Edden Hammons

Edden Hammons (born 28 Feb 1875Webster County, West Virginia, died 7 September 1955 ) was an American fiddler from West Virginia. He was known for his idiosyncratic style, creativity, and the many (often exaggerated) folkloric tales about him.

Edden Hammons was born to Jesse Hammons and Nancy Hicks on 28 February 1875 at Williams River in Webster County, West Virginia. He was the youngest in a family of seven. His three brothers (Paris, Peter, and Cornelius), as well as his father, played the fiddle. Edden took up the fiddle at an early age, playing on a fiddle made out of a gourd that his father made for him. His family was known for its musicians, woodsmen, and hunters.

Edden progressed in his fiddle playing and soon obtained a store-bought fiddle. There are several different stories about this. In one, a friend of Edden's father asked Edden to play him a tune. Edden took out his gourd-fiddle and played for the man. Afterwards, the man was so impressed that he gave Edden his own fiddle. Another story refers to when a renowned fiddler named Bernard "Burn" Hamrick was playing for a local dance. After he finished playing, Edden's father asked Burn if Edden could play a few tunes on his fiddle. Burn agreed to let Edden play his fiddle, and was so discouraged afterwards by Edden's superior ability that he let him keep the fiddle. Whatever the story may have really been, it is sure that Edden received a nicer fiddle that his original one, and started to become well known as a fiddle player in his area.

In his home, Edden was spoiled and spared from chores and work. These qualities would follow him into his adult life. A popular example among the Hammons family of Edden's distaste of work is shortly after his first marriage in 1892. His wife asked Edden to stop playing the fiddle, get a job, and support a family. Edden was quoted as saying "Pon [sic] my honor, I'll lay my fiddle down for no damn woman". The two separated and were legally divorced in 1897. 10 days after the divorce, Edden married his second wife, Elizabeth Shaffer (despite pleas from Elizabeth's family members for her to not marry Edden). The two raised seven children and remained married until Elizabeth's death in 1954.

Edden's family lived somewhat nomadically, moving from one place to another usually twice a year. Edden still rarely worked during these times. He supported his family through hunting, fishing, farming, moonshining and other odd jobs. His daughter, Emma Hammons, recalls that "[h]e whittled axe handles, he played for dances, different things. He picked up money that way. Ginseng, he'd get money that way. It was against the law but he would kill squirrels, turkeys and sell them, or fish - he always had a couple dollars in his pocket somehow".

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