Baker Eddy's and a practitioner and teacher of Christian Science. Their daughters Josephine Nellis Hanson and Clara Hammersmith (b. Hanson) later became practitioners of Christian Science as well. Hiram joined The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts, on November 4, 1902, and he, Delia, and Josephine were members of First Church of Christ, Scientist, Chicago.

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