Hammer, Elisha 1828-1907

HAMMER, MILLS, OWENINGS, WILLIS, TAYLOR, BACHELOR

Posted By: Barbara Hug (email)
Date: 3/3/2005 at 19:17:29

Captain Elisha Hammer died in the hospital at the Soldiers’ Home at Marshalltown Tuesday at the age of 79 years. He was a native of Tennessee. Was born in Jefferson County April 30, 1828. His first suit of clothes, when he became a young man, were made by the late President Andrew Johnson. At the close of the war he was in Washington and while there was a dinner guest of President Johnson.

During the Civil War Captain Hammer served in Co. G, 7th Iowa Cavalry Volunteers.

After the war closed he came to Jasper County and built a large brick dwelling a few miles east of Newton. With his older brother, Jesse Hammer, he owned a sawmill in Adamson Grove and at the time the Rock Island Railroad was built through this section of the country, sawed many of the ties for which they had a contract to furnish that road.

In his early days he taught school, and also studied medicine, but never was a regular practitioner, although in the early fifties when he crossed the western plains, his knowledge along this line came in play and he was the doctor for the company with whom he traveled.

Captain Hammer from March 1863 to May 1866 was stationed on the frontier and was located at Fort Omaha and Lincoln, Nebraska, and at Topeka, Kansas. During this time there was much trouble with the Indians.

Deceased was a Mason. For years he had been a member of a Des Moines lodge, but was one of the charter members of Newton Lodge No. 59 A. F. and A. M.

He was married twice. His first wife was a Miss Mills, a sister of Mrs. J. B. Owings of this city. After her death he married a Mrs. Willis, who was a cousin of Bob Taylor, of Tennessee. One daughter and four sons survive him. Mrs. Julia Bachelor of Des Moines; Harrison Hammer of Valley Junction; Charles Hammer residing in Minnesota; and Guy Hammer who lives in Texas.

The funeral was held Wednesday afternoon from the Friends Church at Amboy and interment was in the Center Cemetery. The son from Valley Junction, the daughter from Des Moines, and his brother, Aaron Hammer, and his nephew, Dr. M. R. Hammer of this city, attended the funeral. ~ The Newton Daily News, Saturday, May 25, 1907, Page 1, Column 4