Dr. Stephen Cummings 1826-1891

CUMMINGS, POTTS, LEE, CROCKER

Posted By: cheryl moonen (email)
Date: 6/29/2017 at 09:19:30

Dr. Stephen Cummings was the son of William Cummings and Mary Boyer. In 1836 the family immigrated to Michigan. They were among the very first settlers in Eaton county. His father died in 1839 and his mother in 1842.

Stephen entered Olivet College (Michigan) at the age of 19 years, where he studied for nearly three years. He began to read medicine with Dr. John Hall, of Charlotte, Michigan, soon after leaving Olivet College. He remained with Dr. Hall for two years and then read alone for a couple of years. He took a course of lectures at the university at Ann Arbor, Michigan. Soon after he located at Somonauk, DeKalb county, Illinois, and began the practice of his chosen profession. He maintained a successful practice there for five years. In 1858 he moved to Hopkinton, Delaware county, Iowa.

On July 20, 1863, he enlisted as assistant surgeon of the Fourth Iowa cavalry. He served two years in the war, during which time he was in several closely contested engagements. The Fourth Iowa cavalry saw plenty of lively skirmishing, especially while chasing General Price through Missouri. At Columbus, Georgia, and Guntown, Mississippi, the Fourth saw hard service. Dr. Cummings was mustered out on the eighth day of August, 1865.

During his two years' service he was never sick, wounded or captured. He was given full charge of a large hospital at Macon, Georgia, for several months and had from two hundred to four hundred patients under his own supervision. After the war closed he returned to Hopkinton and resumed his practice.

In September, 1879, he completed a course and graduated from the Rush Medical College at Chicago, one of the most noted medical institutions in the country. Dr. Cummings has been twice married. He first married in 1848, taking for a life companion Miss Jane Potts. To this union were born seven children, viz.: Maria A. (deceased); Alice J., Ellen E. (deceased); Louis F., Alma L. (deceased); and two that died in infancy. His first wife died in 1870, and he contracted a second marriage in 1871 with Mrs. Harriet Crocker Lee, by whom he had three children: Mary, Jessie and William C.

Dr. Cummings has practiced medicine constantly for thirty-seven years and has had a varied and valuable experience, equaled by but few men of his profession. He has been a member of the Methodist Episcopal church since his sixteenth year, and has always been a liberal contributor to all charitable purposes. He owns a fine farm of one hundred acres adjoining Sand Springs in South Fork township, which is equipped with substantial buildings and otherwise well improved. He is a member of the board of pension examiners for Delaware county, a position for which he is well fitted.

Summarized from "Biographical Souvenir of the counties of Delaware and Buchanan, Iowa; Chicago : F. A. Battey, 1890. Page 266-270