James H. Hammond was born in Barnwell County to Major (CSA) Edward Spann and Laura Dunbar Hammond. He was the grandson of the South Carolina Governor and United States Senator of the same name. He graduated from The Citadel in 1907 and received an LL.B. degree from the University of South Carolina in 1910. He captained the football squads at both schools. In 1960, he received an honorary LL.D. degree from The Citadel. In 1911, he organized the South’s first Boy Scout Troop. He married Jane Marshall of Columbia in 1914 and they had four children.
From 1915 through 1919, he served in the South Carolina General Assembly as a State Representative and, from 1926 until 1934, as a State Senator from Richland County. He was Chairman of the South Carolina Public Service Authority (Santee-Cooper), the South Carolina Ports Authority, the Columbia Sesqui-Centennial Commission and of the Statewide World War II War Bond sales.
He was the organizer and President of Security Federal Savings and Loan Association, member of the Citadel Board of Visitors, Charleston’s St. Cecelia Society, and President of the Town Theatre, with a life membership.
He was a beloved, practicing humanitarian, philosopher, statesman, patriot, humorist, raconteur and naturalist. A devoted South Carolinian who preserved our State’s past, contributed to her present and anticipated and planned for her future.