hammacke
Transcribed from "An Illustrated History of The Big Bend Country, embracing
Lincoln, Douglas, Adams and Franklin counties, State of Washington",
published by Western Historical Publishing Co., 1904.
ELVIS E. HAMMACK, a prominent
citizen and farmer residing three and one-half miles southwest of Moscow,
Washington, was born May 24, 1847, in Anderson county, Tennessee, the son
of Isaac and Frances (Rucker) Hammack. The father was born and reared
to manhood in the county of our subject's birth, and spent the last seven
years in Knox county, Tennessee. He died in 1870, aged forty-five
years. The Hammack family came originally from Spain, and some members
of the family were soldiers during the Revolutionary War. The mother,
a lady of French ancestry, was also born in Tennessee of an old Virginia
family. She died in 1871.
Our subject has one brother, James W., and
two sisters, Mrs. Eliza Dew and Mrs. Nancy Bennett. Mr. Hammack grew
to manhood on a farm, and though deprived of a school education, he studied
privately and succeeded in acquiring an education sufficient to entitle
him to teach. He taught his first school when a youth of eighteen
years. He enlisted in the federal army near the close of the Civil
War, but was never mustered into service. He mastered the carpenter's
trade, at which he worked in his native state, in Denver, Colorado, where
he went in 1872, and elsewhere. In 1877 he came via San Francisco
and Portland, to Linn county, Oregon, where he was first engaged in farming
for ten years. In 1884 he was elected on the Democratic ticket to
the office of assessor of Linn county, and in 1886 he engaged in buying
and selling grain both on commission. and for himself. He also was
engaged in this business for the Orondo Shipping company, of Moscow, Washington,
for two years.
During October, 1872, Mr. Hammack was married
to Miss S. J. Wallace, a native of Tennessee, who died May 24, 1898, leaving
one son, Roy W., a youth of more than ordinary promise. He was a
graduate from the Lebanon, Oregon, high school at the age of fourteen,
and is now a student of the University of Oregon at Eugene. He is
making a fine record in school, expects to remain until graduation and
ultimately to take up the study of medicine.
Mr. Hammack was married to his present wife,
Elizabeth (Schyff) McCoy Hammack, on May 15, 1901. She is the daughter
of John H. and Gertrude (Camp) Schyff, natives of Holland. The parents
of Mrs. Hammack both died in San Bernardino, California, whither they went
with their family by way of New York and Panama in 1862. She was
married to John McCoy on June 24, 1884, in San Bernardino county, and came
to this county in 1885. He took the farm where Mr. and Mrs. Hammack
now live as a homestead and made it his home until he died, January 12,
1900, aged forty-one years.
Mr. and Mrs. Hammack, in addition to the original
McCoy homestead, own three hundred and twenty acres of grain land near
by. The buildings, appointments, and out-of-door improvements are
among the best in the county. Mr. Hammack also owns a modern residence
in Tallman, Oregan.
Mr. Hammack is a member of the Masonic fraternity,
in which order he has taken all the degrees up to and including the Knights
Templar. He has served his lodge as worshipful master. In politics
he is a stanch Democrat and for sixteen years was a member of the county
central committee of his party. Mrs. Hammack is a member of the Evangelical
church.
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