YUBA COUNTY Biographies
WENDELL P. HAMMON
The name of Wendell P. Hammon is as naturally associated with the idea of the development of Northern California as the name of California itself is associated with the idea of a domain of gold and prosperity, of fruit and flowers, and of sunshine and health. Oroville knows him as a man who did much to bring the town out of the lethargy that followed the mining boom, and make it a solid, progressive community. San Francisco and the rest of the State know him as a business man of high enterprise and unimpeachable integrity. It is perhaps as a pioneer in the field of gold-dredging that Mr. Hammon is best known; not that he has confined himself to this, however, for he has been and still is deeply interested in the growing of fruit, particularly of oranges, and is connected in one way or another with a number of corporations of varied scope. His name is almost a household word in California, where he is known as a builder of electric railroads and a leader in the development of hydro-electric power projects, as well as the world’s most prominent dredge-mining operator.
W. P. Hammon was born on May 23, 1854, in Conneautville, Crawford County, Pa., the son of Marshall M. and Harriet S. (Cooper) Hammon. His paternal ancestors settled at Providence, R. I., about the year 1726. The early education of Mr. Hammon was obtained in the grammar schools of his birthplace and in the State Normal School at Edinboro, Erie County. He left the latter institution in 1875, before graduation, however, and came to California. Upon his arrival here he looked about for an opening and soon secured a position as a salesman with L. Green and Sons, of Perry, Ohio, a large fruit-importing concern. He took a keen interest in the fruit industry, and two years later, seeing an opportunity to launch out for himself, engaged in the nursery business. Meanwhile he studied the subject carefully, and in a few years began to be spoken of as an authority on horticulture. He removed to Butte County in 1890, and this proved to be the early scene of most of his extensive operations. He planted a large orchard about ten miles below Oroville, near the Feather River, and devoted most of the next ten years to fruit-growing. In those days the Sacramento Valley was not very well established as a fruit-growing center, and the opening up of the large grain ranches to more intensive cultivation, especially to fruits, had not been accomplished, nor were there transportation facilities by which to get the products of the farms into market at nominal cost.
It is to such men as Mr. Hammon that the citizens of the valley owe their prosperity and advancement. He did a great deal of the pioneering in the fruit-growing industry, and it was while he was pursuing the development of his ranch by superintending the digging of a well, that he was handed some shining particles that had come out with the dirt. Thus it was that he became interested in dredger-mining. When he saw the shining particle of gold thickly imbedded in the dirt, he at once decided that if a machine could be constructed that would handle large quantities of this dirt, a tremendous industry would be established, and it would add very materially to the wealth of the State. From a very small beginning the dredging industry grew to large proportions, and the man who was the pioneer of dredger-mining soon became a millionaire. Through his initiative the world has had many millions of dollars added to its wealth from lands that had been considered worthless and from the tailing piles left by the early placer-miners, the dredger following in their path and once more turning over the piles of rock and soil in search of the yellow metal. Although confining his principal operations to California, Mr. Hammon also operated in a small way in Eastern Oregon, Idaho and Arizona.
After finding excellent pay-dirt on his own property, Mr. Hammon secured an option on about 1000 acres and prospected it thoroughly, with gratifying results. Gold-dredging had never been carried on successfully on the Pacific Coast, and to many this method appeared impractical. Mr. Hammon, however, came across a new type of dredger, the kind used on the drainage canal in Chicago. He had a similar dredge built and, after organizing the Feather River Exploration Company, began operation on March 1, 1898. As in the case of every new enterprise, progress was difficult and there were many who scoffed at the idea and predicted failure, and for a time it was all outgo and no returns. The dredging machinery was improved from time to time until success was assured. The rest of the story is so well known that it needs no telling. Today Mr. Hammon directs the largest gold-dredging operations in the world. His companies have control of more than 10,000 acres of land in California and Oregon, and more than thirty dredgers are at work. Among his corporations engaged in the industry are the Yuba Consolidated Gold Fields Company, the Calaveras Dredging Company, and the Powder River Gold Dredging Company. The gold-dredging operations soon advanced Oroville and Butte County to a place in the front rank as a mining district, the world over, and Oroville, like Ballarat and Kimberley, became a by-word in London, Paris and New York; and like prominence has since been given to Yuba Coutny through his operations here.
Mr. Hammon, after whom the town of Hammonton was named, entered the Yuba River field in 1902, after several years’ experience at Oroville. The great basin of the Yuba River was at that time what miners call a “blind deposit,” the entire basing being covered to an average depth of twenty-two feet with tailings from the hydraulic mines above. These tailings had to be moved, and economically. The value and character of the original gravel deposit had to be ascertained, as also the extent of the deposit that might be mined. The ground was known to be very deep, from sixty to ninety feet below the waterline, fifty per cent deeper than any other ground being dredged at that time. It is said that Mr. Hammon expended over $60,000 in preliminary work; and before undertaking to construct the dredge, he had a most thorough knowledge of the situation. Then followed the construction of dredging machines of improved pattern and adequate for the work required. The first two gold-boats operated completely solved the difficulties encountered and made the enterprise a thorough success.
The company with which Mr. Hammon is connected, and of which he is the moving spirit, began operations in the Yuba district in August, 1904. It was incorporated in March, 1905, as the Yuba Consolidated Gold Fields, with a capital of $12,500,000, and is now actively engaged in dredge mining on the river beds, on a large tract on the Yuba River, nine miles east of Marysville. The recently constructed boats are 120 feet in length and 50 feet in width. They are run by electricity received from the Colgate plant on the Yuba River near Dobbins, and each machine requires about 357 horse-power. They each handle from 2500 to 3500 cubic yards of material per day. The immense dredgers now being added to the fleets at Hammonton and Marigold are being built of steel at a cost, each, of half a million dollars. This will give to the reader some indication of the amount of gold being taken from the bed of the stream. In the beginning, these gold-boats were constructed of wood at a cost of $100,000 each. Many of the wooden boats long ago went into the discard along with their machinery. The hills about Hammonton are covered with scrap from the abandoned wooden boats.
While thus conducting its dredge-mining operations, the company has also engaged, in conjunction with the Federal government, in building training walls of rock several miles in length, for the purpose of confining the Yuba River (which normally has a tendency to “fan out”) in a defined channel, in order to hold in place the great deposit of tailings now there and prevent its moving on down to the damage of the farms in the valley below. These walls, which are built in most substantial manner and many times stronger than originally contemplated by the government officers, and which would have cost the United States at least half a million dollars if done by it, were constructed free of charge by the dredging company, and have proven of incalculable benefit as a measure of protection to property-owners in both Yuba and Sutter Counties.
Many men and members of their families are given employment both on the boats and in the repair shops maintained at Hammonton, where the company has built a commodious hotel, homes for the workmen, and a school. Marysville reaps much trade from the residents of Hammonton, all of whom are required by the company to be thrifty and steady-going, in order to hold secure their employment.
While W. P. Hammon gives the Oroville district, where he first achieved success in dredge mining, all the credit due it, he pronounces the Yuba fields the greatest in the world. The amount of ground suitable and profitable for dredging in the Yuba district is so great that it will require the work of the dredgers for at least another decade to exhaust it, and all the while it will add much to the gold supply of the world.
Mr. Hammon considers his orange and olive groves among his very best investments, which is a guarantee to others that they are safe in making investments in the same localities. He has contributed to the development of this section as president of the Oroville Orange and Olive Groves, and as an officer and director in the Finnell Land Company, Hammon Engineering Company, Plumas Investment Company, Yuba Construction Company, and Sierra Pacific Electric Company. He was one of the organizers of the Ventura Consolidated Oil Fields Company, Montebello Oil Company, and Ventura Refining Company, and was the principal originator of the Northern Electric Company, as well as its heaviest backer; and he was interested in the installation of hydro-electric and irrigation projects.
The marriage of W. P. Hammon united him with Miss Gussie Kenney, born in Placerville, Cal., a daughter of Ephraim Kenney. Her father was a Forty-niner, and a prominent mining man of the early days of Placer County. Of this union three children have been born. Wendell C., a graduate from Stanford University, was first lieutenant in the 4th Regiment, U. S. Engineers, in France. Glenn A. was a student at Stanford until the declaration of war, when he enlisted for duty, and was made inspector of armored tractors and tanks at the United States Ordnance Deport at Peoria, Ill., with the rank of second lieutenant. The daughter, Georgia, a graduate from Mills College, became the wife of Scott Hendricks, Judge Advocate at Camp Zachary Taylor, at Louisville, Ky. Mrs. Hendricks died in San Francisco in 1915.
Ever since settling in Butte County, Mr. Hammon has been one of California’s most influential citizens. Emphatically a man of work, he is never idle. No enterprise of worth has been projected that filed of his support and substantial encouragement; and every plan for the promotion of public welfare has had the benefit of his keen judgment and wise cooperation. A man of broad and charitable views, he aids every movement for the advancement of education, morality and the well-being of the State. He is a citizen of whom any community might well be proud.
(This sketch, is copied, in the main, from the sketch of Mr. Hammon published in the history of Butte County, edition of 1918, and is brought down to date by additions from Peter Delay’s History of Yuba County, published in this volume.)
History of Yuba and Sutter Counties, Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, 1924
p. 1194-1197
[Transcriber’s note: Please refer to the internet on articles regarding the Yuba Goldfields, for what has transpired since this article.]
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