Biography of James Thaddeus Hammond: 4th Mayor of Logan
Dates in Office: 1885-1886, appointed 2 Sept 1885
Number of Terms: 1
Age when elected: 29
James T. Hammond was born December 11, 1856 in Farmington, Utah. His parents are Milton D. Hammond and Lovisa Miller. He married Elinora Blair December 18, 1884 in Logan, Utah where they had three children. He died 9 October 1942 in Salt Lake City.[1]
When he was eight years of age his parents removed to Cache County, where he has resided ever since. He is a product of the public school system of the Territory. Upon leaving school in the spring of 1875 he took up the study of law during his leisure moments while employed as a salesman and bookkeeper in a mercantile establishment. In 1877 he was appointed clerk of the probate and county courts of Cache County, a position he filled with credit until 1883, when he was elected to the Legislative Council of the Territory of Utah, and was a member of the judiciary committee of that session. In 1884 he married an estimable lady in the person of Leonora Blair. In 1888 Mr. Hammond was employed by the Legislative Assembly as one of a special committee of three to compile the laws of Utah then in force.[2]
Mr. Hammond became the first Utah secretary of state in 1896 and remained in office until 1905. After expiration of this term and until the time of his death, he was a practicing lawyer. He was also member of the Utah constitutional convention. He began his political career in 1876 as Cache County Clerk and recorder. He was a senator of the territorial legislatures of 1884 and 1886 and a member of the territorial house of representatives in 1890.
He was active in other civic affairs, having served as a member of the Salt Lake City board of education for eight years and as president of the board for four years. He was a member of the state board of equalization and had served on the Castle Gate relief fund commission under Governor George H. Dern and as director of the department of registration under Governor Charles R. Mabey. He also was a trustee of the Utah State Agricultural college at Logan.
An active LDS church member, Hammond filled a mission to the southern states in 1881.[3]
[1] Family Group Record (Family Search Ancestral File v4.19)
[2] Heart Throbs of the West (Salt Lake City, Utah : Daughters of the Utah Pioneers, 1939) 10:34-35
[3] Obituary, The Herald-Journal, Logan, Utah, October 10, 1942.
