San Francisco County
Biographies
ANDREW B.
HAMMOND
Andrew B. Hammond, president of the great Hammond Lumber Company of San Francisco, is widely known as one of the most prominent business men as well as venerable and influential residents of this city. A Montana pioneer and the builder of several railroads, the story of his colorful career forms an integral chapter in western annals. He was born at St. Leonards, New Brunswick, Canada, July 22, 1848, a son of Andrew B. And Glorianna Harding (Coombes) Hammond, and traces his ancestry back to Sir Admiral William and Elizabeth (Penn) Hammond, the latter an aunt of William Penn, the Quaker. Following the death of her husband, Mrs. Elizabeth Hammond with her four children sailed for America in the Ship Griffin in 1634. Archillous Hammond, great-great-grandfather of Andrew B. Hammond of this review, was one of three commissioners from the commonwealth of Massachusetts, “expiatory” in the forced turning to Franch or settling in Canada or Louisana, which was then French territory. Andrew B. Hammond, Sr., the father of our subject, was a lumberman who in 1827 made his way to the region above Grand Falls, Canada, in company with a brother and his father-in-law. At the time the northeastern boundary line between the United States and Canada was in dispute, Great Britain claiming Penobscot. The question was later arbitrated by Daniel Webster, secretary of state, of the United States, and Lord Ashburton, secretary of foreign affairs; the river St. John, three miles above the Grand Falls, was named the boundary line and the Acadian settlement was thus divided into Victoria county, New Brunswick, and Aroostock, Maine.
Andrew B. Hammond was a youth of nineteen years when in 1867 he made his way to Missoula, Montana, where he was destined to become a leading and prominent figure. With the development of the pioneer community, he organized the Missoula Mercantile Company, the First National Bank, the Big Blackfoot Mill Company and also built the Bitter Root Valley and Philipsburg Railways. It was Mr. Hammond who established the first department store in Missoula, Montana. The year 1895 witnessed his removal to Oregon, in which state he built the Astoria & Columbia River Railroad. He came to California in 1900 and since 1905 has resided at 2252 Broadway in San Francisco. Here he has become a foremost representative of the lumber industry as president of the Hammond Lumber Company, with offices on the ninth floor of the Alaska Commercial building at 310 Sansome street. He has very extensive lumber interests in the northwest and in Canada and in the wise and capable management of his business affairs has gained a most gratifying degree of material success.
On the 22d of February, 1879, Mr. Hammond was united in marriage to Miss Florence Abbott, of Missoula, Montana, who has passed away. Their children were six in number, namely: Edwina Clare, who is Mrs. Frank B. King; Florence, the wife of Norman Whiteside; Richard Eddy, deceased; Leonard Coombes; Grace, the wife of W. S. Burnett; and Daisy Estelle. Mr. Hammond is a Knight Templar Mason and a member of the Mystic Shrine and is also well known in club circles, belonging to the Bohemian, Pacific Union, Commercial and Golf Clubs of San Francisco, the Arlington Club of Portland, Oregon, the Bolsa Chica Gun Club of Los Angeles and the Rocky Mountain Club of New York.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
Source: Byington, Lewis Francis, “History of
San Francisco 3 Vols”, S. J. Clarke Publishing Co.,
Chicago, 1931. Vol. 2 Pages 36-40.
© 2007 Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
GOLDEN NUGGET'S SAN
FRANCISCO BIOGRAPIES