1. Adam Helmer was made nationally famous by Walter D Edmonds' popular 1936 novel Drums Along the Mohawk with its depiction of "Adam Helmer's Run" of September 16,1778, to warn the people of German Flatts of the approach of Joseph Brant and his company of Indians and Tories.
Adam Helmer was assigned as a scout in Captain John Breadbake's company.
News of the Oriskany battle arrived shortly after Adam Helmer's did, and Ganesvoort ordered an attack on the British encampments.
Several of the scouts were killed, but Adam Helmer managed to escape.
Adam Helmer took off running to the north-east, through the hills, toward Schuyler Lake and then north to Andrustown where he warned his sister's family of the impending raid and obtained fresh footwear.
Adam Helmer warned settlers at Columbia and Petrie's Corners, most of whom then fled to safety at Fort Dayton.
The straight-line distance from Carr's farm to Fort Dayton is about thirty miles, and Adam Helmer's winding and hilly route was far from straight.
Three days later Adam Helmer led another group of militia back to the Carr farm on the Unadilla, discovered the bodies of three of his scouts, and buried them at that site.
Adam Helmer served in the New York State Levies under Colonel Lewis DuBois.
Adam Helmer died on April 9,1830, in the town of Brutus in Cayuga County, New York.
Adam Helmer was an important but fictionalized character in Edmonds' novel, Drums Along the Mohawk.
The book pictures Adam Helmer as a large, unschooled, bachelor womanizer with long blonde hair, while historic descriptions indicate he was a lean 150 pounds, married farmer, seeming to have more in common with the book's main character, Gil Martin.
In John Ford's 1939 film adaptation of the novel, Helmer is portrayed by Ward Bond as "Adam Hartman".
Adam Helmer's run was omitted from the film and replaced with a run by Gil to get reinforcements from the nearest fort.