In his early years, Skip enjoyed playing baseball on Sundays on the Belgrade town team. Skip was a problem-solver with an avid curiosity for how things worked. He also designed and built a snowmobile with a hydraulic drive and reverse, a three-ski motorized ice sled, truck bodies, logging arches, a plow attachment frame, and countless other equipment used in industrial, logging, and milling applications. In 1958, he built his first forklift out of an old four-wheel drive army truck and later built the automated sawmill that is still in operation today. He was mechanically inclined with the ability to fabricate and repair many things, and knew how to turn old, discarded parts into something useful. ![]() Skip was an exceptionally talented individual and entrepreneur who was creative, resourceful, and industrious. Step by step, and piece by piece, with the help of family members and loyal employees, Skip and Verna laid the groundwork for a family enterprise that would eventually become one of the largest independent building material suppliers in New England with 22 locations across Maine and New Hampshire and the fourth largest family-owned business in Maine. Skip retired in the early 2000s, but he was often seen driving through the yard, or stopping by to check on things long after he had retired. Some of the buildings and warehouses currently in use at various Hammond Lumber Company locations were designed and built by Skip and his small crew of employees and friends. Skip’s son-in-law, Robert Thing, was the first branch manager of the Skowhegan location. In the following decades, Skip and Donald continued to open retail stores across Maine in Skowhegan, Farmington, Auburn, and Greenville. In 1967, Skip and his son, Donald, opened Hammond Lumber Company’s first retail store in Belgrade. In the early years, Skip’s daughter, Deborah, was involved in doing the payroll and adding log slips for payment. The mills were truly Skip’s passion.Īs business grew, Skip picked up additional helpers and eventually began to hire full-time employees. In 1960, he bought lumber dry kilns and began producing his own finished lumber. In the late 1950s, Skip bought and installed a log debarker, woodchipper, and planer mill. He would cut trees when the weather was good, and work in the sawmill when the weather was bad. His strong work ethic and entrepreneurial spirit helped him persevere through the daily business challenges of running a sawmill.įor many years, Skip worked in the woods cutting trees from dawn to dusk to supply the sawmill. Skip kept his head down working in a determined, quiet way while he faced adversity and the inherent risk of being in the sawmill industry. In the 1950s, a sawmill was a risky investment that typically yielded a low success rate. Hammond Lumber Company in Belgrade, later known as Hammond Lumber Company. ![]() Together, Skip and Verna founded the Clifton K. In 1953, Verna loaned Skip $50 to start a sawmill. On May 8, 1948, Clifton married Verna Lucille Guptill, and together they shared life’s journey for 74 years in Belgrade. ![]() After his honorable discharge in 1947, he returned to his home in Belgrade and resumed his partnership with Oliver Yeaton, as the H and Y (Handy) Pulp Company. While he was in the service, he had the opportunity to shake hands and speak with General Dwight D. He would often jokingly remark that he graduated seventh in his class!įollowing graduation, Skip enlisted in the Army and was deployed to the Philippines during World War II. He had the distinction of being the only male in a high school class of seven students. Skip graduated from Belgrade High School in 1945. To help support the family, Skip returned to the woods to harvest and sell logs, pulp wood and firewood with his brother, Reggie, and his friend, Oliver Yeaton. When Skip was in high school, his father, a rural mail carrier, became seriously ill and was treated at the Lahey Clinic in Boston. As a young boy, he helped with haying, took care of the farm’s milk cows, and assisted in the milking process, and worked in the woods with his father. Clifton, widely known as “Skip,” grew up in Belgrade working on the family farm. and Helen (Thompson) Hammond, he came of age during the Great Depression.
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