Mary Elizabeth Hammond (1865-1943) was the younger sister of John Hays Hammond Sr. Like her brother and nephew, she was born in San Francisco, on Independence Day of 1865 (July 4th). Called “Betty” affectionately, she was the only daughter of Richard Pindell Hammond and Sarah Hays Hammond, although the latter’s second daughter after Lucy, whom she had with her previous husband, Calvin Lea, before his death in 1846.

Note: Lucy only received a single mention in Hammond Sr.’s autobiography, as a child, although undated correspondence between Hammond Jr. and a Mother B. Keeshan reveals that Lucy became a nun at some point. The letter speaks highly of her, but it is a condolence message written after her passing. Her precise date of death is presently unknown due to the lack of a date on the correspondence and the difficulty in locating documentation about her life, but there are some clues contained within the letter. Lucy had to have passed away at some point prior to the death of her half-brother in 1936, as he is mentioned in the present tense by Keeshan. The letter also indicates that Lucy Lea was based in Montreal, and that Keeshan had known her in Detroit, 40 years prior. She was, apparently, proud of Hammond Jr.’s accomplishments as an inventor, and his father was “devoted to her” according to the nun.

Additionally, there is some evidence that Sarah and Calvin Lea had at least two sons who appear to have died in infancy.

Despite Mother Keeshan’s claims of Hammond Sr.’s devotion to his half-sister, Mary Hammond evidently enjoyed a much closer relationship with her older brother than did Lucy based on the frequency with which she is mentioned in his autobiography. Her life was an eventful one as well. At the age of 16, she was invited to the White House by President Rutherford B. Hayes, who was friendly with the Hammond family, in the final year of his term in office. Mary became friends with the president’s daughter, Fanny Hayes, who was close in age to her. She enjoyed her time with the president’s family, participating in games like sliding down bannisters and playing hide-and-seek.

The following year, Mary accompanied her brother, Dick Hammond, her sister-in-law, Natalie Harris Hammond, and her nephew, Harris Hammond, to Sonora, Mexico, where Hammond Sr. was in the midst of a turbulent tenure as manager of a silver mine. Due to a difficult local political situation at the time, the Hammonds were forced to flee Mexico by boat in October 1882. Mary was little enamored of the poor accommodations onboard, as detailed in her brother’s autobiography:

So far Betty’s only traveling had been to and from boarding school. But my wife had described to her the ornate Mississippi River boats with their red plush cabins and, when I told them I had chartered a schooner, they both expected the same sort of luxury. One look, and a whiff of the piles of dried onions in the hold, was enough for my sister; up she went on deck to pick out a bed on some comfortable pile of lumber.

…

The pathetic wailings of an innumerable family of kittens periodically disturbed our slumbers. We were fed the same kind of stew at every meal; my sister ominously maintained that the stock of kittens dwindled progressively.

Over a decade later, Mary accompanied Natalie, Harris, and John Hays Hammond Jr. when they joined Hammond Sr. in South Africa. Three years later, in 1896, she visited her brother during his imprisonment following the disastrous Jameson Raid, bringing him and his fellow prisoners umbrellas to spare them from the sun. During his house arrest, she also lived with him.

In 1910, Mary joined the Hammonds in London for the coronation of King George V. She shared several notable friends in common with other members of her family, such as Cecil Rhodes, Rudyard Kipling, and Alyn Williams.

She was also a scholar of Spanish, and translated the works of Lope Da Vega, one of the most prolific authors in history. She contributed regularly to magazines such as the Atlantic Monthly.

At the time of her death from a several-month illness on January 13, 1943 at the age of 77, all of her surviving nieces and nephews were by her side, including John Hays Hammond Jr.