History of Michigan, / by Charles Moore. [Vol. 3]

HISTORY OF MICHIGAN

A 1713

Adele Vestey, a daughter of Dr. Theodore and Elizabeth Vestey. Dr.
Vestey was for many years a well known physician at Muskegon. Mrs.
Lawson holds membership in the Congregational church and at the present time is the honored president of the Muskegon Woman's Club. In
politics Mr. Lawson has always been a staunch Democrat. At the present time he is serving as Supervisor of the Sixth ward of Muskegon,
and gives promise of many more years of faithful service to his city
and county.
JAMES FRANCIS HAMMELL, chief clerk of the Labor Department and
State Hotel Inspector, ex-mayor of Lansing, and an active and prominent
Democratic leader of the state, is one of the best known men of Southern
Michigan. For a long period one of the leading business men of Lansing,
of recent years he has confined his activities to public life, and has become
justly accounted one of his state's most helpful and stirring citizens. Mr.
HIammell was born on his father's farm near Brighton, Livingston county,
Michigan, August 13, I859, and is a son of the late James and Mary
(O'Hear) Hammell. His father, a native of County Louth, Ireland, was
a young man when he accompanied his widowed mother and her family to
the United States, the little party of emigrants settling in Livingston
county, Michigan, where the mother passed away a few years later. James
Hammell worked on a farm for a time until he was able to save enough
to purchase a property of his own, then choosing his location in the vicinity of Brighton, where his activities continued to be prosecuted until his
death in September, I893. At that time he was the owner of a good and
productive farm, which had been brought to a high state of cultivation
by Mr. Hammell's industrious and energetic efforts. The mother of
James Francis Hammell was born in New York state, of Irish parents. her
father being a pioneer of the state of Michigan, who took up land from
the United States Government at an early date. This land is now a part
of the old Hammell farm, and is now owned by a brother of Mr. Hammell.
There the mother passed away in March, 1871.
James Francis Hammell was reared on the farm on which he was
born and was brought up to agricultural pursuits and trained to a life
of industry and integrity. His education was secured in the district
schools of the vicinity and the high school at Brighton, and during several
winters after his graduation from the latter, taught country schools, while
spending his summers on the home place. In i88o Mr. Hammell embarked in the retail grocery business at Williamson, Livingston county,
but in I883 disposed of his interests there and went on the road as salesman for the old wholesale grocery firm of Beatty & Fitzsimmons, of
Detroit. Two years later he accepted a like position for the Globe Tobacco
Company, of Detroit, although previous to this time he had transferred
his home to Ionia, Michigan, and in I889 left the road and engaged in
the manufacture of cigars at Ionia, under the firm name of the Hammell
Cigar Company, in which his brother, P. J., was also interested for a
time. The business grew at Ionia steadily and consistently until Mr.
Hammell was employing a force of fifty people, and, seeking a larger field,
Mr. Hammell removed the business to Lansing in 1893. Later he closed
his cigar factory and organized the Hammell Cracker Company, of which
he became president, and while this company was still in business again
went into the manufacture of cigars. In January, I911, Mr. Hammell
closed his cigar business, in the meantime having disposed of his cracker
interests, and in that same year became identified with the Equitable Life
Insurance Company, with which concern he was connected until he became
district manager for the Detroit Life Insurance Company, one year later.
On July I, i9I3, Mr. Hammell resigned this position to accept that of