Cummings, James F.


HISTORY OF MACOUPIN COUNTY, ILLINOIS
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS DESCRIPTIVE OF ITS SCENERY,
AND
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF SOME OF ITS PROMINENT MEN AND PIONEERS.

Published by Brink, McDonough & Co., Philadelphia 1879

Page 149

JAMES F. CUMMINGS

was born at Antrim, New Hampshire, January 16th, 1835. His ancestors were old residents of New England. His father, Samuel Cummings, removed to Lowell, Massachusetts, in 1845, and the next year to Lawrence, where he died in 1873. The subject of this sketch secured his education principally at Lowell and Lawrence. He graduated from the Lawrence High School at the age of seventeen, and after leaving school was overseer in the finishing department of the Bay State Mills. In November, 1855, he married Harriet M. Silver, who was born in Vermont, and soon afterward came to Bunker Hill, where he engaged in the carpentering and cabinetmaking business. Before the war he was captain of the Bunker Hill Guards, and on the breaking out of the rebellion this company volunteered and was mustered into service as Company F, of the 7th Illinois regiment. It was the fifth company accepted by the adjutant-general. He took with him 127 men to Springfield, all of whom, with one exception, were afterward in the Union army. The three months' term of enlistment expired at Mound City, Illinois, and the company re-enlisted for three years. In the summer of 1861 he was in Missouri and Kentucky, and at the capture of Fort Henry and Fort Donelson in February, 1862. He was home sick for a few weeks, but returned to the army in time to take part in the battle of Pittsburg Landing. He soon afterward resigned on account of ill health. From 1867 to 1878 he was in the grain business at Bunker Hill. He has since been real estate and loan agent and notary public. He has always been a republican in politics. He was president of the town council of Bunker Hill in 1872, and was mayor of the city from 1873 to 1877. He is the present clerk of Bunker Hill township.
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