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Francis Asbury Hammond papers

 Collection — Box: 7
Identifier: MSS 18

Scope and Contents

Collection contains materials related to Hammond dealing with the early settlement of San Juan County in southern Utah and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) business of the San Juan Stake which comprised a large portion of southern Utah as well as parts of Colorado and Arizona. The collection includes personal and family correspondence, ecclesiastical correspondence, and journals.

Personal and family correspondence relates to pioneer life in southern Utah in the last half of the nineteenth century. Topics also include missionary work and LDS Church growth in the Sandwich Islands (now Hawaii), northern England and the southern United States in the 1890s.

The collection also includes correspondence with Presidents of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from Brigham Young to Lorenzo Snow, as well as various other General Authorities of the Church, and topics include Church doctrine and administration, and the Church's role in state and national politics. Also included in this collection are some letters from Joseph F. Smith while he was in exile in Hawaii during the anti-polygamy crusade of the 1880s.

The collection includes twenty-three of forty-three known volumes of Hammond's private journals where he documented his life as a stake president in the early days of the Church covering 1884 to 1900. Also contained in this collection is the Hawaiian missionary diary of Mary Jane Dilworth Hammond, first wife of Francis Asbury Hammond. Her diary was written between April 1853 and February 1855. There are also two autograph books from Martha and Francis Hammond, a typescript history of Alice Howard Hammond, a typescript of a letter from Brigham Young to King Kamehameha V, and some biographical materials on Francis A. Hammond.

Dated 1851 to 1901.

Dates

  • approximately 1851-1937

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

Open for public research, but researchers are required to use existing photocopies of the journals and selected Church correspondence rather than the originals.

Conditions Governing Use

It is the responsibility of the researcher to obtain any necessary copyright clearances. Permission to use material from this collection must be obtained from Reference Services at specialcollections@byu.edu.

Biographical History

Francis Asbury Hammond (1822-1900) was a shoe and saddle maker, and missionary, bishop, and stake president for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Francis Asbury Hammond (1822-1900) was a shoe and saddle maker, and missionary, bishop, and stake president for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Francis Asbury Hammond lived a number of places, including Hawaii; San Francisco, California; and Salt Lake City, Ogden, and Bluff, Utah. He served missions to the Hawaiian Islands and the eastern United States, served as a bishop in Huntsville, Utah, and as president of the San Juan Stake, all for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Extent

7 boxes (3.5 linear ft.)

Language of Materials

English

Arrangement

Arranged in four series: 1. Francis A. Hammond personal and family correspondence, 1865-1937.2. Francis A. Hammond ecclesiastical correspondence, 1871-1999. 3. Francis A. Hammond journals and family documents [originals], 1853-1900. 4. Francis A. Hammond journals and family history photocopies, 1884-1900.

Other Finding Aids

File-level inventory available online. http://files.lib.byu.edu/ead/XML/MSS18.xml

Custodial History

Materials comprising this collection were purchased in 1988 from F. A. Hammond of Salt Lake City, Utah. The collection had been handed down to Mr. Hammond, a grandson of President Francis A. Hammond. In March 1989, F. A. Hammond also donated the Francis and Martha Hammond autograph books to BYU library.

Transcription of the March 17-July 21 1893 journal was found by Jon Bayless while doing family history research and donated in 2017.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Purchased; F. A. Hammond; 1988.

Transcription of March 17-July 21 1893 journal donated; Jon Bayless; July 2017.

Appraisal

History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its missionary ministry in the United States and Hawaii; Utah history (19th Century Western and Mormon Manuscripts Collection Development Policy, V.B.4-5, 2020).

Related Materials

Twenty volumes of Francis A. Hammond's personal journals are located in the archives of the Historical Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City, Utah. These journals are found under manuscript number MS 1430, dating from 1852 to 1893, mostly filling in the gaps existing in the BYU holdings. Also located there are Hammond's correspondence with William Farrer (MS 4552) and Henry P. Richards (MS 1487) while they were missionaries in the Sandwich Islands. The Historical Department also has a photograph of a letter from George Q. Cannon and Francis A. Hammond to R. M. Armstrong, Minister of Public Instruction, pertaining to lists of marriages performed by Mormon elders in Hawaii (MS 2367).

There are also two folders of Francis A. Hammond's letters to his uncle, David M. Edwards of Long Island, New York; these letters, written between 1889 and 1900, are held by the Suffolk County Historical Society in Riverhead, New York. Photocopies of these letters are also available in the Church Historical Department mentioned above (MSS 2139).

Bibliography

Francis Hammond provided a biographical summary of his early life in "The Early Days, My Introduction to Mormonism," The Juvenile Instructor No. 29 (1 June 1894 - 15 August 1894): 353-355, 364-69, 395-98, 463-64, and 517-21.

Also see Preston Nibley, "Francis A. Hammond," Stalwarts of Mormonism (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1954), pp. 45-52; and "Francis Asbury Hammond," in Andrew Jenson, compiler, LDS Biographical Encyclopedia, 4 volumes (Salt Lake City: Andrew Jenson History Co., 1901), 1:351-53. Copies of these items have been placed in the collection (see box 6 folder 13).

Processing Information

Processed; David J. Whittaker, curator, and Ariana Dupre; July 1998.

Title
Register of Francis Asbury Hammond papers
Status
Completed
Author
Jennifer Kim
Date
2011 September 19
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
Finding aid written in English in Latin script.

Repository Details

Part of the L. Tom Perry Special Collections Repository

Contact:
1130 HBLL
Brigham Young University
Provo Utah 84602 United States