El Paso-Pueblo County CO Archives Biographies.....Hammerton, Abel J. 1847 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/co/cofiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 December 24, 2008, 1:07 am Author: Wilbur Fiske Stone (1918) ABEL J. HAMMERTON. Abel J. Hammerton is actively engaged in ranching in the vicinity of Calhan and his success is the direct result of earnest, persistent labor. A native of England, he was born at Farnborough, March 9, 1847, a son of John and Charlotte (Edwards) Hammerton. The father was gamekeeper on a large estate in England. The son began earning his living when but six years of age by leading horses and doing errands for his father's employer, receiving forty cents per week. At the age of nine years he went to work in a silk mill at fifty cents per week and when a lad of but twelve years he worked as a farm hand, doing a man's work and receiving a dollar per week. For a few years prior to coming to America he harvested wheat and other grains under contract, doing the work with a sickle, and by working long hours he could make a dollar per day. This was regarded as making money very rapidly in those days in England. In 1870 Mr. Hammerton crossed the Atlantic to the new world and made his way across the country to Chicago, where for one year he was employed in lumberyards. He afterward worked on a dredge for the state of Illinois in connection with the building of the Michigan canal and afterward in the work of keeping the canal open. He was also employed by the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad Company steam shovels in Missouri, Iowa and Illinois for about six years and at Pueblo, Colorado, worked along the same line for six months in 1886. He later spent a year in a smelter at Pueblo and for two years he had charge of the North Side cemetery of that city. Desirous, however, of engaging in business on his own account, in 1888 he filed on a tree claim of one hundred and sixty acres and in 1889 homesteaded one hundred and sixty acres, on which he now resides. For twenty years he has also leased six hundred and forty acres of school land adjoining his ranch and has a further lease on the property, which he uses for pasture covering five years more. He is one of the progressive and representative farmers of his community. He follows advanced methods in all that he does and is now largely assisted by his son. In 1879 Mr. Hammerton was united in marriage to Miss Betty Jane Peacock, who was born in Indiana but was reared in Kellogg, Iowa. They have two living children: Julia May, the wife of William Roberts, of Loveland, Colorado, by whom she has two children. Bertha and Dora; and William Henry Bayley, who married Mattie Hodge and has four children, Melvin R., William F., John Benjamin and Donald D. The son lives upon the ranch with his father, but in a separate dwelling, and is now acting as manager of the property. The ranch is devoted to diversified farming and stock raising and is most carefully and wisely conducted. Mr. Hammerton has never had occasion to regret his determination to come to the new world. He is truly a self-made man. Providing for his own support from the age of six years, his has been a life of intense activity, in which there have been but few idle hours. He is a man of determined purpose who has made wise use of his time and opportunities and his diligence has been the basic element of all the success which he has achieved and enjoyed. Additional Comments: Extracted from: HISTORY OF COLORADO ILLUSTRATED VOLUME III CHICAGO THE S. J. CLARKE PUBLISHING COMPANY 1918 Photo: http://www.usgwarchives.net/co/elpaso/photos/bios/hammerto100nbs.jpg File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/co/elpaso/bios/hammerto100nbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/cofiles/ File size: 4.1 Kb