Dr. Ola Hanson (1864-1929)

Missionary, born in Ahus, Skane, Sweden, came to the United States in 1881 and grew up in Oakland, Nebraska. Hanson attended Swedish Baptist (later Bethel) Seminary (St. Paul, Minn.), graduated from Madison Theological Seminary (Hamilton, N.Y.), and was ordained in 1890. He was a missionary under the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society in Burma among the Kachins from 1890 until 1928, serving at Bhamo. He established a mission in Namkham in the Hsenwi district in 1910. He reduced the Kachin language to writing; translated the Bible into Kachin; compiled A Grammer of the Kachin Language (Rangoon, 1896), and A Dictionary of the Kachin Language (Rangoon, 1906); and wrote The Kachins, Their Customs and Traditions (Rangoon, 1913) and Missionary Pioneers among the Kachins (New York, 1922). Died October 17, 1929, in St. Paul, Minnesota. Reference: Gustaf A. Sword, Light in the Jungle: Life Story of Dr. Ola Hanson of Burma (Chicago, 1954).-- The United States in Asia: a historical dictionary