Yolo County
Biographies
THOMAS
JEFFERSON CUMMINS
There are few more inspiring examples of self-won success in the history of California than that furnished by the career of Thomas J. Cummins, a retired citizen of Woodland, and one of the largest land owners in the northern part of the state. In his steadfast perseverance, in his ability to surmount obstacles however great, in the large-heartedness which has characterized his attitude toward his family and friends, and his good fortune in possessing a wife as tireless and devoted as himself, he stands a representative of the pioneer settler around whom cling the best and noblest traditions of the western country.
Except in rare instances, the youth of today steps into his active life with at least a fair school education. Mr. Cummins knew no such advantage, and not only was his start in life destitute of education, but he was without money or influence. He was born in Fulton county, Ill., July 23, 1838, a son of James and Mary (Dickinson) Cummins, the former of whom was born in Greenbrier county Va., in 1814 and the latter born the same year in Licking county Ohio. The parents settled first in Illinois, then removed to Bates county, Mo., where the mother died in 1847, Thomas J. being at the time nine years old. The other children in the family were: Jane, Rebecca, Samantha, Emeline, John, James and Samuel, of whom Jane, Rebecca, Thomas J. and John are living. From Bates county, the family removed to Henry county, but later settled in Ray county. Rumors of gold reaching the quiet agricultural region in Bates county, James Cummins crossed the plains in 1850, and in 1851 returned to his family of children with several thousand dollars made in the mines around Hangtown. In 1852 he returned to the coast with a part of his family, he having married a second time. He bought and conducted the Eagle hotel on the old Nevada road above Sacramento, until 1855, but that year he sold it, and, with a daughter and Thomas J., returned to Missouri. In 1857 he purchased five hundred head of cattle to drive across the plains to Calaveras county, Cal., settling near the little town of Jenny Lind, where he followed stock-raising for several years. He then returned to Greenbrier county, Ca., in the hope of regaining health lost through over-exertion in the west. A year later he went to Hillsdale, Kans., where his death occurred in 1878.
In the meantime, changes had come into the life of Thomas J. Cummins not set down in the plans of his ambitious father when he took him to Missouri to assist with the head of cattle. Once in Missouri he fell in love with a bright-eyed lass of fifteen, three years his junior, and in spite of mild parental opposition, married her, and with his father, his wife’s family, and the cattle, started across the plains. Cordelia J. Bostwick was born in Ray county, Mo., a daughter of Noble D. and Catherine (Cummins) Bostwick, natives of Pennsylvania and Licking county, Ohio, respectively. The Bostwick family settled in Sutter county, Cal., on the Sacramento river, in 1857. Later they removed to Santa Rosa, and after one year located in Oregon, and the following year took up their abode in College City, Colusa county. Mr. Bostwick died in Jackson county, Ore., in 1896, at the age of seventy-eight, while his wife died at the home of her son-in-law, Mr. Cummins, in 1899, at the age of nearly eighty years. All went well on the journey across the plains, until arriving at the head of the Humboldt river, when Thomas J. Cummins had a slight misunderstanding with his father, and in consequence separated from the train, taking his young wife with him, and banking on a future of success with a capital of $4.50 in his pocket. At the same time he told his father that he had no fears for the future, and that some day he would be as rich as himself. The young people made the rest of the journey on foot, a distance of three hundred miles, the bedding and extra clothing being hauled by fellow travelers with teams. Their route was through Beckwith pass and valley and at the Salt Creek hotel Mrs. Cummins and her sister earned $3 a day each doing some sewing. For two months Mr. and Mrs. Cummins were managers of the Mountain Spring house, receiving $80 per month for their services, and with a part of this Mr. Cummins bought a mule, saddle and bridle. The following month the young people lived with Mrs. Cummins’ parents, who had settled near Yuba City. Mr. Cummins then secured employment at $50 per month on the George Briggs orchard, three miles above Marysville. Four months later he took a band of sheep on shares in Sutter county, the family living in a cabin which was not only rude in structure, but devoid of conveniences of any kind. Rice was the principal article of diet. In addition to caring for his sheep Mr. Cummins also cut wood, and in time was enabled to purchase a cow, which seemed a fortune indeed, and after awhile bought another cow, and still another until they had five. At the end of a year Mr. Cummins sold his interest in the sheep for $1,275. His wife made his shirts from flour sacks, and assisted her husband in every way possible, among other things raising all the motherless lambs on cow’s milk. With the money received from the sale of his sheep Mr. Cummins bought a tract of land at Butte Slough, Colusa county, where he raised hogs until 1862. He then sold the farm and rented Col. George Hagar’s ranch, a part of the Humana grant, until the spring of 1870, and the following October bought four hundred acres in Sutter county, where he now owns eighteen hundred acres, which is devoted to alfalfa, sheep, hogs, and cattle, having on an average from two to three thousand sheep, and from three to four hundred hogs. This large ranch, known as the Cummins ranch, is now superintended by the son, Thomas Cummins, Jr. Thirteen years after the disagreement, while on the plains, father and son were reconciled, the father visiting his son, who in the meantime had accumulated more wealth then the father had.
In order to secure better educational advantages for his children Mr. Cummins located on a forty-acre tract of land near College City, Colusa county, making his home there from October, 1876, until October, 1894. He then purchased his present large and elegantly appointed home on Court street, Woodland, taking occasional trips to his distant country possessions, all of which are managed by his thrifty and ambitious sons.
In 1872 Mr. Cummins took a herd of cattle to Lassen county, but sold out the next year to Jacob McKissick. In partnership with H. Murdock he bought seventeen hundred head of cattle and range at Massacre lake, Nev., the same year buying another herd of fifteen hundred head. Two years later he bought sixteen hundred head at “49,” on the old Lassen trail. In the meantime, from 1873 until 1875, he bought and sold cattle for the San Francisco market. Later Mr. Cummins bought three thousand acres of hay land in Surprise valley, Modoc county, Cal., at present under alfalfa and grain and stock. He has traveled extensively over the country upon stock purchasing expeditions, and during the course of his exceptionally active life has bought many thousand head of cattle, and hundreds of horses, hogs and sheep, at one time owning eight thousand head of cattle. He has been one of the largest individual buyers of stock in the state of California, and has an exhaustive knowledge of the animals which have brought him fame and fortune. Remarkably quick and accurate with figures, this development has been entirely of his own making, for he never had any training of the kind in school, and has cultivated it as necessity compelled his to manage his own transactions.
A trait in the character of Mr. Cummins which appeals to the heart of all who know him is his appreciation of the wife who has bravely shared his fortunes, encouraging him in stress and storm, and rejoicing with him in prosperity. He rightly calls her his guiding star, his cheerful, loving, helpful companion, and to her ascribes a large share of the success which has come his way. To an unusual extent this couple have won and kept the love and confidence of their children, for they have been companions and friends as well as parents, and have known how to sympathize with dreams and aspiration younger and more vigorous than their own. The children in the order of their birth are: Virginia S., wife of James Whitehead, and whose children are Thomas L., Molly B., Cordelia M. and James A.; Mary E., the wife of George Tolson, and the mother of Esther, Charles Thomas and Hazel L.; Ida S., who died when sixteen months old; Catherine L., wife of Asa Lane, and mother of Ora L., Asa Earl and Alta T.; Charles Edwin, manager of his father’s stock ranches, who married Lillie Vaughn, and has two children, Lois C. and Ruth W.; Evelyn L., wife of Jackson P. West, and mother of James G. and N. Loraine; Ada E., wife of Charles Betterton, and has one child, Idell F.; Cordelia M. Cummins, who is a musician of great promise; Leonora E., wife of Forest B. Caldwell, of San Dimas, Mexico; Thomas D., who married Hazel Spaulding; and Blanche A., living at home. Mr. Cummins is jovial and companionable, approachable when his financial support is desired for charitable or other worthy causes, and at all times a gentleman of the old school, honorable, fearless and loyalty itself.
Transcribed
by Joyce Rugeroni.
Source: "History of the State of California
and Biographical Record of the Sacramento
Valley, Cal.," J. M. Guinn, Pages
401-405.
The Chapman Publishing Company, Chicago, 1906.
© 2017 Joyce Rugeroni.
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Nugget Library's Yolo County Biographies