Butte County
Biographies
WILLIAM H. HAMMOND
WILLIAM H. HAMMOND.--No object lesson could be
presented by the student of history more striking than the transformation
wrought in California by men who, having made a
pronounced financial success in some special line of business, have directed
their talents and means into the various channels of agriculture. Such a man is William H. Hammond, of Butte County, whose splendid ranch is an
example of what can be accomplished by judicious expenditure of money by one
who has the ability to see and grasp the opportunity to promote some special
industry or the upbuilding or the state.
As a lad he learned the lumber business, working in various capacities
until 1867, when he went to Clearfield, Pa. He worked at streaming and driving lumber on
the Susquehanna River to Williamsport and Lock Haven, until May,
1870, when he came to the Pacific Coast. After stopping for a short time in San Francisco, he went to Kitsap County, Wash., where he did contract
lumbering for eleven years. His next
venture was made as a subcontractor in the building of the Northern Pacific
Railway. He got out piling, cleared the
right of way, built wagon roads, and furnished ties and building timber for
three years, or until the road was completed.
In 1886, Mr. Hammond began in the sawmill
business by erecting a steam sawmill at Blackfoot, Mont., and incorporating the
business as the Blackfoot Mill and Manufacturing Company, of which he was
president and manager until he sold out, in 1898. This concern manufactured lumber from pine,
fir, and tamarack, and built up a large and paying business. In 1898 the Blackfoot Milling Company was
sold to the Anaconda Mining Company (Marcus Daly), after which Mr. Hammond
remained with the new owners for one year, on his promise to remain until a man
could be found to take his place. Upon
leaving this concern, he bought two small flour mills at Kalispell, Mont., and ran them until he
disposed of them to the Washburn-Crosby Company. In 1899 he came to San Francisco and organized the Hammond
Milling Company, becoming president and manager of the organization. They erected large flour mills in Seattle Wash., on the west waterway,
having a capacity of two thousand barrels per day. An extensive business was built up all over
the Pacific Coast country, the main offices being in the Merchants Exchange Building in San Francisco. He managed the business in Seattle from the time the mill was
built, in 1902, until it was sold to Wilcox and Thompson, of Portland, Ore., in 1912. Meanwhile he found time to assist his brother
A. P. Hammond to build the Hammond Lumber Mill at Eureka, Cal., remaining there until it
began operations.
Since 1899, Mr. Hammond has made his home
in San
Francisco or Oakland. He has speculated in lands, buying and
selling ranches; he bought eight hundred forty acres near Stockton, which he sold to Tuxedo
Land Company. In 1913 he came to Butte County looking for land, and
purchased the Bob Anderson place, eight miles north of Chico. He has spent a large amount of money on
improving this property. Five wells,
four hundred sixty-five feet deep, have been sunk, the water rising to within
twenty-four feet of the surface; and he has installed a thirty-horsepower
electric engine to run the six-inch vertical centripetal pump, with a capacity
of twelve hundred fifty gallons per minute, thus producing an ample supply of
water for irrigating his alfalfa. For
domestic purposes he has installed a Kamanee system of pumping and storing the
water; and for cooling, he has a Brunswick quarter-ton refrigerator
machine. His barns are modernly equipped
and sanitary, with cement floors; here he has installed a motor for cutting and
grinding feed for his stock. A
forty-five horse-power caterpillar tractor is used for farm work, and a large
motor truck is used for hauling and road work.
Another innovation in modern farming used on the ranch is the James
system, and the James litter corner.
Mr. Hammond’s ranch contains seventeen
hundred acres, all fine, fertile land, bordering on Rock Creek and the state
highway. About seven hundred acres are
sown to grain each year, and about seventy-five acres are in alfalfa. He makes a specialty of pure-bred Shorthorn
Durham cattle; and no higher-grade stock can be found in California. At the head of his herd he has a full-blooded
Shorthorn Durham bull, Colonel Coutier, by Coutier Fourth, weighing twenty-two
hundred fifty pounds, now five years old.
He owns Types Royal, sired by Cumberland Type, the greatest bull in America. Types Royal is a two-year old, and as
splendid a specimen as can be found in the state. He also has smaller ones of pure breed. In all, Mr. Hammond has about seventy-five
head of pure-bred Shorthorn Durham cattle; and he also raises pure-bred Berkshire, Duroc and Poland-China
hogs. He has made a special study of
high-grade stock, and has built up a model stock ranch out of his property,
which is now one of the show places in the county.
Mr. Hammond is a man of much public
spirit, and is a liberal supporter of all projects for furthering the interests
of high-grade stock in Northern California. Politically, he is a stanch Republican.
Transcribed by Louise E.
Shoemaker March 05, 2008.
Source:
"History of Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 776-779,
Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2008 Louise E. Shoemaker.
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