Summer Resource Information
The information I have gathered here is from my Great Grandfather, George Leland Summer, as described in his book, “Newberry County South Carolina, Historical and Genealogical”. This book portrays the history of Newberry County and the Summer family history as well as other family names in that region.
The name has been spelled different ways----Sommer, Summer, Sumer, Sohmer---- and is thought to have been spelled in the time of the Crusades as "Sumer" or "Sumrer", which means in the German or Tuetonic language of that time, "grain measure". Another meaning during that time was "Drummer" or "Tamborine Beater". The name is not derived from the season.
In the year 1711, many people from the Canton Berne wandered to Holland, in part they were Menonites who were compelled to migrate. Others who had gone previously to Germany left that country for America. in 1723, Ulrich Summer was in Germany. In 1707 Jacob Summer renounced his home rights in Sumiswald; settled in Durlach (the State later situated in Germany, called Baden.) Odenwald is in that neighborhood. In this district, the neighborhoods were governed by the First Bishop of the Catholic Church; hence many families sought refuge in America so that not only could they received land grants, after their lands were confiscated, but they could worship according to their own Reformed Church's principles, the Lutheran Church.
Hans Adam Summer was a native of Odenwald, in the Oberland District; and in seeking a new home in America, he sailed up the River Rhine and joined a colony of people at Rotterdam where, it is stated, he married a young lady in his colony just before sailing. That was in the year 1743.
The Summer Coat of Arms is very much like that of the Summers who lived in England. The English families added the letter"s" which is a contraction of the old English form of "Summer's Son", meaning the eldest son came into possesssion of the father's estate by law, and the estate was called by that name. These Summers were and are descendants of German families named Summer who had moved to England just after the crusades. The Coat of Arms is the following:
Vert: |
A fesse daucette arm |
Crest: |
On a globe of the World, Winged ppr. an eagle, rising, |
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or another source gives it this:
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Arms: |
Vert (Green) a fess daucette ermime. |
Crest: |
On a globe winged proper an eagle rising (gold) |
From "Houseal and Summer Families", Archives of Library of Gettsburg Lutheran Theological Seminary, Gettsyburg, PA |
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| John
Adam Summer, Sr.
The pioneer of this family came from Odenwald, Germany. A section of the Oberland which stretches along the border of Northern Switzerland and bounds on the edges of Baden and Hess ( the old lines). John Adam Summer, Sr., also known as Johannes Adam Summer, sailed from Rotterdam to the United States about 1743; and is said to have married a young lady of his colony at Rotterdam, name Miss Anna Maria Josten. They arrived in the ship, St. Andrew, at Philadelphia on October 7, 1743. The Council Records in the South Carolina Archives state that he came in Captain Russell's Ship, “and waited on ye God in Council where he was directed to go unto the country to look for the land whereon he might settle…..and then to apply for a warrant. He settled on a plot of land near Broad River and reported that he had a wife and three children. The children's names were, Adam (age 8), Henry (age 6) and Magdalena (age 4). The Petition for the land near "Crim's Creek" was dated 31 August, 1752, Charleston, S.C. It is said that when John Adam Summer migrated from the Oberland, Germany, he lived in Pennsylvania for about seven years. At different times during that period, he went on two exploration trips; one through Virginia and one through the Carolina States. He returned to his family in Pennsylvania and later relocated them to the Broad River area in "Dutch Fork" near Lexington County near the Newberry County line. Once settled in this area, he later became Manager of the Commissary during the Revolutionary War and received the title Major. He had six sons.
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John Adam Summer, Jr. (b. 1744 d. 1809) John Adam Summer, Jr., the eldest soe of John Adam Summer, Sr., became a Lieutenant, then Captain in the State Militia during the Revolutionary War. He commanded a company in the Regiment of Col. Philemon Waters. After the war, he became an active citizen in the upper "Dutch Fork" as Justice of the Quorum, Justice of the Peace and a member of the State Legislature. In about 1770, he married Mary Reese; they had four daughters and possibly a son who died young. Mary Reese was born in 1744 and died in 1818. The daughters were Eve Margaret, Elizabeth, Mary and Katherine. John A. Summer Jr., and his wife Mary are buried near the highway about two miles below Pomaria, near Crims Creek, on land that was originally he plantation of John Adam Summer Sr.
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Henry Summer, (b.1746 d. after 1800) Henry Summer, the second son of John Adam Summer, Sr., was a First Lieutenant in the State Militia during the War of the Revolution, serving in Col. Philemon Waters Regiment, in the Company of his brother, Captain John Adam Summer, Jr. Henry married Christina Dominick, daughter of the pioneer, John Dominick. Little is known of his descendants, except on one son named George lived in Lexington District. A daughter, Barbara, married John Koon (1762-1847) and had children; David, Jacob, Ephriam, Christina (who married Michael Charles), Elizabeth, Caroline, Henry, Martin, Adam. Another daughter, Maria, also married a Koon.
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Obituary and History of Orland Benedict Mayer, III Columbia S.C.- Services for Dr. Orlando Benedict Mayer, III, 102 will be held at 2 pm. Thursday at eh Chapel of the Holy Spirit at the South Carolina Episcopal Home at Still Hopes, West Columbia, with burial at 3:30 p.m. in Trinity Episcopal Cathedral Churchyard. The family will receive friends 5-6:30 p.m. tonight in the Guignard Home at the South Carolina Episcopal Home at Still Hopes. Dr. Mayer died Monday, January 10, 2000. He was born in Newberry on July 29, 1898, the son of the late Dr. O.B. Mayer Jr., and Harriet Jones Mayer. After graduating from Newberry College in 1914, he studied at the Medical College of South Carolina and then continued on to Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland Ohio, where he received an M.D. and and M.A. in medicine. Dr. Mayer also studied abroad for a year in Vienna, Austria, Heidelberg, Germany and Edinburgh, Scotland. In 1924, he came to Columbia to begin the practice of internal medicine.Dr. Mayer volunterred to serve int he Army Medical Corps in WW I. Beginning in 1940 he served in WW II for five years as Chief of Medicine in several army hospitals. He also served onteh staffs of teh Baptist, Providence and Richland Memorial Hospitals in Columbia (serving as Chief of Staff of each). After his retirement from the practice of medicine in 1980 after 56 years of service, Dr. Mayer did volunteer work for the American Red Cross. Dr. Mayer was predeceased by his wife, Nancy Phillips Mayer and is survived by daughters: Nancy M. Dunbar of Columbia, Cornelia M. Stewart of Hendersonville, N.C., and Ella Reese M. Hinson of Bennettsville; also grandchildren and great grandchildren. |