Judge Eli Shelby Hammond

Judge Ely Shelby Hammond

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/81169624/eli_shelby_hammond

b. April 21, 1838 in Brandon, Mississippi.
d. December 17, 1904 in New York, New York of pneumonia while visiting his daughter.
Twice married, two children.
Graduate of Union University, Murfreesboro, Tennessee, 1857; Lebanon Law School, Tennessee, 1858.

• Admitted to the Mississippi bar, 1859.
• Private practice, Ripley, Mississippi, 1859-1860.
• Private practice, Memphis, Tennessee, 1860-1861.
• Captain, Army of the Confederate States of America, 1861-1865.
• Private practice, Ripley, Mississippi, 1865-1868 (Davis & Hammond).
• Private practice, Memphis, Tennessee, 1868-1878 (Randolph & Hammond).
• Appointed to the federal bench by President Rutherford B. Hayes, June 15, 1878.
• Confirmed by the Senate and commissioned, June 17, 1878.
• Judge, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee, 1878-1904.

Judge Eli S. Hammond's life time legal papers for his private practice and judicial decisions were donated to the Harvard Law School by his son. They acquired the collection on September 20, 1905 a s part of a larger gift of miscellaneous law books from Orlando D. Hammond, Judge Hammond's son, also a lawyer, in Memphis. Included in these papers is a brief that Eli Hammond prepared for his brother Ferdinand Mclarin Hammond and his wife Mary E. Mays Hammond as defendants for a court case in the 1880's in Dallas County with Mary's mother C E Mays.

The following is a biography published for Eli Shelby Hammond: Eli Shelby Hammond, son of Dr. Chassed Purnell and Priscilla Kate (Attalla) Hammond, was born April 27, 1838, at Brandon, Mississippi. Although raised in Mississippi, he attended and graduated from Union College, Murfreesboro, Tennessee in 1857. He continued his education at Cumberland University, graduating from the law school in 1858. At the age of twenty-one, Hammond was admitted to the Mississippi bar. He practiced law at Ripley, Mississippi until 1859, when he moved to Memphis, Tennessee, and formed a partnership with Sidney Y. Wilson under the firm name of Watson & Hammond.

Shortly after the Civil War began, Hammond enlisted in the Confederate Army and was made lieutenant and adjutant of the 14th Tennessee Cavalry. Shortly thereafter, he was captured and sent to prison. Upon his release seven months later, he rejoined the Confederate Army and served until the end of the war. Hammond returned to Memphis after the war and once again began to practice law, this time in association with fellow Mississippian Col. Luke W. Finlay. Shortly thereafter, he returned to Mississippi where he entered into a partnership with his father-in-law, Judge Davis. In 1868, he had returned to Memphis and formed a partnership with the Honorable William M. Randolph, under the firm name of Randolph & Hammond.

On June 14, 1878, Congress passed an Act creating the United States District Court for the Western District of Tennessee. Prior to that this area had been served by the same judge who held court in the Eastern and Middle Districts. At the time the feelings between the North and the South were still unfriendly and bitter, and the federal courts south of the Mason-Dixon line were not regarded with favor by the Southerners. With this consideration President Rutherford B. Hayes, in furtherance of his policy of pacification, appointed such ex-Confederate soldiers as Hammond and David M. Key to the federal bench.

On June 17, 1878, President Hayes appointed Hammond as the first judge of the new district. Hammond has been called not only "a man of exceptional learning" but also "one of the most conscientious men" of his time and did not like favoritism of any kind. At the time i t was an everyday occurrence for railroads to give passes to judges and their families. When Judge Hammond's son took advantage of this practice, he immediately sent the railroad a check for the usual railway fare. During his service in the Civil War, Hammond married Frances [Fannie] E. Davis on January 3, 1864. They were the parents of two children: Patty (Hammond) Jarman and Orlando D. Hammond.

After the death of his first wife, Judge Hammond married Margaret (Conley) Willshire of Memphis, Tennessee, on July 17, 1895. He also helped raise his step-daughter, M. (Conley) Semmes. Judge Hammon d died at the age of sixty-six years in New York City on December 17, 1904, while on a visit to his daughter. His body was returned to Memphis and buried in the Elmwood Cemetery.

The follow proclamation was submitted by the Bar of Western Tennessee to be published in the federal reporter after his death:

HON. ELI SHELBY HAMMOND

Late U S. District Judge for the Western District of Tennessee. Judge E.S. Hammond was the son of Dr. John Chessed Purnell Hammond and Priscilla Attalla Shelby Hammond, and was born at Brandon, Mississippi, April 21, 1838; moved to Collierville, Tennessee, at the age of four years; graduated from Union College, Murfreesboro, in 1856; also graduated from the Lebanon Law School in 1857. He was admitted to t he bar at Ripley, Mississippi, when not yet 20 years of age.

He practiced in Mississippi with V.P. Curlee, of the firm of Hammond & Curlee, until 1859, when he moved to Memphis and formed a partnership wit h Sidney Y. Watson, under the firm name of Watson & Hammond. In April, 1861, he enlisted in the Shelby Grays, Confederate States Army. He was lieutenant and adjutant in the 14th Tennessee Cavalry, was taken prisoner at one time, and spent seven months in Irving Block Prison, Memphis. After his release he rejoined the army and served to the end of the war, being paroled at Greenville, Alabama. He was married in 1861 in Ripley, Mississippi, to Miss Fannie F. Davis, daughter of Hon. Orlando Davis.

In 1865 he came to Memphis again and entered upon the practice of law there with Colonel Luke W. Finlay, under the firm name of Finlay & Hammond, but shortly thereafter his father-in-law, Judge Davis, persuaded him to accept a partnership in a lucrative practice in North Mississippi, under the firm name of Davis & Hammond, where he practiced until the fall of 1869. He again returned to Memphis, and formed a partnership with Hon. Wm. M. Randolph, under the firm name of Randolph & Hammond, and subsequently, Mr. R.D. Jordan being admitted to the firm. The firm was Randolph, Hammond & Jardan. He was appointed District judge of the United States District Court for the Western district of Tennessee by President Hayes in 1878 and served until his death at he age of sixty-six in 1904.

The following obituary appeared in the New York Times, December 18, 1904: "Eli Shelby Hammond of Memphis. United States Judge for the Western District of Tennessee died in this city at the home of his daughter, Mrs. G. W. Jarman, 54 West Seventy-sixth Street, yesterday morn ing. Judge Hammond come to New York three weeks ago to visit his daughter, and until last Wednesday was apparently in the best of health. On that day he was taken ill with pneumonia and never rallied.

Judge Hammond was born in Brandon, Miss. April 21, 1838. He was educated at Union University, Murfreesborough, Tenn. and at the Lebanon Law School that state. At the outbreak of the civil war he tendered his services to the Confederacy and served as an officer throughout the struggle.

After the war, Judge Hammond resumed his law practice in Ripley, Miss., but soon removed to Memphis. Like General Longstreet, he was always a Republican and in 1877 he was appointed by President Hayes a United States Judge. Judge Hammond was twice married, his first wife being Miss Frances E. Davis of Ripley, Miss . and the second, Mrs. Margaret Conley Wilshire of Memphis. He is survived by a wife and two children, a daughter, Mrs Jarman, and Orlando D. Hammond, a lawyer of Memphis. Dr. and Mrs. Jarman started south with the body yesterday. The interment will be in Memphis."