John Hays Hammond was not only an important figure in American mining history, but he was also a key player in the history of the Hammond-Harwood House.  John Hays Hammond was the son of Richand Pindell Hammond and Sarah Hays Lea.  Richard Hammond followed the gold rush to San Francisco in 1849.  There he met and married and Sarah Lea.  Son John Hays was born on March 21, 1855.  As a boy, the young Hammond admired his pioneering uncle--Jack Hays who was both an explorer and a military man.  Col. Hays often took John and his brother on remote camping excursions far from the reach of the booming towns of the American West .  It was at this time, that John developed a taste for the wilderness and the freedom that it afforded.  In fact, a few years later, Hammond and his brother set out on an overnight camping trip that ended as a 700 mile journey on horseback through several states.  After an adventuresome boyhood, Hammond came east to go to the preparatory school at Yale.  

Soon after earning his degree, Hammond went to Germany to study mining engineering and metallurgy.  Here, John met his wife-to-be, a young American woman who was studying art and music under the watchful eye of her uncle.   The couple married in 1881 and took their honeymoon in Washington, D.C. where they were privileged enough to be entertained at the White House.  This would not be the last tJohn Hays Hammond and Son, 1930sime Hammond was in the company of Presidents.  In the course of his life, John Hays Hammond befriended Presidents Grant, Hayes, Taft, Roosevelt, and Coolidge.  Nonetheless, the middle years of Hammond's life were more about hard work than socialization.  In the 1890s, Hammond moved the family (now with several children) to Africa where he was employed by a prosperous diamond mine in Cape Town and later in Johannesburg.  Overseeing the mines and managing their outflow, Hammond earned more than $50,000 a year in the late 19th century.  The older he became, the more Hammond took on, and the more he earned.  By the time he reached the latter stages of his life, John Hays Hammond was a millionaire.  In fact, Hammond's monetary contribution played a key role in saving the Hammond-Harwood House--the home of his great (great?) uncle, Matthias Hammond.  In November 1926, John Hays Hammond made the last installment of his contribution to St. John's College -- the institution that purchased the Hammond-Harwood House after the death of the last Harwood in 1924.  Hammond donated at least $25,000 to the college so that it could purchase the old house on Maryland Avenue.  Hammond's autobiography was published one year before his death:  The Autobiography of John Hays Hammond.  New York:  Farrar & Reinhart, Inc., 1935.   Ultimately, Hammond's son would be the more "famous" of the two:  John Hays Hammond, Jr.  was the inventor of the remote control and holds more U.S. patents than anyone except Thomas Edison.