Adam Hummer 1831-1927

HUMMER, WILLIAMS, MAHNK, HICKS, EVANS

Posted By: Melissa Mayhew Grandt (email)
Date: 4/13/2009 at 19:24:25

Williamsburg Journal-Tribune, Williamsburg (Iowa Co.), Iowa; 3 February 1927

ADAM HUMMER
Aged Resident of the East Part of County Dies

Mr. Adam Hummer died at his home in East York on Monday, Jan. 24 1927, after an illness of a few weeks, the decline setting in with a fracture of a hip, sustained in a fall near his home. He was in his 97th year, and was the oldest person in York township.

The funeral services were held at the home Thursday afternoon and were conducted by the Rev. W. A. Williams, pastor of the Presbyterian church, Oxford, and were attended by a large concourse of the friends and old neighbors of Iowa and Johnson counties. The interment was in the Harrington cemetery beside the body of the wife who passed away on July 8, 1915.

Adam Hummer was born at sea August 13, 1831, of German parents, and came to this country while still in his 'teens, and soon reached Iowa City, then the frontier of Iowa. The place had then but two stores, and Muscatine was the chief trading point for this section of the country. He was early on a Johnson county farm and was among the first of the pioneers, and his resourcefulness, industry, and good management soon placed him in the ranks of a recognized leader in the development of the new country. In 1864 he was united in marriage to Miss Frederick Mahnk, a native of Germany, but an eary comer to Iowa City. To this union were born six children. One son, Albert, died in 1918, and those remaining are Arthur of Guernsey, Mrs. Alice Hicks, Corry, Penn., Mrs. D.S. Evans, Frank and Vernon, and one adopted son Ira, all of York township.

In 1891 Mr. and Mrs. Hummer moved from Johnson county to York township, where they purchased a fine tract of land, and on this the homes were made ever since. The wife and mother died in July, 1915, and since then the father resided with his sons, always taking a wholesome interest in the fine farm.

In the passing of Adam Hummer, the community loses its oldest member and a citizen of the first class. He was of the old school, and all his life was marked by that honesty and simplicity that were dominant traits of the age in which he received his training. His statement was always taken at its face value, and men admired and respected him for his unswerving honesty and unassuming disposition. In placing an estimate on this or that movement or policy, he was seldom astray in his appraisals, and rarely was he intrigued with offerings of the new or the novel. He lived long years, he saw ways, customs, and conventions shift and change with the changing years, yet in all the shift and change he held true to the basic principles of conduct he so honestly learned in his younger years, and now that he has passed away, there are many who will oftimes refer to the stability and worth of the fine old character that made the world better by his life.

CARD OF THANKS

We are not unmindful of the many acts of kindness and helpfulness shown and extended to us during the illness and at the death of our parent.