In 1848, after the Potato Famine, Brian and Ellen Hannon, of Newcastle, Ireland, emigrated to Peru-LaSalle Illinois, with their 9 children, to work on the Michigan Illinois Canal. Due to overcrowding, the family moved to southeastern Illinois, near Champaign, Ill. Their descendants farmed the area. In the 1880s, their middle son, Bernard, and his family moved to Walnut Grove/Tracy Minnesota to homestead. By 1890, the rigors of the Minnesota prairie sent Bernard and his son George back to Ivesdale, Illinois. Two other sons, John William, and Barney, remained in Minnesota. We are the descendants of John, who remained in Tracy Minnesota. John's oldest son was George Hannon, who ran away from the Minnesota homestead, joined the Rock Island Railroad. He met and married Alice Gertrude Roddy, in 1905, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Their son, George Hannon, Jr, is our father.
