Howard Melville Hanna (January 23, 1840 – February 8, 1921) was an American Civil War veteran, businessman in shipping and iron ore, philanthropist and owner of Pebble Hill Plantation in Thomasville, Georgia.

[2] He then went into partnership with his sister and operated a refinery known as Hanna, Chapin & Co., which was eventually sold to the Standard Oil of Ohio.

[1] He later invested in the American Ship Building Company, the dominant shipbuilder on the Great Lakes before the Second World War.

After her father's death in 1844 shortly after her birth, Kate was adopted by her paternal aunt, sister Mary Ann Woodward and her husband Erastus Smith of Hartford, Connecticut.

Together, Kate and Howard were the parents of six children, including: They purchased the Pebble Hill Plantation in Thomasville, Georgia in 1896, where they wintered.