John Hays Hammond
| John Hays Hammond | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born | March 31, 1855 San Francisco, California, USA |
| Died | June 8, 1936 (aged 81) Gloucester, Massachusetts, USA (Buried: Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York) |
| Alma mater | Yale University (Ph.B., 1876) |
| Occupation | mining engineer, diplomat |
| Spouse(s) | Natalie Harris (September 28, 1859–June 18, 1931) |
| Children |
John Hays Hammond, Jr. (April 13, 1888–February 12, 1965) Natalie Hays Hammond (1904–1985) Nathaniel Harris Hammond (?–1906) Richard Pindle Hammond |
| Parent(s) | Sarah (Hays) Lea Richard Pindell Hammond |
John Hays Hammond (31 March 1855 – 8 June 1936) was a mining engineer, diplomat, and philanthropist. Known as the man with the Midas touch, he amassed a sizable fortune before the age of 40. An early advocate of deep mining, Hammond was given complete charge of Cecil Rhodes' mines in South Africa and made each undertaking a financial success. But after the dismal failure of the Jameson Raid, Hammond, along with the other leaders of the Johannesburg Reform Committee, was arrested and subsequently sentenced to death. The Reform Committee leaders were released after paying large fines, but like many of the leaders, Hammond left Africa for good. He returned to the United States, became a close friend of President William Howard Taft, and was appointed a special United States Ambassador. At the same time, he continued to develop mines in Mexico and California and, in 1923, he made another fortune while drilling for oil with the Burnham Exploration Company. His son, John Hays Hammond, Jr., patented over 400 inventions, and is widely regarded as the father of radio control.
Hammond was the son of Major Richard Pindell Hammond, a West Point graduate who fought in the Mexican War, and Sarah, daughter of Harmon Hays and his wife, née Elizabeth Cage. Sarah was sister to Captain John Coffee Hays of the Texas Rangers, and had formerly been married to Calvin Lea. The family moved in 1849 to California to prospect in the California gold rush, and young John was born in San Francisco. After an adventuresome boyhood in the American Old West, Hammond went East to attend the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale University, where he earned a Bachelor of Philosophy in 1876, and later attended the Royal School of Mines, Freiberg, Germany, 1876–1879, and there he met his wife-to-be, Natalie Harris.
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