James Frank Hanly was born in Champaign County, Illinois in 1863. He moved to Warren County in 1879 and worked as a school teacher from 1881 to 1889, when he joined a local law office. He entered politics and served as Governor of Indiana from 1905 to 1909. He was a strong supporter of prohibition and lectured widely on the subject after his time as governor. While traveling to such a lecture in 1920, he died in an automobile accident in Ohio and is buried at Hillside Cemetery on the northeast side of Williamsport.