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Adelia P. Hanson (b. Perry) (1835-c. 1910) was born in Gowanda, New York,
and died in an unknown location. In 1856 she married Hiram A. Hanson, a clerk and
bookkeeper, in Buffalo, New York. Shortly thereafter they moved to Dubuque, Iowa, and by
1870 they had relocated to Chicago, Illinois, where Hiram worked first as a cigar dealer
then as a sugar broker and agent for the Standard Sugar Refinery. In 1886 Adelia was
healed through Christian Science treatment by Ellen Brown Linscott and subsequently
studied Christian Science with Linscott and Joseph A. Adams, both students of Mary Baker
Eddy. Adelia took Eddy's Normal Class herself in January 1888 and then joined both the
Christian Scientist Association of the Massachusetts Metaphysical College and the
National Christian Scientist Association. She and her daughter, Josephine Nellis Hanson,
joined The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts, on December 31,
1892, her son Charles H. Hanson joined on June 3, 1899, her daughter Clara H.
Hammersmith (b. Hanson) joined on June 11, 1901, and Hiram joined on November 4, 1902.
Adelia, Hiram, and Josephine were also members of First Church of Christ, Scientist,
Chicago. From 1892 through 1894 Adelia served as the Principal of the Chicago Christian
Science Institute, and in 1895 she and Josephine incorporated the Lakeside Christian
Science Institute of Chicago with Adelia serving as Principal and Josephine serving as
Secretary. Adelia was a practitioner and teacher of Christian Science listed in
The Christian Science Journal from 1892 to 1909, Josephine was
listed as a practitioner from 1899 to 1905, and Clara was listed as a practitioner from
1902 to 1908. After her husband's death in 1907, Adelia moved to Wheaton,
Illinois.
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