Anna B. Hanson

In a victim list published the day after the fire, a twenty-three-year-old Miss Nina Hansen was included, her residence given as the same as Hulda Holm's. A death certificate was not issued for a Nina Hansen but one was issued for a twenty-one-year-old Anna B. Hanson of Gibson City.

The Hanson family dentist, Dr. William A. Hoover, traveled to Chicago with Anna's father to help identify her badly burned body.  Identification was made on the basis of her teeth, her recently purchased shoes from the George Bloom store and her rings.

Dr. Hoover was more than Gibson's most prominent dentist. In 1900 he and his wife, Laura Hoover, had also been Anna Hanson's employers, and she may have lived with them still at the time of her death. The Hansons were a family of modest means, and Anna worked for the Hoovers as a servant while attending school.  It's not hard to imagine that the Hoovers may have played a mentoring role to help Anna become a teacher in the city's fledgling high school.

Anna's parents were immigrants, having emigrated from Sweden in 1881. They were Nels/Nelson Hanson and Annette Fredrickson Hanson.  Anna was one of four children, all living prior to her death. At home were younger siblings Oscar and Esther.

Anna was buried in the Drummer Township Cemetery in Gibson City, Illinois, following a service on Tuesday, January 5, 1904, at the Presbyterian Church in Gibson. In her obituary, Anna was described as a very beautiful young woman.