Ancestors
Henry Silas Hammons
b. 1899 · West Virginia
Born 1899, Greenbrier County, West Virginia
Father: Richard Scott Hammons
Mother: Martha Jane Stanley
Children include Rhoda
Henry Silas Hammons, known all his life as Sy or Silas, was born on 12 November 1899 in Greenbrier County, West Virginia, the son of Richard Scott Hammons and Martha Jane Stanley. That is the date he gave when he registered for the draft in 1942; the censuses of his childhood put his birth anywhere from October 1896 to 1901. In June 1900 the family was at Webster Springs in Webster County, where his father had been born: Scott and Martha J. Hammons with the small boys Jesse and Silas. By 1910 they were at Falling Spring in Greenbrier County, and Silas, about twelve, had sisters Arvilla and Percilla and a brother Howard. In 1920 they were still in Greenbrier County, with a younger brother Orval added.
On 8 December 1919 Silas Hammons, 20, and Sarah Lewis, 18, took out a marriage licence before Paul C. Hogsett, clerk of the Greenbrier County Court. Both were under twenty-one, and both fathers came in to give their consent: the clerk wrote "His & Her Father Here" in the margin. The next day, 9 December, the minister G. W. Boothe married them at the house of the bride's father, Henry B. Lewis. Sarah was the eldest daughter of Henry B. Lewis and Susie Mullins. They had twelve children. In 1930 they were at Edray in Pocahontas County with Lucy, Alfred, Eva and Syntha. An infant daughter had died at the McClung Hospital in Richwood on 2 December 1925, eight months old, and was buried in Richwood Cemetery. Clifford was born at Stomping Creek in 1930, Bertie in 1936, and Rhoda Belle at Hillsboro in Pocahontas County on 26 March 1938. In April 1940 the household held Henry S. and Sarah Hammons with Syntha, Eva, Rhoda, Bertie, Clifford, Alfred, George and Lucy.
On 16 February 1942 he registered for the Second World War draft at Hillsboro, Pocahontas County, a man of 42 with a houseful of children.
By 1948 the family was living at La Frank in Nicholas County. Sarah died of cancer at the McClung Hospital in Richwood on 30 July 1948, aged 48. Silas, as Henry Hammonds of La Frank, gave the details for her death certificate, and she was buried in Richwood Cemetery on 1 August. Rhoda was ten.
When and where Silas died is not yet known. He was dead by 2013, when his daughter Eva's obituary called him "the late Henry Silas" Hammonds. His son Clifford's obituary in 2022 names him simply as Sy. No grave has been found for him in West Virginia or Ohio, where several of his children settled.
Sources
West Virginia, Deaths, 1804-1999, two index entries for Sarah Ann Hammonds, Nicholas County, 1948, as indexed on FamilySearch.
West Virginia, World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1940-1945, Silas Hammons, as indexed on FamilySearch.
United States censuses of 1900 (Webster Springs, Webster County, West Virginia), 1910 (Falling Spring, Greenbrier County) and 1920 (Greenbrier County), households of Scott Hammons, as indexed on FamilySearch, arks 1:1:MPN4-XS1 (1910) and 1:1:MN2R-WGV (1920).
United States censuses of 1930 (Edray, Pocahontas County, West Virginia) and 1940, households of Silas and Henry S. Hammons, as indexed on FamilySearch.
The Advance (Richwood, West Virginia), vol. 2 no. 23, 8 December 1925, page 1; Chronicling America, Library of Congress, sn86092215, batch wvu_oberon_ver01.
Obituary of Eva E. Wisecarver, Paquelet Funeral Home and Crematory, Massillon, Ohio, March 2013, transcribed on Find a Grave memorial 106738474.
Greenbrier County, West Virginia, marriage licences, page 378, Silas Hammons and Sarah Lewis, licence 8 December 1919, return of G. W. Boothe; West Virginia Archives and History, Vital Research Records, film 594325, image 367.
West Virginia certificate of death 10935, Sarah Ann Hammonds, Nicholas County, 1948; West Virginia Archives and History, Vital Research Records, film 1984021, image 1948.
United States censuses of 1900 (Webster Springs, Webster County), 1910 (Falling Spring, Greenbrier County), 1920 (Greenbrier County), 1930 (Edray, Pocahontas County) and 1940, as indexed on FamilySearch; West Virginia, World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1940-1945, as indexed on FamilySearch; West Virginia Deaths 1804-1999 (Sarah Ann Hammonds, 1948; Crawford Hammon), as indexed on FamilySearch; Social Security Numerical Identification Files for Rhoda Belle, Bert, Bertia, Lucy Mae and Alfred Edward Hammons; The Advance, Richwood, 8 December 1925, as transcribed on Find a Grave memorial 286809222; obituaries of Eva Wisecarver (Paquelet Funeral Home, Massillon, 2013) and Clifford Hammons (Simons-Coleman Funeral Home, Richwood, 2022), on Find a Grave memorials 106738474 and 239517531; Find a Grave memorial 214126286 (Sarah Ann Lewis Hammons); Greenbrier County marriage licence of Silas Hammons and Sarah Lewis, 8 December 1919, with the minister's return, register page 378; death certificate of Sarah Ann Hammonds, Nicholas County, 1948, certificate 10935, all from West Virginia Archives and History, Vital Research Records.
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Cite: Heirology, "Henry Silas Hammons (b. 1899)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/henry-silas-hammons-1899-44be11.