Will County IL Archives Biographies.....Drumm, Adam 1831 - 
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Deb Haines ddhaines@gmail.com May 5, 2007, 7:22 pm

Author: Portrait & Bio Album, 1890

ADAM DRUMM, coming to Plainfield Township a quarter of a century ago, and 
placing himself among its sturdy, practical and wide-awake farmers, has 
managed its agricultural interests with such success that he acquired a 
handsome competence and was enabled to retire from active business when 
scarcely past the meridian of life. He is of foreign birth, born in Germany, 
near the River Rhine, June 5, 1831. His father, Adam Drumm, was from the same 
place, and his grandfather; also bearing that name, was born in the same 
Province. He was a miller by trade, and spent his entire life there. The 
father of our subject learned the trade in his father's mill, but after 
marriage he turned his attention to farming, and always followed that 
occupation, spending his entire life in the land of his nativity. The maiden 
name of his wife was Sarah Baum, a native and life-long resident of the same 
place as himself. They had four children, of whom our subject was the only 
son, and the only member of the family who ever came to America. Mr. Drumm 
received a solid education in the schools of his native land, which he 
attended steadily until he was fourteen years of age. He then assisted his 
father on the farm, and remained an inmate of the parental household until he 
was nineteen years old. At that age he started out in the world to make his 
own living, and ambitious to see what life held for him in America, he turned 
his face toward this country, and setting sail from Havre the 15th of June, 
1853, on the good ship "Isabella," landed at New York, after a long voyage of 
fifty-three days. He went directly to Ohio, and when he arrived at his 
destination found that he had but $3 in his pocket, and as he was an entire 
stranger and had no knowledge of the English language, his prospects were 
discouraging. Nothing daunted, he sought employment, and soon engaged to labor 
on a farm at $10 a month, and was thus employed for two years. In 1855 he took 
an important step in life, as in that year he came to this county, to take up 
his residence in this region. With wise economy while working on a farm here 
he saved his earnings, and finally was enabled to become more independent by 
renting land. He did so well in its management that in 1865 he had enough to 
buy land and make a purchase of forty acres on section 17. Three years later 
he sold that and bought one hundred and sixty acres of land on section 32. 
This was wild prairie land, though it was fenced and a few acres were broken. 
Mr, Drumra completed a house that was partially built, and later erected a 
substantial barn, corn-cribs and other needed buildings, and was assiduously 
engaged in tilling the soil until 1885, when he rented the farm, and coming to 
Plainfield, has since lived retired in one of its at tractive homes. In 1857 
Mr. Drumm was united in marriage with Miss Esther Arter, a native of 
Cumberland County, Pa. Her father, John Arter, was a native of the same State, 
while his father, Philip Arter, is thought to have been born in Germany, 
though he spent the last years of his life in Cumberland County. Mrs. Drumm's 
father was reared and married in the Keystone State, and subsequently moved 
from there to Stark County, Ohio. In 1854 he left that State, and coming to 
this county, he bought a farm in Plainfield Township, on which he lived some 
years, and then came to the village where he has since lived retired. The 
maiden name of his wife was Ellen King, and she was born in England, and died 
on the farm in Plainfield Township. Mr. and Mrs. Drumm have had four children, 
as follows: William H.; Sarah, wife of Edward Huffman; Jessie N. and George E. 
The great grief in an otherwise happy wedded life has been in the death of 
their daughter Jessie, who died at the age of eighteen years. Mr. Drumm has a 
keen, resolute nature, and by prompt, systematic methods and other excellent 
business habits, has acquired a valuable property, and is one of the moneyed 
men of the place. He is a man of earnest religious feeling, and in him and his 
worthy wife, the Methodist Episcopal Church has two of its most active members.

Additional Comments:
Portrait and Biographical Album of Will County, Illinois, Containing Full Page 
Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens 
of the County; Chicago: Chapman Bros., 1890 

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/il/will/bios/drumm5bs.txt

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