My Genealogy Hound

JOSEPH B. CUMMINGS. The farming community of Caesar’s Creek Township, Greene County, recognizes in Mr. Cummings a man of great industry, who by his diligence and perseverance has become well-to-do. Like many of the most solid residents of this county, he maintains his residence at the place of his birth, which occurred May 31, 1841. The roof which sheltered him during the days of his boyhood and youth still remains over his head, and it is hardly necessary to say that the old homestead possesses for him a far more than moneyed value.

The parents of our subject were Thomas B. and Mary (Boots) Cummings, who were natives of Pennsylvania and Ohio and early pioneers of this county. The father was a farmer by occupation and he is still living in this township. Their family consisted of eight children.

Mr. Cummings remained a member of the parental household until the outbreak of the Civil War, and then, when a little over twenty years old, enlisted as a Union soldier September 22, 1861, in Company E, First Ohio Infantry. He went with his regiment to the front and participated in some of the most important battles of the war, being at Shiloh, Stone River, Perryville and Chickamauga at the outset. At the last mentioned place he was shot through the left lung and still carries the ball. He also received a wound in his right hand. He was confined in the hospital at Chattanooga until October 15, 1863, when he was brought home by his father and after good home nursing for a month, returned to Camp Denison, his furlough having expired March 24, 1864. He was then transferred to the invalid corps at Washington, D. C., and later was in the Veteran Reserve Corps, in which he was promoted to be First Sergeant. Later he was sent to Lockport, N. Y., to assist in guarding substitutes. At the expiration of his term of enlistment, he received his honorable discharge.

Returning now to his native township Mr. Cummings engaged in farming. He was married February 14, 1865, to Miss Ann Humston. This lady was born January 16, 1844, in Clinton County, and is the daughter of Strother G. and Elizabeth (Ford) Humston. There have been born of this union three children, namely: May, Ina, the wife of Thomas O. Mason of Canton, Mo., and Thomas E. Mr. Cummings is the owner of one hundred and seventy acres of good land, in the cultivation of which he avails himself of modern machinery and realizes therefrom a handsome income. He has served as Township Clerk four years and in the spring of 1880 was elected Justice of the Peace, serving two terms. In the spring of 1889, he was elected to a third term. In the fall of the same year he was elected Real Estate Appraiser.