Charles Stedman Hanks scrapbooks

Charles Stedman Hanks, lawyer, author, philanthropist, and railroad investigator, was born on April 10, 1856 in Lowell, Massachusetts to Rev. Stedman Wright and Sarah Humphrey (Hale) Hanks. He attended Cambridge High School, and received an A.B. from Harvard College in 1879, and a L.L.B. from Boston University in 1881. Hanks married Carina Bartrow Shumway in 1888; they had two children, Stedman Shumway Hanks (A.B. 1912) and Carina Shumway Hanks.

While an undergraduate student at Harvard, Hanks was a member of the Everett Athenaeum, the Pi Eta Society, and the Kappa Nu Society. He also was a member of the baseball and track teams, and the Class Day planning committee. Hanks won an light weight sparring match against classmate Theodore Roosevelt (A.B. 1880) in 1879.

Following graduation from Harvard, Hanks practiced law in Boston and clerked at the Charles River Street railway company, before moving to Manchester, Massachusetts after his marriage. He and his family traveled extensively in Europe, Egypt, and South America. In 1898 the family moved their main residence to Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Hanks and his wife kept a convalescent cottage for underprivileged children near their home in Manchester.

In 1905, Hanks and George W.R. Harriman reported on a special investigation of the Interstate Commerce Commission and the railroad industry, at the request of President Theodore Roosevelt. Their controversial report criticized the railroad industry and eventually Roosevelt issued Hanks and Harriman a letter of censure for their work. Hanks was also the author of several books about outdoor activities and the history of New England, occasionally writing under the pseudonym Niblick. He died in Boston, Massachusetts on March 23, 1908 after suffering from pneumonia.