Hammond, Clark Hurd - Erie County

CLARK HURD HAMMOND was born in the town of Brant, Erie County, February 23, 1875. When three years old he came with the family to Buffalo, where he attended the public schools and Angola Academy, graduating in 1895.

He had in the meantime become one of the managers of the Buffalo Rubber Type Foundry, of whose financial department he had charge for a year. In the fall of 1895 he registered as a student in the University of Buffalo, devoting his attention to law. While pursuing his studies he became a clerk in the office of Hammond, Hatch & Ackerson, with whom he continued until he was graduated from the Buffalo Law School in 1897. After his admission to the bar he was for a year managing clerk in the offices of Hammond & Brown, and later he formed a partnership with his father, under the firm name of Hammond & Hammond, the connection continuing until the younger Hammond became Judge of the Municipal Court.

In the fall of 1903 Clark H. Hammond, who was then only twenty-eight years old, received the Republican nomination for Judge of the Municipal Court for the term of six years, and was elected by about 3,000 plurality. In January, 1904, Judge Hammond entered upon the duties of his office, being the youngest man who ever held the position of Municipal Court Judge in the City of Buffalo. Judge Hammond has done excellent work on the bench, presiding with justice and fairness and bringing to his judicial task a thorough knowledge of the law. He is now the senior Judge of his Court. In 1906, when the Law Department of the University of Buffalo added municipal court practice to its regular course, Judge Hammond was asked to deliver the lectures, and gave such satisfaction that he has been asked to regularly fill that chair.

Always a Republican, Judge Hammond prior to his elevation to the bench was actively interested in the affairs of his party, serving for two years as District Committeeman of the Second District of the old Twentieth Ward, and in 1902 and 1903 representing the same ward on the Republican General Committee. The latter position he relinquished after taking the bench.

Before receiving judicial honors. Judge Hammond was attorney for the Master Plumbers' Association, and the Business Men's Protective Association of East Buffalo, connections from which he resigned when he became Judge, in accordance with his pledge made during the campaign to give his entire time to the office. He has for many years been Grand Attorney of the Gamma Sigma fraternity, a High School organization, and is also a member of the Delta Chi legal fraternity. He is a Mason, being affiliated with De Molay Lodge, No. 498, F. & A. M., with Keystone Chapter Royal Arch Masons; Hugh de Payens Commandery, Knights Templar; and Ismailia Temple, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, and he is Past Monarch of Zuleika Grotto, No. 10. Judge Hammond also belongs to the Red Men, Fraternal Order Eagles, I. O. O. F., the Acacia Club, Sons of Veterans, and several other fraternal and social bodies. He is also a member and trustee of the First Congregational Church of Buffalo.

June 6, 1899, Judge Hammond married Susan E. Valentine, a daughter of James and Phebe A. Valentine of Buffalo.

SOURCE: Memorial and Family History of Erie County New York; Volume I