On May 1, 1915, Hammond and his wife Mary boarded the British ocean liner RMS Lusitania in New York, en route to Liverpool. Mary intended to help victims of World War I and assist the Red Cross in establishing a hospital in France. The Lusitania was torpedoed by a German U-boat on May 7, and in the aftermath Ogden survived the sinking and Mary did not.[2] He established the Mary Stevens Hammond Memorial Home for Destitute Children in Hoboken in her honor.[4]
In 1931, Hammond was named president and a director of the First National Bank of Hoboken. He became vice president and director of the First National Bank of Jersey City in 1934, retiring in 1950.
Personal life
On a visit to Bernardsville, Hammond met Mary Picton Stevens (1885–1915). They were married in Hoboken on April 8, 1907, their marriage lasting up until Mary's death in the sinking of the Lusitania. Mary was the daughter of John Stevens (1856–1895), oldest son of Stevens Institute of Technology founder Edwin Augustus Stevens and grandson of inventor John Stevens, and Mary Marshall McGuire (1850–1905).[5][6][7] The Hammonds settled in a forty-seven-room mansion in Bernardsville in 1908.[2] Hammond and his first wife had three children:
Mary Stevens Hammond (1908–1958), who married Count Guerino Roberti and was thereafter known as Countess Roberti.[8]
Ogden H. Hammond Jr. (1912–1976), who married Marsyl Stokes.[10]
On December 18, 1917, Hammond remarried, to Marguerite "Daisy" (née McClure) Howland (1876–1969), the daughter of New York attorney David McClure and the widow of Dulany Howland.[11][12][13] Her son, McClure "Mac" Meredith Howland (1906–1985), became Hammond's stepson.[14]
Hammond died in 1956 at his home in Manhattan at the age of 87.[4]
Descendants
Through his daughter Millicent, he was the grandfather of Mary Stevens Fenwick (1934–1987)[9] and Hugh Hammond Fenwick (1937–2002).[15]