Dennis Philo Cummings Biography


	This biography is from "Memorial and biographical record; an illustrated
 	compendium of biography, containing a compendium of local biography,
	including biographical sketches of prominent old settlers and 
	representative citizens of South Dakota..." Published by G. A. Ogle & 
	Co., Chicago, 1899. Pages 584-585

	Scan, OCR and editing by Maurice Krueger,mkrueger@iw.net, 1998. 

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	http://usgwarchives.org/sd/sdfiles.htm


DENNIS PHILO CUMMINGS. This gentleman is the proprietor of a fine 
estate in Bath township, Brown county, and his present home on section 
35, with its pleasant surroundings, bears little trace of the country 
as he first saw it in the early '80s. Our subject is a man of advanced 
years, but enjoys good health and retains his mental and physical vigor 
to a remarkable degree, and can recount with unerring accuracy his 
pioneer experiences in Dakota. 

Mr. Cummings was born in Herkimer county, New York, March 8, 1823, and 
was the eldest in a family of six sons and three daughters born to Van 
Rensselaer and Abbie (Ingraham) Cummings. His parents were natives of 
the Empire state and died in Herkimer county. 

Our subject attended the district schools when a boy, and assisted with 
the work on his father's farm. At the age of fifteen he left home and 
found work on the Erie canal, at which he continued for several years. 
He traveled by canal and lakes to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in the spring 
of 1854, and purchasing eighty acres of land for eight hundred dollars, 
settled down to farming in Dane township, Dane county, Wisconsin. He 
put good improvements on the farm, and erected a good house, and barn, 
and other outbuildings, and afterward had a good bearing fruit orchard, 
and was successful, but his family was large and he concluded to try 
his fortunes in the west, and make a home where new opportunities would 
be offered his children and larger tracts of land were accessible. He 
went to Watertown, South Dakota, in 1881, where he filed a homestead 
claim to the northeast quarter of section 35, in Bath township. He took 
with him seven cows, four horses, and lumber with which to build a 
house, and i~nmediately upon his arrival began the erection of a 
comfortable frame house and a good barn, and in the fall of that year 
he returned to his Wisconsin home and moved his family to Dakota. He 
now has a highly ,cultivated and well improved estate and engages 
principally in grain raising, including wheat, oats, corn and some 
potatoes, and he has also about nine horses and ten head of cattle on 
the farm. His farm is well located and is admirably adapted to grain 
raising. 

Our subject was married in March, 1853, to Charlotte Holdridge, 
daughter of Elias and Nancy Holdridge, both of whom were natives of New 
York. The mother died in Wisconsin in October, 1854. They left their 
native state at the same time as Mr. Cummings and settled on a 
neighboring farm in the Badger state. Seven children have been born to 
Mr. and Mrs. Cummings, as follows: Charles H., a prominent farmer of 
Brown county; Warren A., also engaged in farming in Brown county; James 
W., Clara, Minnie and Alice. Julia, the eldest, died May 10, 1890. The 
family are members of the First Presbyterian church of Aberdeen, but 
are usual attendants of the Methodist church at Bath. Mr. Cummings is a 
willing worker for the advancement of his community, and he is 
especially active in educational matters, serving as a member of the 
school board. He has also served one term on the board of supervisors, 
and is a prominent citizen of Bath township. Politically Mr. Cumnmings 
is a Republican and is a man of enlightened views and stands firmly for 
his convictions. He has a comfortable home in which he is passing his 
declining years, and has a host of friends and acquaintances who hold 
him in high respect.