Her father Peter's will mentioned his daughter, Mrs. Benj Hummel.

Census Listings 1800-1860. She can be accounted for with her father in 1800 and 1810 and her husband in 1820-1860.

J A Meiser in his ”Hummel Trilogy” cites Catherine Hilbish, born 3 May 1795 died 5 Jun 1869, daughter of Peter Hilbish and Susanna SchelI. This source has many typos in its date citations and this is but another example, she died in 1868.

Meiser also shows her first child as being born in 1808, when she would have been only 13, just another Meiser error I believe. The child he lists as hers does not belong in this family at all.

Jack Mertz, Meiser and J L Floyd all say that Catherine Hilbish was the wife of Benjamin Hummel and generally agree on her birth and death years; Meiser had the specific dates. The will of Peter Hilbish confirms the relationships.

His baptism was documented in the records of the Moselem Church in Berks County to Jacob and Elisabetha.

Benjamin came as a young boy with his parents from Berks County to Hummels Wharf. I believe he moved again, late in life, to Northumberland to be near his daughters, who had moved there with their husbands years earlier.

Census Listings. He can be accounted for in his father’s household in Windsor Township in 1790, and in Penns Township in 1800 and 1810. From 1820-1860, he is found as head of household in what is now Snyder County. In 1850, his neighbors include his son Henry and his daughter Mary Ann Biddlespach and her husband Isaac. Son John Hummel is also in Penns Twp. Only daughter Amelia Mertz lives elsewhere.

So from Census we would conclude he lived the adult portion of his life entirely in Snyder County, but we know he was buried in Riverview nearby his daughter and son-in-law. He was active in land dealings too in Northumberland County including in 1853 he sold the land that became Riverview Cemetery to the Northumberland Cemetery Company -- land he had bought at public auction the year before.

Benjamin Hummel's will dated 17 Jun 1868 leaves portion of his estate to "my two daughters, Amelia intermarried with George P Mertz and Mary Ann intermarried with Isaac Bidelspach." He was a resident of Point Township. His wife had recently died and is not mentioned. He also mentions the children of his son Henry (apparently deceased): Benjamin Theodore, Ellen and Robert. And he mentions son John.

From Northumberland County deed books. On June 3, 1853, Benjamin Hummel of Penns Twp, Union Co and wife Catharine deeded over four contiguous outlots totally about 20 acres in Northumberland Borough to Northumberland Cemetery Company for the consideration of $1100. Two of the boundaries of the land were Orange Street and Seventh Street, so this is clearly the main land for what would become Riverview Cemetery. Benjamin had acquired this land at public sale on 24 Apr 1852.

On 7 Jun 1825, Jacob Hummel of Penns Twp and wife Elizabeth sold Benjamin Hummel for $2000 138 acres of land in Penns Twp on the River Susquehanna part of 422 acres which had been sold to Jacob Hummel on 1 Apr 1797 and had been part of a tract called Roxbury.

Dad always said that some part of our early family owned ”5 miles” of river frontage. This family clearly was the Hummels. They did own hundreds of acres in the Hummels Wharf/Rolling Green/Selinsgrove area. They also owned land on the Sunbury side of the river too, as J L Floyd refers to 73 acres located on the Hollowing Run Road between Fisher’s Ferry and Trevorton owned then by Adam Treon, part of a tract that was previously a Hummel homestead.

The 1850 Census gave for each landholder an estimated value of his land holdings. Typical entries were in the range $500 to a few thousand dollars; Benjamin Hummels lands were valued at $53,000, an astounding amount.

I do not know his marriage date. That his wife was Catherine is verified by Census records and that she was Catherine Hilbish is as stated by all the many sources on Northumberland people including Floyd and Meiser.

I find it interesting that even in the 1860 Census, Benjamin and Catherine were still in Snyder County but by the time she died in 1868 and he in 1869, they may have moved to Northumberland, presumably to be closer to their daughters after they retired. I can’t think of other examples in these early days where a person retired to a different place. Perhaps, though, they simply were brought there for burial.

In 1852, while living in Snyder County, Ben acquired some land in Northumberland at public sale which in 1853 he sold to the Northumberland Cemetery Company -- this land became Riverview Cemetery.

J A Meiser in his ”Hummel Trilogy” about various Hummel families wrote: ”On June 7, 1826 Benjamin’s father deeded him 138 acres of land in Penns Township. He lived at Hummels Eddy and was in the raft purchasing business. In 1832 he built a hotel to accommodate the boatmen and raftmen.”

BENJAMIN & CATHERINE HUMMEL AND GEORGE PETER & AMELIA AMANDA MERTZ TOMBSTONES
When I first got interested in genealogy I made it a point to try to find the tombstone of every ancestor I could. Mary and I walked Riverview cemetery especially knowing I had about 15 or so ancestors there. At the time we did it, we had come to know what an old tombstone looked like as we had already been to several Snyder County cemeteries. We were able to find almost all of my Riverview ancestors with the glaring exceptions of Benjamin Hummel and George Peter Mertz and their wives. Riverview is big but not impossibly so and though we looked at every small, old tombstone there, there just was no sign of them.

As I got further into genealogy though I realized my error. Benjamin Hummel was a very prominent and wealthy man. George Peter Mertz, while not the earliest Mertz in Northumberland Borough or Point Township, truly was the founder of the now extant Mertz family of Northumberland -- descendants of the earlier lines having moved on. For those reasons, both Benjamin Hummel and George Peter Mertz have large, substantial monuments erected to honor their lives. And they are virtually side-by-side. It had not occurred to me to look for large monuments. So subsequently, as I've been in contact with my second and third cousins interested in genealogy, I've sent them looking in Riverview and in all cases they've reported back that those tombstones are so prominent, you can't miss them. And indeed, I have since found them myself, right at the main entrance to the cemetery. The third large obelisk in the plot is that of Isaac Bidlespach, Ben’s son-in-law, George’s brother-in-law.

I think the obituary in the Public Press of Mary A Biddlespach who died 19 Mar 1898 is definitive on the matter. It says she was born 18 Nov 1827 in Shamokin Dam, the youngest child of Benjamin Hummel. “one sister, Mrs. George Mertz, and two brothers, John and Harry, predeceased her”. No other siblings are mentioned.