Adam4 HUMMER (Nicholas3, Henri2, Josef1) was born 24 Feb 1855 in New Riegel, Seneca, Ohio and was christened 24 Feb 1855 in New Riegel, Seneca, Ohio. 

Adam is a family legend because he was a participant in the attempted recovery of:

			The Hummer Family Fortune
		
There is a traditional story that relates that a brother to Maria (Theis) 
Hummer (or was it her husband's brother, a Hummer???)  rescued a 
wealthy man from drowning in Germany. Years later after both the Theis
 and Hummer families were in America, the man died and he left his
 sizable fortune to the man that rescued him. It was held in a bank in 
Germany. The Theis family had no heirs left in Europe(or the Hummer 
family had none, depending on the version of the story you believe) so 
the Hummer family in America took the initiative. The family decided 
to send a member to claim the land and money. Adam was the one who 
was either selected or who volunteered and the family collected some 
money to stake Adam to the trip. 

One version of the story states that Adam took the money and was 
never heard from again. 

A second version of the story states that he got as far as  Germany 
but drank up all of his expense money, never found out anything about
 the inheritance, and disappeared. 

Yet a third version of the story states that he got as far as New York 
and the money ran out and he returned home. That version goes on
 to claim that some of the family believed that he got in a brawl and
 accidentally killed a man, ran away, and was never heard from again. 

Some Hummer family members attempted to check the inheritance
 story shortly after World War I  Reverend Sister Leonarda (Susan M. 
Hummer, Adam's sister) went to the German Consulate in San Francisco
 and inquired about the inheritance. The Consulate Clerk initiated a
records search in Germany and told her that there was 100-year statute
 of limitation and that the estate must be settled before 100 years elapses 
or it would revert to the German state. They put that information in a
letter to Sr. Leonarda. Sister Leonarda still had the letter from the 
Consulate as late as 1947. She next wrote a letter to officials in 
Germany and received a response stating that it would be to the 
advantage of both the family and Germany for the Hummers to wait 
to claim the inheritance. After World War I Germany was in poor 
economic condition and would not be able to pay off the entire estate. 

In the late 1930s Erwin and Lillian (Hummer) Scherger checked the 
inheritance story again. This time, Erwin and Lil wrote to the 
German government, but it was under Adolph Hitler and the Nazi
 regime. They received an answer stating that the government had 
confiscated all money and property not previously claimed. 		

While there are some inconsistent details, the stories agree in two 
major areas; Adam did not recover any of the inheritance, and he
disappeared. Whatever the truth regarding the Theis-Hummer
inheritance may be, as far as the family was concerned, no one in
 the family claimed to know whether he was living or dead. 

There is a twist to this mystery, however. An Adam Hummer married 
Catherine Kinney on 9 February 1885. This Adam Hummer had been 
living on Seneca Street in Defiance, Defiance County, Ohio in 1879.
It is unproved but all evidence indicates that it is highly probable that
"our" Adam Hummer and the Adam Hummer who married Catherine 
Kinney are the same person. If this is the same Adam Hummer, it is
hard to believe that at least some of the family did not know that fact, 
considering how close he lived to so many of the family. Perhaps 
there was a reason for them to cover-up the fact that he was still 
alive and living in the area.