HAMMOND
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
The residents of Hammond would like to welcome you to their community and its many historic and scenic sites. We are proud of our heritage and hope that you will enjoy catching a glimpse of it while following these self-guided tours. Hammond, the westernmost town in st. Lawrence County, was formed from the towns of Rossie and Morristown. It lies on the st. Lawrence River in the angle formed by the river and the southwest boundary of the county and contains 35,815 acres.
The region in which the town lies was disputed ground between the Iroquois Confederacy and the Huron- Algonquin Nations of Canada. It was common hunting and fishing ground, but extremely dangerous to either party, for the Nations dwelling upon opposite sides of the St. Lawrence were ever at enmity with each other. Bloody encounters were sure to follow the meetings of their hunting parties.
The first white settler, William McNeil, made no attempt to clear the land, but lived the life of a hermit in a cave in the rocks at ChippeWa Bay. This was prior to 1812. The first clearing, in what is noW the Village of Hammond, was made by William Wyllie, of Vermont, during the summer of 1812.
The town derives its name from Abijah Hammond, of New York, who owned the township previous to the purchase of David Parish. He was a brother-in-Law of David A. Ogden, and a merchant and speculator of New York. in the Revolutionary War he held a commission as Captain of Artillery. He never visited his northern purchases and took no further interest in them than as a subject for speculation.
The town played a small role in the War of 1812. In the summer of 1814,an attempt was made by a party of fifty or sixty Canadians, undre Duncaan Fraser, to abduct one or two refugees who had taken up their abode in town, and had rendered themselvesobnoxious to their former Canadian neighbors, by repeatedly depredations committed in revenge for real or supposed injuries.The attemptt failed
The R.T. Elethorp Museaum is located on St. Highway 37, just North of the Village. It is open from Memorial Day - mid September Wednsday 2-4 PM and Saturday 10 - 4 PM.