City of Hammond history

In 1851 Ernest and Caroline Hohman purchased 39 acres of land along the Grand Calumet River, where they operated a stagecoach stop.

Hammond began as a small settlement of German farmers, who had arrived as early as 1847. It is named in honor of George Hammond, who established a slaughterhouse there in 1869.

The city, first called Hohman and then State Line because of its location on the Illinois-Indiana border, was renamed in 1873 to honour the meatpacking magnate.

Instruction began in 1874 in West Lafayette.

When the city incorporated in 1883, Towle served as Hammond's first mayor.

Initially a small operation, the slaughterhouse prospered, employing 1,500 workers by 1895.

Until it was destroyed by fire in 1901, the packinghouse was the city’s largest industry.

While Bill was born and raised in Kentucky, he moved to northwest Indiana in 1929 when was he was just eighteen years old.

Despite the death of their beloved Uncle Pen, who raised Bill and influenced his music greatly, 1931 looked like a better year for the brothers.

In 1937, the Chicago-based company announced it would establish a plant in the Whiting-Hammond area.

Will these efforts satisfy the community’s concerns about Federated Metal’s impact on their health? Or will they fall short, like Federated’s attempt to quell citizen protest in 1939 by replacing a problematic smokestack? That history is yet to be written.

He perfected his music in the late 1940’s and stubbornly maintained it, and he lived to see his revolutionary fusion become the bedrock of a tradition that survives among enthusiasts around the world . . . Every musician now playing bluegrass has drawn on Mr.

In October 1941, the Times published a short, but eyebrow-raising article regarding allegations that Federated Metals tried to pay Whiting residents in the area as a settlement for property damaged by fumes.

With the addition of Earl Scruggs on banjo and Lester Flatt on guitar to Bill Monroe’s mandolin and high tenor voice, the classic Blue Grass Boys line-up was born in 1945.

Purdue University Calumet (1946) is there.

He signed with Decca records in 1949 and recorded several songs which became classics of bluegrass music, the genre named for the Bluegrass Boys.

Bill Monroe began playing at the popular Brown County Jamboree by 1951.

Monroe himself confirmed the 1952 date in a later interview, stating:

By 1960, Hammond had no room for expansion.

However, in 1966, the creation of River Oaks shopping mall in Calumet City challenged Hammond's 70-year history as a center for retailing.

In 1970, Senator Gaylord Nelson created the first Earth Day, and throughout Indiana Hoosiers acted to raise awareness about the imminent pollution crisis.

Writing for Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine in 1971, Frank Overstreet, a musician and festival attendee, reported on the event being the first international festival at Bean Blossom.

In June 1976, just ahead of the festival, the Indianapolis Star reported that festival organizers again expected up to 35,000 people to attend.

In 1977, the festival was extended to nine days (from seven days the previous year) to accommodate the growing crowd; organizers were expecting crowds of up to 50,000 people.

In 1980, 47 percent of the workforce remained in manufacturing occupations, 40 percent in technical sales and service, and 13 percent in managerial and professional occupations.

Federated’s troubles deepened in 1986, when Councilman Gerald Bobos requested an investigation into possible contamination of Lake George by dump sites owned by Federated and the former Amoco facility.

Calumet College scrapped the idea in 1989, stating “Calumet College has no interest—long-term—in being in the lake business, the park business, the sand business, the real estate business or any related business” (Times).

By 1991, Federated Metals, a subsidiary of Asarco Inc., installed a security guard and fence to prevent this from reoccurring.

Upon Monroe’s death in 1996, the deed for the Jamboree grounds was transferred to his son James.