Cummings Farm

CUMMINGS, CASE

Posted By: Jane Adams (email)
Date: 4/19/2005 at 21:11:40

Fairfield Daily Ledger
Sept. 24, 1946
Sec. F, page 3, col. 1.

CUMMINGS FARM. Five generations have lived on the Cummings farm southeast of Fairfield. After a period of 100 years it is still owned by descendants of the original settler. Samuel A. Cummings was three years old when he left Virginia in 1833 with his parents, William and Sarah Cummings. They lived in Indiana 10 years before pushing on west to Iowa in 1843. They made the trip, a distance of 300 miles, in a family wagon drawn by an ox team. After the family had lived north of Fairfield for a short time, they purchased a farm from Samuel and Sarah Walker, located three miles southeast of Fairfield on the middle Glasgow road in Buchanan and Cedar townships. That was in March, 1846.

The father, William L. Cummings, died shortly after moving to the farm and was the seventh person to be buried in the local cemetery. The widow was left with eight children to care for. Their names were Rachel, Ellen, Lucy, Mandy, James, John, William and Samuel. The youngest son, Samuel, remained at home and farmed for his mother, later buying the farm from his brothers and sisters. Samuel married Maria Case in December, 1864. They were the parents of four children. He lived on the farm until 1911 when he moved to Fairfield and resided at 203 West Washington Street with his daughter, Fannie. He died at the age of 92 years on May 11, 1923, outliving all his children.

In 1919, a son, William F. Cummings, had purchased the farm from his father. At the present time the farm is still owned by the William Cummings estate.

The old trail that came up from Burlington passed the farm. Markers were found in the pasture where the trail branched off to Fort Madison. John Cummings walked from Burlington carrying a tiny cedar tree in his pocket in 1846. He planted it in the front yard of the farm home and it is still standing today. Samuel Cummings replaced the log cabin with a frame house. The kitchen that is still used was the one that had been built on the old log cabin in the early days. The barn was erected in 1880.

This data has been transcribed for genealogical purposes; I am not related to the subject.