DUANE
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Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to honor every word. Back in 1853, a doctor by the name of Ben F. Hammond pulled up from Alabama and planted himself in Robertson County.
He built a plantation home about a mile to the west of where you're standing right now, with neighbors James Love and Robert S. McCall not far off. Now, that might've been the whole story, a quiet stretch of Texas farmland, and nothing more.
But 1869 changed things. Dr. Hammond granted right-of-way through his land to the Houston and Texas Central Railroad, and just like that, Hammond Depot and Post Office opened right here at this point on the line.
The planters of the area used that depot for their shipping, and a few stores gathered in close, the way folks will cluster around anything useful. For a spell, there was a place called Hammond. Then the railroad declined, and the town, well, it followed.
By 1950, Hammond had vanished. Gone. Not a ghost town so much as a memory the land swallowed back up.
But here's the part worth sitting with. The marker tells us that area residents today are mostly descendants of persons given land at Emancipation in 1865, by Dr. Hammond and other planters.
The town is gone. The people are still here. Turns out the most lasting thing Hammond left behind wasn't a depot or a post office.
It was the ground itself, passed into hands that held it, and held on.
What the marker says
Dr. Ben F. Hammond moved here from Alabama in 1853 and built a plantation home about a mile to the west. Neighbors included James Love and Robert S. McCall. Hammond Depot and Post Office were opened at this point on the Houston & Texas Central Railroad after the doctor granted right-of-way through his land in 1869. Near the depot, used by planters for their shipping, were a few stores. As the railroad declined, the town had vanished by 1950. Area residents are mostly the descendants of persons given land at Emancipation (1865) by Dr. Hammond and other planters.