Sue Montgomery Hammet

Sue Montgomery Hammet, born in 1845, daughter of Edward and Clementina Craig Hammet of the Radford area, wife of James Hoge Tyler, mother of eight children, and a figure whose surviving historical footprint lies in correspondence, diary entries written during her husband’s governorship, family papers, and a printed contribution to Confederate memorial culture in Jamestown Tributes and Toasts (1907). The evidence supports viewing her as a politically adjacent but not officeholding actor: a gubernatorial spouse, household and kin-network manager, Presbyterian and commemorative participant, and a woman whose archival visibility reflects both family prominence and the gendered limits of public documentation in her era. She was credited with raising money for the stained glass window for Central Church, later the Tyler Memorial Church, now at Belle Hampton Farm.

Image courtesy of Virginia Tech Special Collections