Cummings, William ( -1916)

CUMMINGS, CHILCOTT

Posted By: Jane Adams (email)
Date: 4/11/2005 at 20:47:49

Fairfield Daily Journal
Tues., Jan. 18, 1916
Page 2, col. 2.

WM. CUMMINGS DIED AT SALINA, AGED 87. William Cummings, one of the oldest residents of Jefferson County, died at eight o’clock Monday evening at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Asa Chilcott, one and a half miles northwest of Salina. Last Wednesday, Jan. 12, he celebrated his 87th birthday.....

Mr. Cummings was the son of William L. and Sarah Cunningham Cummings and was born near Lexington, Va., as were his brothers. About 1833 the family moved to Indiana and in October 1843 came to Jefferson County, Iowa. He is survived by two brothers, Samuel A. and J. E. Cummings, both of Fairfield. Four sisters and one brother preceded him in death.....Two children survive: James Horace and Mrs. Asa Chilcott. Mr. Cummings had for many years been a member of the Salina Presbyterian Church.

On April 8, 1850, Mr. Cummings, having caught the “gold fever” started to walk to California. He walked all the distance from Fairfield to San Francisco, which he accomplished in a little over five months. After spending about a year on the Pacific coast, he returned via the Isthmus of Panama, across which he walked. From there he took ship to New York and then returned to Fairfield.....

(Note: Laura A. Cummings Chilcott, dau. Wm. & Martha Beatty Cummings, born Apr. 12, 1856; Died Sept. 5, 1931.)

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