The John Hanson Reintroduction Project
In 2017, the body of John Hanson, his identity still unknown at the time, was reinterred from the Addison Cemetery at Oxon Hill, Maryland, to the St. John's Episcopal Church graveyard five miles away, shown here.
The nameless child who had also occupied John Hanson's Addison Cemetery grave was exhumed and reburied with him in the St. John's Church graveyard .
Until January 2024, John Hanson was the only United States president whose gravesite was unknown. John Hanson served the 1781-82 term as the first president of the original United States government chartered under the Articles of Confederation. In his era, Hanson was recognized by George Washington, the states, and the American people as their nation's actual first president.
After his rediscovery in an ancient graveyard in Prince George's County, Maryland in 2024, the John Hanson Memorial Association began organizing the effort to have the federal government officially announce the finding of the only lost United States president.
Work began in the summer of 2024 with the organization of the John Hanson Reintroduction Project involving a high-level steering committee, an expert advisory group, and elected officials from the three Maryland counties where John Hanson lived and died. The project is the impetus to lead to the federal government's official reintroduction of President Hanson to the nation.
Also in summer of 2024, the award-winning life-history, Remembering John Hanson: A Biography of the First President of the Original United States Government, was updated and republished in a second edition with the account of how John Hanson was found.
Use the navigation tabs above to see the full account of the extraordinary good fortune of rediscovering the lost president.