Daniel Hummel (1817-1881) is buried at St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Cemetery, Orwigsburg, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. Church records indicate that he died on November 20, 1881, and that his death was sudden, with no additional information given. Census records indicate that in 1870, he was single, working as a farmer, and living in West Brunswick Township, Schuylkill County. In 1880, he was single, working as a farmer, and living in Orwigsburg, Schuylkill County.
On November 22, 1881, both the Harrisburg Telegraph and the Philadelphia Inquirer, printed very brief news stories indicating that Daniel Hummel was murdered:
A Man Found Murdered in a Mountain
POTTSVILLE, November 22 [1881] — A young man named Daniel Hummel, residing near Owigsburg, went out riding on Sunday and did not return at night. Yesterday morning a party went in search of him. Two children crossing the second mountain found him laying on the ground with a bullet-hole in his hear and his horse standing beside him. He was in a dying condition and died soon after being brought home. It is believed he was murdered and robbed. [Telegraph]
________________
Murdered in the Mountains.
POTTSVILLE, Pennsylvania, November 21 [1881] — Daniel Hummel, of Orwigsburg, let home yesterday morning and not returning, his friends went in search of him this morning, and found him in the mountains in a dying condition. It is believed that he was waylaid and robbed. [Inquirer]
The story of finding him on the mountain went out over the wire services and was repeated with little variation in newspapers throughout Pennsylvania. No follow-up story has been located to indicate whether the cause of death was conclusive or whether there was attempt to find any perpetrators.
Daniel Hummel Jr. was believed to have been born on July 29, 1817, the son of Daniel Hummel Sr. (1781-1860) and Elizabeth [Heister] Hummel (1784-1853). No Civil War service record has been directly attributed to him, but there is at least one possibility that he did serve. In addition, a marriage record has been located at the St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church at Orwigsburg, for December 17, 1842, when he took Sarah Scheib as his bride. At this time nothing further is known about her or whether they had any children together. As previously noted, in the 1870 census, Daniel stated that he was single.
Without additional information about Daniel Hummel, we may never know what actually happened to him on the mountain in November, 1881.
__________________________________________________
News articles from Newspapers.com. See also: Find-a-Grave.
Corrections and additional information should be added as comments to this post.