Henry Hammel and Andrew H. Denker

Henry Hammel (died 1890) and Andrew Henry Denker, known as Andrew H. Denker or A.H. Denker, (1840–1892) were business partners and brothers-in-law in 19th Century Southern California who ran hotels and owned an extensive spread of agricultural property that eventually became the city of Beverly Hills. Both born in Germany, they married sisters born in France. Hammel was a member of the first Kern County, California, Board of Supervisors in 1866-67 and later was on the Los Angeles Common Council, the governing body of that city. Denker was a Kern County supervisor in 1873-74.

Hammel was born in Germany and came to the United States in 1850 or 1851 and engaged in hotel-keeping. He was also interested in grape-growing and owned a large vineyard in Los Angeles.

He was married in 1869 or 1870 to Marie Ruellan of Paris, France. On July 26, 1875, their only daughter, Mathilde or Matilda, was born in the United States Hotel, of which her father was the owner. When grown, she married E.O. McLaughlin.

Hammel died September 3, 1890, at the age of 56 or 57, leaving his wife and their 16-year-old daughter. At the time of his death they were living in the family house at the corner of 7th Street and Grand Avenue.

In a will, he bequeathed his estate, valued at $400,000, to his wife and his daughter.

In 1865 Hammel was elected to the first Kern County Board of Supervisors upon that area's organization as a county., and he was later elected to represent the 2nd Ward on the Los Angeles Common Council for two one-year terms between 1882 and 1884. In that capacity he was noted for "saving the Westlake Park to the city, and was also prominently connected with obtaining the water right of the Los Feliz rancho for Los Angeles."

Denker was born in Brunswick, near Bremen, Germany, on October 17, 1840, a farmer's son. He began working in a shop in Brunswick, but in 1857 he sailed for New York City, where he again found employment in a store, then beginning a small business of his own. In 1863 he voyaged to San Francisco via the Panama Isthmus, soon prospecting for minerals in Arizona and New Mexico. He entered Los Angeles afterward, penniless, but found employment as a clerk in a hotel first named the Lafayette, then the Cosmopolitan and finally the St. Elmo Hotel. At that time it was owned by Kohl, Dockwiler and Fluhe, but later it became the property of Hammel and Denker.

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