author
d. 1859
A 19th-century Universalist minister who later embraced Spiritualism, he wrote books that imagine conversations with the dead and explore life beyond the grave. His work sits at the crossroads of reform-era religion, popular mysticism, and early American speculative writing.
by C. (Charles) Hammond
Charles Hammond, usually listed in library records as C. (Charles) Hammond, was born around 1805 and died in Rochester, New York, in 1859. A contemporary Universalist account says he was the son of Eliakim and Louisa Hammond and began preaching universal salvation near Royalton, Niagara County, in 1830, later working in western New York and moving to Rochester around 1842.
In Rochester he served as a Universalist minister and helped launch the weekly paper Western Luminary in 1843. Sources also connect him with the First Universalist Society in the city, showing him as both preacher and editor during a difficult stretch for the congregation and its press.
Hammond is now best remembered for his Spiritualist writing. Records for Light from the Spirit World and booksellers' descriptions of Philosophy of the Spirit-World describe him as a former Universalist minister who turned to Spiritualism and produced works through claimed spirit communication or automatic writing, often featuring figures such as Thomas Paine, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and William Penn. No reliably confirmed portrait was found in the sources reviewed.