I don’t know what was in the water where the Hamm family grew up, but it appears to have nurtured a bad gene, (and made for a lot of WTF moments).
Case in point. Do you remember Fred Hamm’s son Arthur Albert Hamm (also my grandmother’s half-brother)? He was the diva who faked his disappearance/death in Door County in 1949 then showed up dead in Montana in 1985.
Well it appears that Arthur was a busy man in the mean time, who had developed the bad habit of taking things that weren’t his.
The above pictures show: on the left Arthur with his wife Bernice, probably when they were married, about 1943; and on the right is Arthur’s 1953 mug shot, in Montana. It appears that between his disappearance and his death, Arthur spent a lot of time committing crimes to make a living instead of legitimately working for one.
On September 27, 1953 an article appeared in the Sunday morning issue of the Montana “Billings Gazette.” Arthur A. Hamm, aged 31, had been arrested on Friday, in connection with break-ins in the area. Arthur who when arrested had the money bag in his possession, admitted to breaking into a safe at the S&W Implement Company in Columbus.
In the October 3 issue of the same paper it was reported that Arthur had three felony warrants issued for him in regards to this arrest. One for the S&W burglary, one for the Nystul Lumber Company burglary, and also for the theft of a truck from S&W. Apparently through this arrest it was learned that there was also a warrant out by the U.S. Army, and another in different county in Montana, (for the theft of a saddle from a prevous employer). He was unable to raise the $1500 bond so was still in jail pending his hearing.
At his hearing on the 20th of October he plead guilty, so there was no trial. The court sentenced Arthur to 10 years of hard labor at the Montana State Prison. (10 years for each burglary count, and 5 years for the theft of a vehicle. He was to serve each sentence concurrently.)
Interesting facts come to light in his prison record. The most interesting being his previous dealings with the law: In 1940 he spent 10 days in jail in Fargo, North Dakota for vagrancy; problems in 1942 with the War department, and in 1952 with the Army (in Spokane Washington), no reasons were named; lastly the Columbus, Montana burglary arrest.
From this one record we can also see that Arthur moved around quite a bit, probably committing other crimes that he got away with. He had been in Kansas previous to Montana, along with Fargo, North Dakota, and Spokane, Washington. After he was released from the Montana State Prison, he worked in Park County for a number of years as a logger and ranch hand. From 1974-1980, he worked on a seismograph crew in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He then went to Livingston, Montana in 1981 and died there a few years later, single.
His prison record, found at Ancestry.com, does not state when he was released. So I don’t know if he served his full term. There is an interesting history regarding the prison, and if he served his full 10 years, then he was there during three riots in the late 1950s. You can read about them at Wikipedia. The prison is now known as the Old Prison Museum in Deer Lodge, Montana.
jen's ancestors 