The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1936-06-10
J. H. HAMMOND
dies AT Home
World Famed Mining En-
gineer Was Colorful,
Romantic Figure

GLOUCESTER, Mass, June ~
(UP)-John Hays Hammond, ST.,
81, world-famed mining engineer
who once escaped a firing squad
in South Africa by winning a
communication of sentence and
+ later paying the Beers a Sl25,OOo
fine, died suddenly of heart d.
sease here late Monday.
and one-time friend of Cecil
Death came to the adventurer
Rhodes, celebrated British EN-
pire Builder" in q wash room
next to the study of his Lookout
Hill estate as he prepared to go
on brief automobile trip. He
was found by his secretary,
William G. Griffin.
Hammond, father of John Hays
Hammond, Jr., the noted inven-
tor, was said by Griffin to have
suffered frequent though not SER
ious heart attacks recently.
Accompanied by his sister, Miss
Elizabeth Hammond, the globe
trotting engineer returned to his
estate here Saturday night from
New York after spending the
winter at Palm Beach and Boca
Ration Club in Florida.
Two of his children, John, Jr.,
and Richard Pindell Hammond,
were here when death came. The
other two, Natalie Hays Ham;
mond, artist and designer; and
Harris Hammond, business assoc
late of his father, were in New
York. -
An hour before death came,
John, Jr., had left the estate al
ter chatting with his father for
an hour. Last to see Hammond
alive was Martin Lofquist, who
had been the engineers valet for
II years.
Private funeral services were
held late Tuesday at the estate al
ter which the body was sent to
New York for private services at
the Greenwood cemetery chapel
in Brooklyn, N. Y, Wednesday
evening. The body will be cremat-
ed and later interment will be IN
Greenwood cemetery where mrs.
Hammond is buried.
Hammond, who was special am
bassador to England and repre-
sented the former President Will
liam Howard Taft at the corona
ton of the late King George V IN
1911, was offered the ambassa-
dorship to England by the late
President Harding and was con-
sidering the post when Mr.. Hard
ing died. He also headed the re-
ception committee at Washington
when Col. Charles A. Lindbergh
returned from his epochal flight
in 1927. -,.,,.
A native of San Francisco,
Hammond celebrated his 81st
birthday anniversary last March.
81.
After being graduated from
Sheffield Scientific School at Yale
in 1876 Hammond returned to
California to begin a career which
carried him to all parts of the
world and nearly ended with his
execution in South Africa in
1896.
Son of a "Forty-niner," Ham
mond examined California gold
fields and later went to Mexico
before sailing in 1893 to South
Africa where a series of sensa-
tiodnal adventures made him one
of the most romantic figures at
the turn of the century.
1t was there that he met Cecil
Rhodes and later was put in
charge of the famed British EN-
pire Builders" extensive mining
concessions.
In 1894, Hammond led a joint
expedition with Rhodes into the
heart of the African wilderness
where he re-discovered the tabled
King Solomon mines. His survey
led to re-opening of the mines
which had been abandoned CEN
turtles previously. b"
Up to that time, gold was OBJ
tanned by surface mining. Ham,
mond introduced deep mining to
reach the rich deposits.