California Biographies

Transcribed by Peggy Hooper

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives 
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

Source:
History of the state of California and biographical record of the San Joaquin 
Valley, California. An historical story of the state's marvelous growth from 
its earliest settlement to the present time.
Prof. James Miller Guinn , A. M.
The Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago 1905
Notes: Missing Page: 865-866,983-984,1175-1176


JOHN STEPHEN HAMMOND. An extensive and well-to-do agriculturist of San Joaquin county 
John Stephen Hammond is prosperously engaged in his free and independent occupation on 
one of the pleasantest and most desirable homesteads to be found in this part of the valley. It 
has a fine location on the Stanislaus river, and contains three hundred and eighty-eight acres 
of land, one hundred acres being on the bottom, and is especially rich and fertile. With its 
comfortable and convenient set of buildings, and their neat and tasteful surroundings, his estate 
invariably attracts the attention of the passer-by, eliciting words of praise and commendation. 
A son of William C. Hammond, he was born October 27, 1850, in Pulaski county, Ky., which was 
also the birthplace of his father. His grandfather Hammond, an early settler of Kentucky, served 
in the war of 1812. 

Bred and educated in Kentucky, William C. Hammond became a farmer from choice. Re- 
moving with his family to Missouri in 1863, he located near Savannah, where he lived two 
years. Intending then to go to Central America, he sold his property there, but, changing his 
plans, came by the Nicaragua route to California, settling in Napa county, where he was engaged 
in farming four years. Coming then to Stanislaus county, he took up government land on 
the west side, near Grayson, and there improved a ranch, on which he resided until his death, in 
1894. He married Nancy Hale, who was born on a farm in Kentucky, the daughter of Stephen 
Hale, and she still occupies the old homestead near Grayson. Of the five boys and five girls 
born of their union, four boys and four girls survive, all of whom, with the exception of 
John Stephen, the subject of this sketch, are residents of Stanislaus county. 

Obtaining the rudiments of his education in the district schools of Kentucky, John Stephen 
Hammond subsequently attended school in Missouri for two years, completing his studies in 
the public schools of Napa county. Cal. He was subsequently employed at various kinds of work, 
among other things working in a butcher shop in Napa, and in the quicksilver mines at Oakville. 
Embarking in farming on his own account, Mr. Hammond assumed charge of a ranch of one 
thousand acres on the west side of Stanislaus county, and in his agricultural operations met 
with satisfactory results, accumulating considerable money. Locating in San Joaquin county 
in 1897, he purchased the old Copeland ranch of 'three hundred and eighty-eight acres, lying 
on the Stanislaus river, on the Berneyville road, and is here carrying on general farming and 
dairying with success, raising hay, alfalfa and grain, and keeping a great deal of stock, his 
special breed being Durhams. 

In Stockton Mr. Hammond married Alary Hettie Kingsley, who was born in Placer county, the 
daughter of a pioneer settler, and the niece of Joseph Hanchett, a well-known resident 
of San Francisco. Mr. and Mrs. Hammond are the parents of five children, namely : Frank, 
Clarence, Jesse, Elmer and Amy. In his political views Mr. Hammond sustains the principles of 
the Democratic party, but he is not at all radical in his opinions or judgments.