John F. Hammell

    John F. Hammell, is the son of John and Mary (Aston) Hammell. His father was a native of Salem, Washington County, New York, and his mother of East St. Louis. His father settled in Harrison County in 1846; was a teamster in the Thirty-ninth Reg. Indiana Volunteers, served eighteen months, when he was captured. Being attacked with rheumatism he went home. He was 58 years old when he went into the army. He was born May 31, 1803, and died in 1887.

    Mr. John F. Hammell, the subject of this sketch, was born in Harrison county, Indiana, May 7, 1847. He was the only son of his parents. He was reared in Jefferson County, his father removing to Trimble County, Kentucky, when he was but four or five years old.

    In 1862, August 20, he enlisted in the Eight-second Indiana Volunteers, as a private, then being only 15 years old. He served until the close of the war.

    At the close of the war he worked in the ship-yard until 1874, when he opened a retail grocery, and is now doing a good business. He owns eleven houses in West Madison, and holds the office of treasurer of West Madison.

    He is a member of the I. O. O. F., K. of P. and G. A. R. Is Past Post Commander of G. A. R. Was the delegate from the Fourth Indiana Congressional District to the G. A. R., National Encampment, at San Francisco, California in 1886.

    He is at present Captain of Sons of Veterans. he was married, September 22, 1867, to Miss Sophia Blackard, of Madison, Indiana, daughter of Peter and Rebecca (Johnson) Blackard, who were Virginians. They have no living children; but have one adopted daughter.

Source: Biographical and Historical Souvenir for the counties of Clark, Crawford, Harrison, Floyd, Jefferson, Jennings, Scott and Washington, Indiana. By John M. Gresham & Co., 1889.