Sedgwick County KSGenWeb

Portrait And Biographical Album of Sedgwick County, Kan.

Chapman Brothers 1888

Pages 246 - 249

SAMUEL HAMMERS, a representative farmer and stock-raiser of Ohio Township, is finely located on section 32, upon a body of fertile land, to which he has given his close attention since the spring of 1884.  His operations have been marked with uniform success, and in addition to being a thorough and skillful agriculturist, he is a business man of more than ordinary capacities, wise and judicious in his investments, and taking advantage of the facilities afforded at this day and age by improved machinery and all the other appliances required by the modern tiller of the soil.

      The township of Green, in Greene County, Pa., held the earliest home of our subject, where he first opened his eyes to the light Nov. 14, 1816.  His parents, Joseph and Elizabeth (Hanna) Hammers, were natives of Pennsylvania, and are more fully written of in the sketch of Joseph T. Hammers, which will be found elsewhere in this volume.  Samuel was reared to manhood in his native State, receiving his education in the primitive schools of Green Township, and was married when about thirty-four years of age, March 7, 1850, to Miss Melissa Skinner, who was born in Guernsey County, Ohio, Aug. 13, 1832, and was consequently a number of years younger than her husband.

      Mrs. Hammers is the daughter of Courtland and Mary (Lynn) Skinner, natives of Pennsylvania, and now deceased.  Our subject and his wife commenced life together on a farm in Woodford County, Ill., and the household circle was completed by the birth of thirteen children, ten of whom are living and are names respectively: Joseph C.; Mary A., now the wife of Z. H. Stevens, of Ohio Township; Elizabeth, Mrs. Cyrus Requa, of Bates County, Mo.; John; Samuel; Jessie, the wife of Rueben Mitchell, of Colorado; James, Jennie, Alice and Brower.  Those unmarried are at home with their parents.

      In 1850 our subject, with his family, removed from his native State to Woodford County, Ill., where he resided until the fall of 1866, then crossed the Mississippi and took up his residence in Bates County, Mo.  From there, in the spring of 1884, he came to this county and bought a tract of uncultivated land in Ohio Township, of which he has since retained possession.  To this, however, he has added by subsequent purchases, and is now the owner of 320 acres in this township.  The quarter section which comprises the homestead is considered about the best land in the State of Kansas, owing largely to the care and good judgment which have been exercised in its cultivation.

      Starting in life with very little capital, in fact nothing but his strong hands and resolute will, the present condition of Mr. Hammers, socially and financially, reflects great credit upon him, both as an agriculturist and a business man.  His early education was quite limited, but his natural intelligence and habits of observation have served to keep him well informed upon matters of general interest.  He is politically a true-blue Republican, and religiously, with his estimable wife, a member in good standing of the Baptist Church, with which he has been prominently connected for many years.  To this, as to the other institutions of his township whose object has been the general good of the community, he has been a cheerful and liberal contributor.  His declining years should be amply comforted by the reflection that he has done what he could, both to those immediately connected with him by the ties of nature, and to aid in the prosperity of the people around him.  There are few people held in higher esteem than Samuel Hammers and his excellent wife, who has been his faithful and sympathizing companion for a period of over thirty-eight years.

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