Francis Asbury Hammond

Born in Patchogue, New York; first sailed to sea at age fourteen; injured in sailing accident in 1844; put ashore at Lahaina, Maui, to recover; worked as cobbler before going to San Francisco in 1847, where he was baptized that same year; spent time in newly discovered California gold fields before immigrating to Salt Lake City in 1848; married Mary Jane Dilworth in November 1848; called on mission to Hawai‘i in October 1850; arrived in the islands in August 1851 accompanied by his wife, son Francis Jr., Philip and Jane Lewis, and John Woodbury; labored primarily on the island of Maui, where he was appointed conference president in July 1854; worked as cobbler during his mission to support his family and assist other Latter-day Saint missionaries; left the islands for the U.S. in 1856 with his family, which then included two additional sons; opened shoe shop in San Bernardino, California; returned to Utah because of the Utah War; helped the Church acquire more than six thousand acres in La‘ie, O‘ahu, while on second mission to Hawai‘i, 1864–65; moved to Huntsville, Utah, having been called to serve as bishop of Huntsville Ward; called to preside over the San Juan Stake headquartered in southeastern Utah in 1885, a position he held for the rest of his life; died in accident while visiting members of the stake living in New Mexico. (See Jenson, BE, 1:351–53; Whitney, History of Utah, 4:151–53; MMH, biographical sketches; Hammond, “My Introduction to Mormonism”; Spurrier, Sandwich Islands Saints, 77–82; Owens, Gold Rush Saints, 389; “Sketch of Prest. Hammond,” Deseret Evening News, Dec. 3, 1900; Francis Hammond journals; GQC journal, frequent references, Aug. 1851–Aug. 1854.)