John Hays Hammond [SEP] occupation
John Hays Hammond
John Hays Hammond (31 March 1855 – 8 June 1936) was a mining engineer, diplomat, and philanthropist. Known as the man with the Midas touch, he amassed a sizable fortune before the age of 40. An early advocate of deep mining, Hammond was given complete charge of Cecil Rhodes' mines in South Africa and made each undertaking a financial success. He was a main force planning and executing the Jameson Raid in 1895. It was a fiasco and Hammond, along with the other leaders
began promoting hydroelectric power from the Kaweah River, which emerges from the Sierra Nevada Mountains about fifteen miles northeast of Visalia. In June 1899 power began to flow from Hammond, a little over three miles upstream from Three Rivers. Potentially producing 1800 horsepower (1343 kW), the power company actually sold 700 hp (522 kW).
As early as 1891 Sep 10 Ben Maddox proposed an electric interurban railroad for Tulare County to make use of the extra generating capacity. Around 1900 John Hays Hammond and Albert G. Wishon