Pietari (Petter) Mikonpoika Hannikainen, surname changed to Hanén during his early years of studying until 1852, (August 24, 1813 Sääminki – September 27, 1899 Parikkala) was a Finnish writer, journalist and surveyor, and a member of the Hannikainen family of writers and musicians.
Life
Hannikainen was born to parents Mikael Abrahamsson Hannikainen (b.1771), a farmowner and county judge from Sääminki Kiilanmäki, and to Katarina Löppönen (b.1785), his father’s second wife. The composer Pekka Juhani Hannikainen was Pietari Hannikainen’s nephew. He graduated in 1833 and continued studying at the University of Helsinki. During a time of Fennomania in Finland he was one of the first students to complete an examination of Finnish language. He became highly involved in the promotion of the Finnish language and in 1851 he also took back his original name of Hannikainen, which had been changed to Hanén when he started school. It was also in 1851 that he bought a farm in Parikkala where he lived until his death in 1899. He is buried in Parikkala.
Pietari Hannikainen was married to Katarina Margareta Krank (b. 1862) from 1854 to 1862. After the death of his first wife he married Emilia Savander (b. 1910) in 1864. His children from these two marriages were sons August Edvard Hannikainen (1854-1939) Hiittinen district Hitis representative, Peter Woldemar Hannikainen (1858-1928) general director of the Finnish Forest Administration Metsähallitus and State Councillor (Russia), Karl Onni Gerhard Hannikainen (1865-1930) author and rector of Kuopio Lyceum, Tauno Robert Alarik Hannikainen (1868-1953) Antrea district Kamenogorsk doctor and councillor of medicine, and daughters Armias Forsblom (1860-1946) she and her husband were tenant housekeepers of the Koitsanlahti Manor, Fanny Vilhelmiina Ilmoni (1854-1934) mother of Finnish painter Einar Ilmoni who was a student of Helene Schjerfbeck.
