Joseph Alfred Arner Burnquist succeeded him to the governorship to fill the vacancy left by Hammond's death.

Had he lived longer, perhaps Hammond would have realized his ambitious plans to reorganize state government by minimizing bureaucracy and eliminating waste to make Minnesota's wheels turn more efficiently.

He earned bachelor's and master's degrees from Dartmouth College and, upon moving to Mankato at age 21, became principal of its high school.

A staunch Democrat in a Republican community, he lost his first bid for Congress in 1892, but perseverance and bipartisan support eventually brought him a congressional seat 14 years later.

Hammond had been in office only eight months when he suffered ptomaine poisoning on a trip south and died of a stroke, aged 52, in Clinton, Louisiana on December 30, 1915.