Francis A. Hammond’s life was one of dedication and love for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. For over half a century he was faithful and true in building up the Kingdom of God.
The son of Samuel S. and Charity Edwards Hammond, Francis was born November 1, 1822, at Patchogue, Suffolk County, New York. His father was a boot and shoe maker, tanning leather and making saddles and harness. Francis worked in his father’s shop and learned the leather trade.
His first love, however, was for the sea. At age fourteen he went to sea for the first time working as a cook and cabin boy on small coastal vessels. In 1840, at the age of eighteen, Francis went aboard a whaling ship which worked in the south Atlantic.
While on his second long voyage he was seriously injured by a falling barrel. It struck him on his back and left him nearly paralyzed. In the fall of 1844 he was put ashore at Lahaina, Maui, Sandwich Islands (Hawaiian Islands). The crewmen of his ship expected him to either recuperate or die. Most likely the latter.
It took 2 months, but Francis recovered from his accident and set up a shoe making business on the island. He remained there until the fall of 1847, at which time he set sail for San Francisco. His intention? To travel to New York, find a wife and return to the islands to make his home.
October 1847 Francis arrived in San Francisco and commenced a shoemaking business. He became acquainted with Mormons who had arrived in California in the ship “Brooklyn” and with some members of the Mormon Battalion. On December 31, 1847, he was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In May of 1848 he went to the gold fields where he spent several months digging for gold on Mormon Island. After some small success, he returned to San Francisco, purchased an outfit and traveled with other members of the Church to the Salt Lake Valley. They arrived at the Old Fort on September 6, 1848.
On November 17, 1848 Francis Hammond married Mary Jane Dilworth. President Heber C. Kimball performed the ceremony. In March 1851, Francis was called on a mission to the Sandwich Islands. His wife and six-month-old son accompanied him to the islands where they lived several years. Upon returning to Utah in June 1857, they settled in Big Cottonwood. Francis was present at the 24 July celebration in Big Cottonwood Canyon when news arrived of the approaching U. S. Army. Tensions were high that winter as he stood guard in Echo Canyon, preparing against a feared attack by federal troops. After the troubles had ended and the threat of war was over, Francis settled back in to his daily routines.
In March 1859 he moved to Ogden where he formed a boots, shoes, saddles, and harnesses making business with Chauncy W. West. He also served as a counselor to Bishop Chauncy West, while working as a member of the city council and as a justice of the peace. After a second mission to the Sandwich Islands in 1865, Francis moved to Huntsville in the Ogden Valley where he was ordained a Bishop. He served yet another mission in 1869, this time to the eastern United States.
In December 1884 Francis was called to travel to southern Utah as President of the San Juan Stake. He moved with his family and a few friends to San Juan Stake in the fall of 1885 and settled in the small town of Bluff. For the next fifteen years, he was President of the San Juan Stake. During this time he was active in the various affairs of the communities under his jurisdiction. His area was large, covering a good portion of southern Utah and parts of Colorado and Arizona, hence he spent many days traveling by buggy to numerous small settlements.
While on one of these journeys Francis A. Hammond suffered an accident which resulted in the loss of his life. It was a Sunday, November 25, 1900. Francis organized the Hammond Ward in Bloomfield, a small settlement a few miles from Farmington, New Mexico. After the meeting Francis drove his buggy back to a nearby ranch. While entering the ranch the horses spooked. He was thrown from the buggy, striking his head on the foundation of an adobe granary. He remained in a coma for thirty-five hour before passing away peacefully on November 27, 1900.
Francis Hammond once wrote,
“I have built or bought twenty-five different homes since I married. I am the father of fifteen children, the husband of three wives, and grandfather to thirty-two children. . . . Life to me has indeed been worth living.”
