Hanley Falls was founded in the summer of 1884, the Minneapolis and St. Louis Railroad track being laid to this place on August 19, and it was incorporated as a village on November 12, 1894. The city was named for John A. Hanley, general freight agent in Minneapolis for the Minneapolis and St. Louis Railroad. The railroad purchased the land from Svere Norgaard (Samuel Knutson) and platted the town site in September 1884 in a design based on the plat of Washington, D.C. The post office began as Silliards, one mile west in section 11, with store owner Samuel Knutson as postmaster February-December 1872; Silliards was named for the town of Seljord in Telemarken, Norway. The post office was moved into the village in 1884, the name changing to Hanley Falls in 1887