The Hanleys, San Francisco, California

“Beer and whiskey were involved,” reported San Francisco’s Daily Alta newspaper about the shooting death of Daniel Hanley, founder of a liquor merchandising tradition carried on by his wife and son.  Nor, as will be seen, would Dan be the last family member to make the newspapers in an altercation in which a Hanley got the worst of it. 


The Hanley family story began in Mitchellstown, County Cork, Ireland, where Dan Hanley was born in 1837.   Unlike most communities in Ireland, Mitchellstown, shown above, was a planned town, located on the site of a medieval village that was torn down by a British lord to build a place of his own design, shown here.  It is likely that in Mitchellstown Hanley met Mary Sullivan, a woman eight years younger, whom he eventually would marry.

It is not clear when the couple emigrated to the United States.  Hanley first surfaced in San Francisco directories in 1863 working as a bartender at the Rotunda Saloon and living at 5 O’Farrell Street.  Before long, the Irish immigrant was listed owning a grocery store and liquor business, including a saloon.

In 1877, the Hanleys were living at 33 Eddy Street, likely above their establishment.  They had three children,  John about 5, James 3, and Molly, under one year.  Also living with them was John Hanley, Dan’s older brother.   According to an account in the San Francisco Bulletin, the Hanleys had fenced in some property to the objection of a neighboring land owner named Dennis Ryan.  The result was ongoing trouble between the two families.

In October 1877, during a raucous party at Ryan’s house, a dispute broke out between the two Irishman.  Both sides had firearms and shots were exchanged.  John Hanley was hit in the hand and Dan was shot through the right thigh.  Ryan and an accomplice were arrested on a charge of assault to murder.  After lingering for six months Dan, only 37 years old, died of blood poisoning and the charge against Ryan became manslaughter.  Asked about what fueled the fight, witnesses told the press:  “Beer and wine were involved.”

Left with three small children to raise, Mary Sullivan Hanley, shown right, proved to have “the right stuff.”  Without skipping a beat she took over management of the family grocery, liquor sales and the saloon.  At the outset brother-in-law John was available to help.  By the time her son John was seventeen, he was tasked with working in his mother’s enterprises, thereby learning the liquor trade.  A younger son, James, was able to go to law school, ultimately becoming a prominent San Francisco attorney and eventually its assistant district attorney.  

At some point during the early 1890s, the Hanleys apparently shut down their business and John, shown right,  went to work for a string of other San Francisco wine and liquor dealers.  He was recorded, for example, as secretary of the Golden Gate Champagne Co.  By 1896 he had settled in as the bookkeeper and secretary for the Joseph Melczer Co., located on Front Street.  Melczer was a Hungarian immigrant who had talent for wine and had built a prosperous San Francisco wine and liquor business.

While in this employment, John married.  His bride was Ella Cronin, born in California in 1877, the daughter of John and Ella Cronin.  Inexplicably, their wedding announcement in the San Francisco Callidentified John as hailing from Nogales, Arizona, and said the couple would make their home in that state.  No evidence exists, however, that they ever left Frisco.  Their children, three sons and four daughters, all were born in California.

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