BIOGRAPHIES:  Ansel W. HAMMOND, Durand, Pepin Co., WI

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Submitted by Nance Sampson, Pepin Co. Archives File Manager on 19 November 2004
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**Posted for informational purposes only - submitter is not related to the
subject of this biography and has no further information.

Ansel W. Hammond, insurance agent, Durand, whose name is intimately
connected with the educational and religious development, as well as
the commercial prosperity of Durand, was born near Brockville,
Lindhurst county, Canada, June 22, 1833, and is a son of Elisha R. and
Lois Hammond.  His paternal ancestors are supposed to have emigrated
from England to Massachusetts at a very early date.  His grandfather
was an extensive owner of saw and grist-mills on the Connecticut river.
About 1815 he started to remove to Canada, but in crossing Lake Ontario
was accidently knocked overboard and drowned.  His son, Elisha R.
Hammond, who was born in Connecticut, was but seven years old at the
time of this accident, and he with the other members of the family
continued to journey to Canada, where he grew to manhood and married
Miss Lois Parrish, daughter of "Esquire" Parrish, of English descent. 
The latter, when a young man settled in Vermont, where he was married,
and served in the American army.  He afterward removed to Canada and
died there.  During his service in the army, his wife, Mrs. Lois
Parrish, carried on the farm and performed various masculine duties in
the true patriotic spirit of those days.  This venerable lady, whom our
subject well remembers, was born in 1767, and died at Lawrence, N. Y.,
in 1856.  Mr. and Mrs. Elisha R. Hammond had four sons:  Ansel W., the
subject proper of this sketch; Johnathan B., now a clergyman of the
Methodist Episcopal church in western New York; William C., a retired
merchant of Durand, and Henry T., a physician at Chase's Mills, N. Y. 
At the time of the Canadian rebellion the family removed to Lawrence,
N. Y., where Mr. Hammond engaged in farming and milling.  He died there
in 1856, and Mrs. Hammond, who was born in Vermont in 1809, still
resides there.

Ansel W. was about six years old when the family removed to Lawrence. 
He attended Potsdam Academy, and at the age of seventeen, began
teaching.  Two years later he began clerking in a general store at
Potsdam, and in September, 1855, married his employer's daughter, Miss
Mary C. Vickery.  Three children blessed this union:  Alice, now Mrs.
G. E. Scott, of Prairie Farm, Barron county, Wis.; Lucy, Mrs. H.
Goodrich, of Durand, and Ansel Vickery, a law student at the state
university.  In 1856 Mr. Hammond removed to Chilton, Calumet county,
Wis., and purchased a farm within the present limits of that city.  He
also engaged in teaching and became the first county superintendent of
schools in that county, and held the office eight years in all.  In
1864 he resigned, and, removing his family to New Brunswick, N. S., he
went to Washington, where he was employed in the quartermaster's
department till the close of the war.  Returning to Chilton, he again
became superintendent of schools and also served the county as deputy
registrar of deeds.  In 1876 he removed to Durand and opened a drug
store in company with S. J. Humphrey.  About three years later he
purchased a farm near the village.  In 1883 he became one of the
corporators of the bank of Durand and for the ensuing six years was
president of that institution.  Since 1889 he has devoted his attention
chiefly tot he fire and life insurance business, in connection with the
office of justice of the peace, which he has held for several years. 
In politics he is a consistent democrat.  He was postmaster at Durand
from 1886 to 1889, and in 1890 came within one vote of being elected
clerk of the court.  Here, as elsewhere, Mr. Hammond has always taken
great interest in educational matters, and for several years has been a
member of the local school board.  He has been a deacon of the Durand
Congregational church since its first organization and was a liberal
contributor toward the building.  He is considered an authority in
local circles on matters pertaining to the order of A. F. and A. M.  He
has filled the offices of W. M. in the Blue Lodge and H. P. in the
Chapter, and is also a member of the Chippewa commandery.  He was also
a charter member of the local lodge of A. O. U. W. and has held the
principal offices therein.  Mrs. Mary C. Hammond, wife of our subject,
was born at Calais, Me.  Her father, Matthias Vickery, was born in
1804, and her mother, Mrs. Jane P. (Day) Vickery, was born in 1807, and
both were natives of the Pine Tree state.  Mr. Vickery was at one time
a cotemporary of James G. Blaine and Hannibal Hamlin in the Maine
legislature.  He represented Washington county in that body.

-Transcribed from the "Historical & Biographical Album of the Chippewa
Valley Wisconsin, 1891-2," pages 497-498.


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