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Below is a family biography included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Lee County, Arkansas published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1890.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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D. Hammond, proprietor of the Phoenix Hotel of Marianna, Ark., was born in Rochester, N. Y., November 3, 1840, and, like the majority of the natives of the “Empire State,” he is enterprising in his views, is industrious and the soul of honor. After remaining in his native State and attending the common schools until he attained his twentieth year, he went to Missouri and worked as an engineer on the North Missouri Railroad for four years. When the war broke out he was running a Government train, and was captured by Price just west of Mexico, Mo., and was taken to Northeastern Arkansas, where he was paroled upon taking the oath not to aid the North during the remainder of the war. From Arkansas Mr. Hammond went to Nashville, Tenn., thence to Jackson, Mich., where he began working on the Michigan Central Railroad as an engineer between Detroit and Jackson, continuing two years. He was married to Miss Lucretia Blodgett, in Eaton Rapids, Mich., she being a native of that place, and afterward went on the road selling steam fire-engines for Clapp & Jones, of Hudson, N. Y. He followed this business some five years, and in October, 1871, during the great Chicago fire, he was on his way to St. Paul, Minn., to exhibit an engine, and was at Michigan City when the news of the fire reached him. . He immediately went with his engine to the scene of the fire, and for four nights and three days never left his post, but did all in his power to assist in subduing the flames. He afterward took his engine to St. Paul, where he sold it, also two others, notwithstanding the fact that he had to encounter much competition. He finally left the road and began working with an engine in the fire department of Greenville, Mich., the city paying him $150 per month and furnishing him with a house, fuel and gas. At the end of one year he went to Fort Scott, Kan., and made his home for five years at that point. Here he put up a 100-battery steam-boiler, and ran it until it was moved to Marianna, Ark., on February 17, 1889. He put up the present engine in Marianna and managed it until a short time since, when he turned it over to his son, and became the proprietor of the Phoenix Hotel, in which he has made many needed changes and improvements. He and wife have two children: Luther and Maud. He is a Democrat, and belongs to the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers. His parents, S. and Clarinda (Howe) Hammond, were born in Clarendon, Vt., in 1799 and New York, in 1811, respectively. The father was a farmer, and immigrated to Missouri, locating at St. Charles, where he died in 1881, his wife dying one year later. Of their family of two sons and three daughters, all are living.

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This family biography is one of 104 biographies included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Lee County, Arkansas published in 1890.  For the complete description, click here: Lee County, Arkansas History, Genealogy, and Maps

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