Henry Hammans
1818-1877
Henry Hammans crossed
the plains with ox-teams, arriving in California in 1849. He engaged in
mining in California for several years, being principally located in remote
Siskiyou County at Scott's Bar. Returning via Panama to Iowa in 1857, Henry
farmed in Davis County, near Drakeville. This is where he established a
farm and settled down for awhile before returning to California and establishing
roots in Shasta County.
Henry Hammans
was born in Wyathe County, Virginia around 1818, one of twelve children
of Joshua and Elizabeth Kimbler Hammans. Henry Hammans bought government
land in Iowa and began the cultivation of unimproved tracts in a locality
still inhabited by Indians. He maried Elizabeth Brown in Jefferson County,
Indiana in December of 1843. To them in Iowa, two children were born.
It is not known
what happened in the intervening years. About 1857, Henry married a younger
woman, Hana Moss. They headed west together in 1865, coming across the
counrty on the Old Oregon Trail in a covered wagon, accompanied by Henry's
two sons.
The family first
appeared on the 1870 census of Shasta County. They settled on a farm they
operated in eastern Shasta County. During these flush times, Henry and
Hannah reared them ten children. The family lived in both Shasta and Tehama
Counties.
The 1866-1884
and 1890 Great Register of Shasta County list Henry Hammans Sr., living
at Ludwigs Bridge, west of Cottonwood. This was a settlement and precinct
named for Frederick W. Ludwig an early pioneer. Hammans was living there
on May 23, 1867, with one of his sons from the first marriage.
In February of
1877, Henry Hammans Sr., died at Antelope Valley in Tehama County. He is
buried in the Oak Hill Cemetery in the Hammans family plot. The widow Hannah
Moss Hammans married a second time to Amos McTaggart, who soon died. Hannah
and her new husband, moved the Hammans' children to the settlement of Eagle
Creek, which became Ono in 1883.
Later in life,
Hannah married Henry Oliphant, an old miner who in 1909 was murdered at
their cabin in Harrison Gulch. Hannah had a difficult life, she was uneducated
and it has been said she died in a house fire at Ono, year unknown. The
descendants of Henry and Hannah Moss Hammans still reside in Shasta and
Tehama Counties.
Contributed by Jeremy M. Tuggle
Resource "Rooted In Shasta County" by Jeremy M. Tuggle
published by Preserving Memories in 2003, 2nd Edition 2004.
"The Hammans Family", written and compiled by Virginia
Dare Hammans with information given by George L. Hammans, Majorie L. Nowichi,
and Keith Lingenfelter.
The Hammans Family Pioneer Plaque folder on file at Shasta
Historical Society.