Cummings, Benjamin L.

CUMMINGS

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 6/28/2021 at 23:45:19

History of Warren County, Iowa from Its Earliest Settlement to 1908, by Rev. W. C. Martin, Clarke Publishing Co., Chicago, Illinois, 1908, p.781

BENJAMIN L. CUMMINGS
Coming to Warren County in 1850, B. L. Cummings has witnessed almost its entire growth and development and as an agriculturist has taken an active and prominent part in its upbuilding. He now makes his home on section 17, Allen Township, and is successfully engaged in general farming and stock-raising, owning and operating a well improved place of two hun­dred and fifty-nine acres.
Mr. Cummings was born in Putnam County, Indiana, on the 23d of Sep­tember, 1848, and is a son of D. D. Cummings, a native of Indiana, where he grew to manhood and married Miss Priscella Mugg, also a native of the Hoosier state. His paternal grandfather was Lloyd Cummings, one of the first settlers of Owen County, Indiana. There D. D. Cummings engaged in farming for several years after his marriage, but in 1850, accompanied by his wife and three children he came to Warren County, Iowa, where he bought a claim and entered land, which he converted into a good farm, eventually becoming the owner of six hundred acres. He died here and his wife passed away in 1905 at the age of seventy-four years. In the family of this worthy couple were four sons and five daughters, all of whom reached years of maturity and became heads of families.
B. L. Cummings is indebted to the public schools of this County for the educational privileges he enjoyed during his boyhood and he remained with his father, working upon the home farm until reaching man's estate. He was afterward employed by the month on a farm for two years. On the 11th of March 1870, in Madison County, Iowa, was celebrated his marriage to Miss Lucretia Cummings, a native of Indiana and a daughter of C. P. Cummings, who was an early settler of Madison County. Two children blessed this union, namely: Hattie, who is now the wife of George Stumbo, a farmer of Polk County and by whom she has five children, and Homer V., at home. After his marriage Mr. Cummings removed to Nebraska, where he engaged in farming one year and then returned to Madison County, Iowa, where the following three years were passed. At the end of that time we again find him a resident of Warren County, where he operated rented land for several years, and for five years rented the farm where he now resides. He then purchased one hundred and seventy-nine acres, which he at once began to improve, and has since added to his property until he now has two hun­dred and fifty-nine acres, on which is a large two-story residence, two good barns, a grainary, cribs and other outbuildings for the shelter of grain and stock. He has placed the land under a high state of cultivation and in con­nection with general farming is quite extensively engaged in stock-raising, making a specialty of hogs.
By his ballot Mr. Cummings supports the men and measures of the Republican Party, and he has held school offices and has also served as highway commissioner but has never sought political honors, preferring to give his entire time and attention to his business affairs. His success in life is due entirely to his own unaided efforts, sound judgment and good management, and he well merits the prosperity that has come to him. His estimable wife is a member of the United Presbyterian Church of Scotch Ridge, and both are held in high regard by all who know them.