George Hummel (pioneer)

George Hummel Sr. (c. 1802 – June 23, 1876) was a miller and early pioneer in Upper Canada, establishing a settlement that would eventually become the village of Chesterville.

Early life
Hummel was born circa 1802 in Pennsylvania to a German American family. The family settled in Orwigsburg in the early 1810s, but in the early 1820s George immigrated to Upper Canada, settling in Williamsburg, Dundas County.

Family
George Hummel Sr. married Rebecca Merkley (1798-1861) on April 3, 1821, in Williamsburg. She was the daughter of Frederich Merkley (1756-1816) and Catherina Schell (1772-1851).

The couple had the following children in Williamsburg and Chesterville:
 * George Adam Hummel Jr. (1821-1901)
 * Levi Hummel (1823-1891)
 * Simon Hummel (1825-1906)
 * Catherine Hummel (1826-1911)
 * Maria Hummel (1832-1884)
 * Rebecca Hummel (1835-)
 * Amos Hummel (1840-1875)
 * John Hummel (1840-1915)
 * Herman Hummel (1845-1915)
 * William Hummel (1846-1889)

Three of his great-great-grandsons would enlist in the Canadian and British military from Chesterville during the First World War and would be killed in action:
 * Private Arthur Meharey Hummel (1891-1917), P.P.C.L.I. - Killed at the Second Battle of Passchendaele
 * Private Charles "Clifford" Hummel (1891-1918), 46th Battalion - Killed at the Battle of the Scarpe
 * Lieutenant Wilfred Ellis Durant (1895-1918), No. 29 Squadron RAF - Killed near RAF HQ, Saint-Omer

Pioneer
Around 1822/1823, Hummel purchased the west half of Lot 18 in the unsettled Township of Winchester from the estate of Marianne Duncan, daughter of Richard Duncan. He established a mill site along the South Nation River and in 1825 sold part of his land to two Merkley brothers who attempted to erect a mill.

The Merkley brothers drowned while transporting supplies upriver and Hummel soon sold the land to Thomas Armstrong and his son who, in 1828, erected a sawmill and grist mill. The mills attracted many further settlers, and by 1838 the small settlement founded by Hummel and Armstrong had grown and was known as Armstrong's Mills or Hummelville. In 1845 a post office was established under the name of Winchester, but in 1875 the village was renamed Chesterville. Much of the land Hummel initially purchased was eventually sold off to pioneering settlers, often for a low price, and the land on which the Chesterville Community Hall currently stands was once sold by him for a "single barrel of whiskey".

Hummel's original house on Mill Street was one of the best built in Dundas, and the loft of the farmhouse was often used for early political meetings. The house still stands in the village but has since been refurbished.

Later life
Hummel raised a large family in Chesterville, and was a hunter and fisherman of renown. Many Hummel descendants still live in the Chesterville area.

A "George Hummel" is listed as a Private in Captain George Cook's Company of the 2nd Dundas Militia during the Rebellion of 1838 from November 5, 1838 until April 1839, and is very likely the same George Hummel.

George Hummel Sr. passed away in Chesterville on June 23, 1876, and is buried in the Pioneer Cemetery along the banks of the Nation River.