Yolo-Colusa County CA Archives Biographies.....Cummins, Thomas D. 1881 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ca/cafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com December 14, 2005, 12:21 am Author: Tom Gregory THOMAS D. CUMMINS The prominent young citizen of Yolo county, Cal., whose name is above is a son of the late Thomas J. Cummins, who was born in Fulton county, Ill., July 23, 1838, and passed away at Woodland, December 14, 1910. The younger Cummins was born at College City, Colusa county, Cal., August 10, 1881. His mother was Cordelia (Bostwick) Cummins, a native of Missouri. He was educated in the Woodland public school, which he entered at fourteen years of age, and at Woodland Business College. Then he assisted his father in the latter's stock business until the elder Cummins died. Later, after some time spent on the Cummins ranch in Sutter county, he returned to Woodland, where he has since been operating on his own account. In July, 1911, in partnership with Mr. Boyle, he bought the Brown Brothers feed and fuel business on Main street near Elm. They also do a large business in buying and selling draught horses, shipping many to the most available markets. They handle also much hay, buying and selling as the market dictates. In San Jose, Cal., Mr. Cummins married Miss Hazel Spaulding, a native of Woodland, and they have two daughters, Sue Dea and Elizabeth. He was made a Mason in Tyrian Lodge No. 284 of Dunnigan, Cal., and is now a member of Woodland Lodge No. 156, F. & A. M., and of Woodland Chapter No. 46, E. A. M., and Woodland Commandery No. 21, K. T. He affiliates also with the O. E. S. and the Woodmen of the World. James and Mary (Dickinson) Cummins, parents of Thomas J. and grandparents of Thomas D. Cummins, in the paternal line, were born, respectively, in Greenbrier county, Va., and Lincoln county, Ohio. They settled first in Illinois, then removed to Bates county, Mo., where the mother died in 1847, when Thomas J. was nine years old. The other children of the family were: Jane, Rebecca, Samantha, Emiline, John, James and Samuel. From Bates county the family moved to Henry county, but afterward settled in Ray county. Lured by tales of gold, James Cummins crossed the plains in 1850, and in 1851 returned to his children with several thousand dollars dug out of mines around Hangtown. In 1852 he came back to the coast with a part of his family, he having married a second time. He bought and conducted the old Eagle hotel on the old Nevada road, above Sacramento, until 1855, then sold it, and with one of his daughters and his son, Thomas J., returned to Missouri. In 1857 he bought five hundred cattle, which he drove across the plains to Calaveras county, Cal., settling near Jenny Lind, where he was several years busied with stock-raising. Failing health at length compelled him to return to Greenbrier county, Va., whence he went to Hillsdale, Kan., where he died in 1878. Arrived in Missouri, Thomas J. Cummins fell in love with and married Miss Bostwick. She was a daughter of Noble D. and Katherine (Cummins) Bostwick, natives of Pennsylvania and Ohio, respectively. The Bostwick family settled in Sutter county, Cal., on the Sacramento, in 1857, and later moved to Santa Rosa, whence a year later they went to Oregon, and still another year later, to College City, Colusa county. Mr. Bostwick died in Jackson county, Ore., in 1896, aged seventy-eight; his wife, at the home of her son-in-law, Mr. Cummins, in 1899, almost eighty years old. It was on the return from Missouri with the five hundred cattle that at the head of the Humboldt river Thomas J. Cummins and his father had a misunderstanding, which resulted in the departure of the son, with his bride and a cash capital of $4.50, with a declaration to the pater that he had no fears for the future and would some day be as rich as his parent. The young couple made the rest of the journey on foot, three hundred miles, their bedding and extra clothing being hauled by fellow travelers with teams. The route was by Beckwith Pass and valley, and at Salt Creek Mrs. Cummins and her sister each earned $3 a day at sewing. For two months Mr. and Mrs. Cummins managed the Mountain Spring hotel for $80 a month. With a part of their earnings Mr. Cummins bought a mule, saddle and bridle. The following month they spent with Mrs. Cummins' parents, who had settled near Yuba City. Mrs. Cummins was a mere girl, then between fifteen and sixteen years old, and, after her experiences, it is probable she found her mother's sympathy comforting. Her young husband soon secured employment at $50 a month in the George Briggs orchard, above Marysville. Four months later he took sheep on shares in Sutter county, and the family lived in the most primitive of log cabins, on a diet principally of rice. He eked out his income by woodchopping and was soon able to buy a cow, and others were bought until they had five. At the end of a year he sold his interest in the sheep for $1275. His wife had made his shirts out of flour sacks and had raised motherless lambs on cows' milk. They were now able to buy land at Butte Slough, Colusa county, on which he raised hogs up to 1862. He then sold his farm and rented Col. George Hagar's ranch until early in 1870. In the fall he bought four hundred acres in Sutter county, where he later owned eighteen hundred acres, stocked with thousands of sheep and hundreds of hogs. Thirteen years after their separation son and father met on the prairie and were reconciled, and, as he had promised, the son then had more wealth than the father. In 1872 Mr. Cummins took a herd of cattle to Lassen county, but sold out next year to Jacob McKissick. With H. Murdock he bought seventeen hundred cattle and range in Nevada, and the same year he bought fifteen hundred head. Two years later he bought sixteen hundred head at Forty-Nine, on Lassen trail. He handled cattle for the San Francisco market, 1873-75. Later he bought three thousand acres of hay land in Surprise Valley, Modoc county, Cal. In order to secure better educational advantages for his children he located on a forty-acre tract near College City, Colusa county, where he lived from 1876 to 1894. Then he purchased the fine family home on Court street, Woodland, where he lived out his days, taking occasional trips to his more or less distant possessions. In his more active years he traveled extensively throughout the country, buying stock. He was one of the largest individual stock buyers in California. It was as a business man that he gained most reputation. Socially he was jovial and companionable, approachable when his financial support was desired for charitable or other worthy causes, and at all times a gentleman of the old school, loyal, honorable and fearless. Following are the names of his children, arranged in the order of the birth of those on whom they were conferred: Virginia S., who married James Whitehead; Mary E., who is the wife of George Tolson; Ida S., who died, aged sixteen months; Catharine L., who married Asa Lane; Charles Edwin, who married Lillie Vaughan; Evelyn L., the wife of Jackson P. West; Ada E., who married Charles Betterton; Cordelia M., Mrs. B. W. Worley; Leonora E., Mrs. Forest B. Caldwell; Thomas D., mentioned somewhat at length above; and Miss Blanche A; Cummins, who is a member of her mother's household. There are twenty-three grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. Additional Comments: Extracted from HISTORY OF YOLO COUNTY CALIFORNIA WITH Biographical Sketches OF The Leading Men and Women of the County Who Have Been Identified With Its Growth and Development From the Early Days to the Present HISTORY BY TOM GREGORY AND OTHER WELL KNOWN WRITERS ILLUSTRATED COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME HISTORIC RECORD COMPANY LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA [1913] File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ca/yolo/bios/cummins183nbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/cafiles/ File size: 8.2 Kb