San Joaquin County
Biographies
CHARLES W. COMMINGS
CHARLES W. COMMINGS, of
Elliott Township, was born in Grafton County, New Hampshire, March 6, 1842, a
son of Drury F. and Lavina (Lewis) Commings, the mother a native of Vermont,
and the father of New Hampshire. The family record is traced back to John
Commings, of Rowley, Massachusetts, who came from England in the great
immigration to the United States in 1630. Sergeant John Commings, of Dunstable,
Massachusetts, son of John Commings, was one of the first actual land-holders
in Dunstable, and one of the selectmen or townsmen, in 1682; he was a soldier
in the Queen Anne’s war of 1702, was taken prisoner by the Mohawk Indians in
the assault on the Weld Garrison Dunstable Blockhouse, July 3, 1706; his wife
with six others were killed. John Commings, son of J. Commings, of Dubstable,
was born July 7, 1682; he was also one of the selectmen of the town Dunstable
in 1711, and commanded one of the seven fortified block-houses. Ensign J.
Commings, son of J. Commings, of Massachusetts, was born in Groton, October 10,
1711, was in West Dunstable in 1738 and signed the first petition for the charter;
he was the father of the Rev. Henry Commings, D. D., the first minister in
Billerica, and of Captain Jotham Commings, a soldier in the French war of 1755;
he was the ensign of the first militia company in West Dunstable in 1744, and
died October 25, 1747, aged thirty-six years. He was born December 29, 1741 and
was a soldier in the French and Indian wars in 1758 and was with the Hollis
soldiers at Crown Point, New York; was one of the first settlers of Plymouth,
New Hampshire; a lieutenant in the company of H. H. Rangers in 1775, and for
many years was a deacon in the Congregational Church; he died at Plymouth April
1, 1808, aged sixty-six years. Anna (Brown) Commings, his widow, had ten
children, and lived to see sixty-eight grand-children and twenty great-grand-children.
Drury F. Commings, the father of our subject, was also a captain in the Mexican
war; so we see that from the earliest period of the family history they have
all been soldiers and defenders of their country.
The subject of this sketch was raised on a
farm and remained there until seventeen years of age, when he left home, went
to Springfield and enlisted in the army in Company I, under Captain Kobbs,
September 15, 1863. He was in several engagements, in which he took an active
part. In the battle of the Wilderness, May 4, 5 and 6, 1864, he was on the
extreme left in General Davis’ brigade, and had his horse killed under him in a
charge on the rebels, but catching another rider-less horse he soon joined his
comrades in the fight. In a terrific skirmish on the Chickahominy, which
resulted in a loss of 500 men, he was reported as being among the missing; he
was taken prisoner, and, with a few hours’ march of Libby Prison, he and some
comrades, watching their chance, made a break for the brush; the guard fired
upon them and killed all but our subject and one of his comrades, who succeeded
in escaping and returning to their company December 25. He was afterward
transferred to Company H, under command of Thomas L Motley. He was in the
engagement at Four-Mile creek with the rebel D. H. Hill and Longstreet’s corps;
and so on throughout the war, always to the front and ready for action until
the close of the war, when the white flag was presented with Lee’s surrender to
Grant’s command. He was discharged with the rest at Cloud’s Mills, Virginia,
June 26, 1865. In 1886 he left Springfield with a party of 300 for Helena,
Montana, going via St. Paul, Minnesota. He left St. Paul May 1, with an outfit
of 100 wagons, 200 oxen, costing $9,000, and supplies for one year, under the
command of J. S. Fisk, and arrived in Helena with the train in September. They
were in a fight with Indian stage robbers on the stage route, leading to
Stevensville, in 1867, with a party of men sent to capture them. They
surrounded the Indians, who were lying concealed in a ravine waiting to attack
the next stage coach, and at a signal they all rushed in and opened fire on
them; not one of them escaped. He was engaged in mining at Helena with W. B.
Harlan until July, 1868, when he left there for the Pacific coast. He was in
Oregon in 1869: from there came to California, where he and another man
purchased a lot of sheep in the southern part of the State and drove them
across the great American desert of 100 miles into Arizona in 1871-’72. He was
engaged in lumbering at Trinidad, on the Humboldt Bay, in 1875-’76.
In November, 1876, after an absence of
twelve years and an unbroken silence as to his whereabouts, he made a visit
home, remained a month, and returned to the State of his adoption. In the
spring of 1877 he organized a party and went to the regions of the Black Hills;
left there October 1, and returned to California. He went to Stockton, and from
there to Lockeford, where he purchased 160 acres of choice farming land,
situated fifteen miles from Stockton and four from Lockeford. He was married to
Mrs. Alice Bradburn, February 18, 1878. They have two children: Mary and
Charles W.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
An Illustrated History of San Joaquin County,
California, Pages 439-441. Lewis Pub.
Co. Chicago, Illinois 1890.
© 2009 Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County
Biographies
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County
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