William Adelbert Hammond
On August 30, 1916,
William A. Hammond was present at the
organizational meeting to form the local Red Cross Chapter. On January 30, 1917 he was elected Chairman
of the newly formed Miami County Red Cross.
A successful business man and mayor of the City of Peru,
he served as
the head of the organization for ten years.
Born in Armstrong County, Pennsylvania on November 13,
1864, both of
William’s parents were also born in Pennsylvania.
His father was a mechanic. William
began to work on a farm in Illinois
at age 17, but three years later obtained a job on the Eastern Illinois
Railway
as a fireman. On September 26, 1888,
William
married Kate Vaughn in Lancaster, Nebraska.
She was the daughter of Irish Immigrants. William
and Kate had a son in Seward, Nebraska
in March of 1891. After working for
various railroads in several capacities he became an engineer on the
Wabash
Rail Road and by 1900 the family
had moved to Peru,
Indiana. William eventually became general chairman of the Wabash
Engineers and handled
the arbitration within the company from 1903 to 1908.
Tragedy struck William’s life when on
February 28, 1909 Kate passed away. Bouncing
back, William served one year in the Indiana State Legislature in 1910,
and on
November 26, 1911 he married Nora Murphy. She was the sister of the man
he went
into the furniture business with starting the Hammond-Murphy Furniture
Company. Then in 1914 he not only took
over management
of a funeral home which he called Hammond Funeral Home, he was elected
mayor of
Peru in which capacity he served for four years. During
WWI he served as chairman of the Miami
County Defense, chairman of the War Chest Board, and was a member of
the
Medical Examining Board for selecting officers for training camps. From
its
inception, William was vice president of First Federal Savings and Loan
Association. He was a member of the
Board of Directors of the YMCA. He
served on the Peru school board for eight years and was president of it
for one
term. He was also a member of the First
Methodist Church, the Masonic Blue Lodge, Knights Templar, Shriners,
I.O.O.F.
and Kiwanis. William
passed away May 30, 1951 at the
Methodist Memorial Home in Warren, Indiana.
He is buried in Mount Hope Cemetery in Peru, Indiana.
Researched, written
and submitted by Mary Rohrer Dexter
Works
Cited
“
‘Find A Grave Index," Database, FamilySearch
(Https://Familysearch.org/Pal:/MM9.1.1/Q2DV-PYTG : 6 December 2016),
William A
Hammond, 1951; Burial, Huntington, Huntington, Indiana, United States
of
America, Mount Hope Cemetery; Citing Record ID 171450870, Find a Grave,
Http://Www.findagrave.com.”
“
‘Illinois, Cook County Deaths, 1878-1994,"
Database, FamilySearch (Https://Familysearch.org/Pal:/MM9.1.1/Q2MK-QRCG
: 18
March 2018), William A Hammond in Entry for Roy Hammond, 20 May 1939;
Citing
Chicago, Cook, Illinois, United States, Source Reference , Record
Number , Cook
County Courthouse, Chicago; FHL Microfilm .”
“
‘Illinois Deaths and Stillbirths, 1916-1947,"
Database, FamilySearch (Https://Familysearch.org/Pal:/MM9.1.1/NQRJ-958
: 9
March 2018), William A. Hammond in Entry for Ray Hammond, 20 May 1939;
Public
Board of Health, Archives, Springfield; FHL Microfilm 1,953,416.”
“
‘Indiana Marriages, 1811-2007," Database with
Images, FamilySearch (Https://Familysearch.org/Pal:/MM9.1.1/QV99-5K8H :
10
December 2017), William Adelbert Hammond and Nora Almeda Murphy, 26 Jan
1911;
Citing Miami, Indiana, United States, Various County Clerk Offices,
Indiana;
FHL Microfilm 2,431,965.”
“
‘Nebraska Marriages, 1855-1995," Database,
FamilySearch (Https://Familysearch.org/Pal:/MM9.1.1/X5Z8-WPN : 11 March
2018),
William A. Hammond and Kate Vaughn, 26 Sep 1888, , Lancaster, Nebraska,
United
States; Citing Ref. ID #389, Nebraska State Historical Society,
Lincoln.”
“
‘United States Census, 1900," Database with
Images, FamilySearch (Https://Familysearch.org/Pal:/MM9.1.1/M9MX-W5L :
Accessed
23 April 2018), William A Hammond, Peru Township Peru City Ward 1,
Miami,
Indiana, United States; Citing Enumeration District (ED) 103, Sheet
13B, Family
314, NARA Microfilm Publication T623 (Washington, D.C.: National
Archives and
Records Administration, 1972.); FHL Microfilm 1,240,393.”
“
‘United States Census, 1920," Database with
Images, FamilySearch (Https://Familysearch.org/Pal:/MM9.1.1/MF7Y-8ZN :
Accessed
23 April 2018), William A Hammond, Peru Ward 4, Miami, Indiana, United
States;
Citing ED 160, Sheet 10A, Line 1, Family
228, NARA Microfilm Publication T625 (Washington D.C.: National
Archives and
Records Administration, 1992), Roll 441; FHL Microfilm 1,820,441.”
“W.
A. Hammond, Prominent Peru Citizen, Dies.” Peru Tribune,
31 May 1951, p. 13.
