The Hammons family of West Virginia holds an important place in the history of Appalachian old-time music, storytelling, and mountain culture. Originally coming from Kentucky before the Civil War, the family settled in the rugged counties of Webster, Pocahontas, and Randolph, where they lived close to the land as hunters, farmers, loggers, trappers, and ginseng gatherers. Their way of life preserved older frontier traditions, including deep knowledge of the woods, oral storytelling, ballad singing, and fiddle and banjo music passed down through generations. Family members such as Edden Hammons, Burl Hammons, Sherman Hammons, Maggie Hammons Parker, Currence Hammons, and others became known as some of the finest tradition-bearers in the central Appalachian mountains.
The Hammons Family
Edden Hammons, 1876-1995
Pete Hammons, 1861-1955
Maggie Hammons Parker, 1899-1987
Sherman Hammons, 1903-1988
Burl Hammons, 1907-1993
Lee Hammons, 1883-1980
Currence Hammons, 1898-1984
Mintie Hammons, 1898-1987
Dona Hammons Gum, 1900-1987
The Hammonses are especially remembered for their music, which blended Scots-Irish, German, African American, and other Appalachian influences into a distinctive regional style. Edden Hammons, often regarded as one of West Virginia’s greatest traditional fiddlers, was recorded in 1947 by West Virginia University folklorist Louis Chappell, preserving dozens of tunes from an older frontier repertory.
In the 1970s, Dwight Diller, Alan Jabbour, and Carl Fleischhauer helped document the broader family tradition through recordings, interviews, photographs, and publications for the Library of Congress and Rounder Records. These efforts brought wider attention to the Hammons family’s rich musical legacy and helped establish them as cultural symbols of West Virginia’s mountain heritage.
The Hammons family’s traditions also reveal the multicultural roots of Appalachian old-time music. While their ancestry and repertoire reflected strong Scots-Irish and European influences, their music was also shaped by African American musicians such as Grafton Lacy, a Black fiddler and banjoist from Braxton County whose tunes and playing styles influenced Burl Hammons. Through their songs, fiddle tunes, stories, and woods lore, the Hammonses preserved a living record of Appalachian history—one marked by isolation, hardship, creativity, cultural exchange, and deep attachment to place. Their collective induction into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame in 2020 recognized the lasting importance of their contributions to the state’s musical and cultural identity.
