Camilla A. Hanna (1847-1923) was born in Wisconsin and died in Pasadena,
California. She lived in Fairview, Iowa, before moving to Council Bluffs, Iowa, around
1860. She earned a diploma in vocal music from Monticello Female Seminary in Godfrey,
Illinois. She married Septimus J. Hanna, a county court judge in Council Bluffs, in
1869. They lived in Chicago from 1872 to 1879, where Septimus practiced law, and
thereafter they moved to Leadville, Colorado, in hopes of improving his health. Camilla
also struggled with poor health, and upon hearing that three friends in Council Bluffs
had been healed through Christian Science treatment by Jennie B. Fenn, a student of Mary
Baker Eddy's, she wrote to her family inquiring about it. Her father sent her a copy of
Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures as a New Year's
gift in 1886, and upon reading it, she was healed. Her healing inspired both her and her
husband to begin the earnest study of Christian Science. They attended the National
Christian Scientist Association in New York in 1890 and went directly from there to
Scranton, Pennsylvania, where Septimus became the Pastor of the Christian Science
Society and helped establish a church. The Hannas were listed in
The
Christian Science Journal as practitioners in Scranton in 1891 and 1892. In
the fall of 1892, Mary Baker Eddy called them to Boston and gave them seven private
lessons in Christian Science, as they had not studied with her previously, and they both
went on to serve the cause of Christian Science in significant capacities in Boston over
the following ten years. Camilla joined The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston
on October 5, 1892. She also became assistant editor of
The Christian
Science Journal in 1892, served on the Bible Lesson Committee in 1895, was
instrumental in establishing the
Christian Science Sentinel in
September 1898, and was a member of Eddy's last Normal class in November 1898. When
Septimus became a lecturer in 1902, the Hannas relocated to Colorado Springs, Colorado,
and they finally settled in Pasadena, California, in 1911. Camilla was listed as a
practitioner and teacher in
The Christian Science Journal from
1904 until her passing.
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