He engaged in lumber and mining enterprises and was elected District Attorney of Portage County for two years.
In 1856, he was elected to represent Marathon, Portage, Waupaca, Waushara, and Wood counties in the newly created 27th district of the Wisconsin State Senate.
When he was first elected to the Wisconsin Senate in 1856, he sought to extricate himself from a partnership with Amos Courtwright in a lumber mill.
In 1867, Hanchett's former law partner, James Oliver Raymond, married his widow, Lucinda, and pressed the claim, seeking to seize a part of the property owned by Courtwright.
The Courtwrights were arrested by the sheriff's posse and taken to Stevens Point, where, a few days later, a mob of about 12 to 40 men dragged them from the jail and hanged them.