John Wesley Hanes I

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John Wesley Hanes I (February 3, 1850 – September 23, 1903) was a tobacco and textile businessman from Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He ran a tobacco company and, in 1901, founded Shamrock Mills, the business that would become Hanes Hosiery Mills. He built the company with his brother Pleasant Henderson Hanes, and the brothers were among Winston-Salem’s wealthiest and most influential.

After selling part of the business to R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, Wesley Hanes moved into stocking manufacturing, while Pleasant started an underwear firm called P. H. Hanes Knitting Company. He died of heart trouble in Atlantic City, New Jersey, at age 53 and is buried in Salem Cemetery in Winston-Salem.

He was married to Anna Jannette Hodgin, and they had nine children, including James Gordon Hanes, who later led a 1965 merger with P. H. Hanes Knitting and helped make Hanes Hosiery a leading producer of seamless nylon hosiery for women.