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Note: Erie County will extracts @ HSP P 7, A-34 John Cummins, of boro of Erie, Will dated March 27, 1814; reg June 13, 1814; recorded Feb 22, 1828; wife Amelia Cummins, sole extrx., dau Sally intermarried with David Cook; son James; dau Ann intermarried with Jacob Carmack; son John; dau Emily intermarried with Stephen Woolverton; son Samuel; dau Eliza; dau Elenor. Witness Thomas Forster, John Warren.
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Pennsylvania Land Office
1 Oct 1801 bought as original owner:
Erie lots 625, 626, 627, 628, 629, 630
715, 716, 717, 718,719, 720 3225, 3226, 3227, 3228 Lots 3225, 3226, 3227, 3228 occupy the eastern one half of the city block bounded by E. 2nd st, French St., E. 3rd St, State St.
Lots 625, 626, 627, 628, 629, 630 occupy the western one half city block bounded by E. 10th St., Holland St., E. 11th St., French St.
Lots 715, 716, 717, 718,719, 720 occupy the western one half city block bounded by E. 9th St., Holland St., E. 10th St., French St.
List of Purchasers The following is a list of parties who entered into agreements with the Population Company for the purchase of lands in 1796-97 and 1798, all being for full tracts except the one in the name of George Hurst, which was for 200 acres: James Baird, George Balfour, Russell Bissell, Negro "Boe," Richard Clement, Isaac Craig, Joshua Fairbanks, Thomas Forster, Thomas Gallagher, Thomas Greer, John Grubb, Samuel Holliday, Thomas P. Miller, Francis Brawley, Thomas Rees, Jr., Abraham Custard, Beriah Davis, Miles Crane, Elihu Crane, Abiathar Crane, Patrick Kennedy, John Sanderson, Morrow Lowry, William Lee, Rowland Rees, Robert Lowery, William M. Grundy, John Mill, James O'Harra, Judah Colt, Laton Dick, Charles John Reed, Benjamin Richardson, Benjamin Russell, David Hays, Anthony Saltsman, Francis Scott, James Herman, Joseph McCord, Azariah Davis, George Hurst, Arnold Custard, William Paul, William Barker, Israel Bodine, Samuel Barker, John Kennedy, Israel Miller, George Nicholson, George Lowry, Thomas Dunn, James Dunn, Henry Hurst, Ezekial Dunning, William Dunn, William Parcell, Martin Strong, Hugh Spears, Richard Swan, Elihu Talmadge, J. F. Vollaine, Alex. Vance, John McKee, Hugh McLaughlin, John Oliver, Rufus S. Reed, Mary Reed, Stephen Oliver, Milhall Condon, Alex. McKee, David Long, Stephen Forster, Peter Grasoss, James Greer, Joseph L. Rowley, James Foulke, William G. Tysner, John Hay, Freeman Tuttle, Bernard Tracy, Hamilton Stone, Zelmar Barker, John Anderson, Daniel Dobbins, John Shaffer, John Cummins, Thomas Hughes, John Daggett, David Seely, Samuel Holliday, John Morris, Patrick McKee, David McCullough, Henry Strowman, William Sturgeon, Jeremiah Sturgeon, Hugh Trimble, James Leland, Robert Brown, Peter Prime, John Nichols, John Gordon, Robert McIntire, George W. Reed, Samuel Barker, John Cochran, George Tracy, William Weed, Oliver Dunn, William Baird, Oliver Thorton, Thomas Greer, Timothy Tuttle.
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As per the diary of Judah Colt (1797 - 1811), agent for the Pennsylvania Land Company at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and the card catalog at the Erie Historical Society:
22 Oct 1797....At night put up at Mr. Cummins
15 Nov 1801....Jno Warren spent evening with us at Mr. Crows
6 Mar 1804....arrived at Erie and put up at John Cummings
26 Mar 1804....Set out on journey to Philadelphia (from Colt's Station) about 11 AM at evening, put up at John Cummings (Erie)
25 Apr 1807....towards evening held a meeting at Jno Cummins to form a Burrough (sic) ticket (ie a political meeting)
July 4 1808....a number of citizens set down for a dinner prepared by John Cummins in commemoration of the anniversary of out independence the 33rd.
Note: Judah Colt moved from Greefield Twp to a log house at SW corner 4th & French St
**************** John Cummins keeps public house at old stand in Erie - Mirror Aug 20, 1808
Suit of John Cummins vs Francis Brawley - Mirror Oct 15, 1808
Last notice is now given to all such as stand indebted to the subsrciber for tavern accounts, or otherwise, to come forward and discharge their respective dues, or compulsory measures will be pursued against them immediately. He continues to keep a public house at his old stand in Erie, where friends and travelers will always be accomodated.- Mirror July 21, 1808
***************** Check tavern licenses from Quarter Session records and Nathaniel Russell manuscript at ECHS
**************** John Cummins Jr., 1752-1813. The Revolutionary War
The Scots left their homeland because of poverty. Impetuous, restless, hot-headed, excitable, rebellious made them likely to fight in the Revolution, although some remained devoted to the Crown. To reward the soldiers that fought in the Revolution, the government provided Donation Lands: land in Western Pennsylvania that was given to members of the Pennsylvania Line, for a nominal sum, as payment for service in the Revolutionary War between 1775-1783. The recruiting account of Lt. John Cummins (himself?) show that Cummins was entitled to donation lands and paid 314 pounds for active duty from March 10, 1781 to January 1784 in Capt. Thomas Stokely’s Company of the Westmoreland County Rangers. Officers up to the rank of Captain were elected. The rolls of the Rangers list Lt. John Cummins and an Ensign William Cooper as being officers. In April of 1783 in Hanna’s Town, Lt. John Cummins and Ensign William Cooper are listed as being witnesses for the Commonwealth in the case of a man being drunk and disorderly.
The Pennsylvania Militia was comprised of compulsory enrollment of all able-bodied whites males between the ages of 18 to 53. The militias in Western Pa. were especially effective in combating the Indians. A John Cummins was on active duty from May 16 to June 16, 1782 and was paid 5 pounds for service in Capt. John Dean’s Company of the Westmoreland County Militia. We really don’t know whether this was John Sr. (who would have been in his fifties at that point) or John Jr. (who would have been in his thirties at that point.
John Jr.’s birthplace is unknown. Family legend is that he served in the revolutionary war in Capt. Gilbert McKay’s Company under the command of Col. Joseph Reed from June 15, 1780 to January of 1781. He first surfaces in Greensburg, Pa. in the 1780s.
For service to his country in the Revolutionary War, Cummins was eligible for 400 acres of Donation Lands, which veterans sometimes split into two 200 acre plots. Lt. Cummins
received lot 1984, 200 acres in the 10th District Donation Lands in Westmoreland County that was granted to him by a patent for his military service by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on September 13, 1787. Lt. John Cummins was also granted lot 61, consisting of 200 acres of 1st District Donation lands in Westmoreland County, on Sept. 13, 1787. The deed or indenture dated Sept. 10, 1788 selling these properties to Capt. Frederick Rohrer, Jr., an early settler and merchant in Greensburg, lists John Cummins, Late of the U.S. Army, to have been an innkeeper in Greensburg, Pa.
The Trek Northward
In 1788, Lt. John Cummins Jr. married Amelia Foreman, daughter of Charles Foreman, the proprietor of the inn at Hannah’s Town and later Greensburg Pa., in the Associate Reformed (Presbyterian) Church. Family legend has it that in 1797, Cummins and wife ventured northward to Erie, Pa. (Erie County was established in 1792) in an ox cart in support of General “Mad Anthony” Wayne.
General Mad Anthony Wayne was born in Chester County in 1745, studied in Philadelphia, was a surveyor in Nova Scotia, and commanded the Pennsylvania line in the Revolution. He led an army of 3,000 soldiers at the Battle of Fallen Timbers on the Maumee River in Ohio in 1794. The Indian army was led by Chief Little Turtle was reinforced by a British and Canadian contingent. Mad Anthony died at Presque Isle, Erie County, in 1797, likely in the Wayne blockhouse that he had built, on his way back to Philadelphia.
In 1795, 200 Federal troops from General Wayne’s army, led by Captain Russell Bissell, built a blockhouse to protect them from the Indians in Erie, Pa. at the foot of Ash Street overlooking the harbor entrance at Erie, Pa. General Wayne, on his way home to Radnor, Pa., became ill and died in the Blockhouse on December 15, 1796.
After arriving in Erie ca. 1797, John bought land from the Pennsylvania Land Company. For a vocation, it appears that John Cummins Jr. kept an Inn on Second and French Streets. He died in Erie in 1813 and was buried in the Associate Reformed Church Cemetery. A commemorative headstone for him is located in the Warren plot (a Soldier of the Revolution) along with Amelia. His wife, Amelia, remarried to a man named Davidson. Amelia died in 1853 at the age of 78, but Amelia’s husband Davidson is not found in the same plot.
John Cummins III
The 18 June 1860 will of John Cummin Jr.’s son, John III, lists his wife, Abby (cemetery records show that he died in 1871 at the age of 75) beside Mary A., Harris (his will calls her Abby) (who died in 1874 at the age of 60), and five children: David, Elizabeth, Emily, Ann, and Thomas Cummins. John III applied in 1869 for an Army Pension, based on the service of his son Thomas in the 83rd Regiment of the Pennsylvania Volunteers, who was killed in the battle of Gaines Mills, Va. June 24, 1862.
We don't have a picture of John Cummins, but David McCullough's excellent book 1776 (Simon & Schuster, 2005) gives us a general description of Pennsylvanian frontiersmen who showed up to fight for George Washington in the Revolution.. MCCullough at 38 says "it was midsummer [1775] by the time the first troops from outside New England began showing up, companies of riflemen from Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, hardy men, many of them exceeding six feet in height." "Mostly backwoodsmen of Scotch-Irish descent, they wore long, fringed hunting shirts, 'rifle shirts' of homespun linen, in colors ranging from undyed tan and gray to shades of brown and even black, these tied at the waist with belts carrying tomahawks. At a review they demonstrated how, with their long-barreled rifles, a frontier weapon made in Pennsylvania and largely unknown in New England, they could hit a mark seven inches in diameter at a distance of 250 yards, while the ordinary musket was accurate at only 100 yards or so. It was the 'rifling'- spiraled grooves inside the long barrel - that increased the accuracy, and the new men began firing at British sentries with deadly effect, until the British caught on and kept their heads down or stayed out of range." "Welcome as they were at first, the riflemen soon proved to be even more indifferent to discipline than the New Englanders, and obstreperous to the point that Washington began to wish they had never come."
John Jr. married Amelia Foreman, the daughter of innkeeper Charles Foreman (a contemporary of John Jr., b. ca. 1750, d. January 9, 1806) in Hanna’s Town, in 1788, supposedly in the Associate Reformed Church. However, the Marriages of some Pennsylvania Soldiers and Patriots of the Revolutionary War records the couple as having been married in Mifflin. Amelia’s family was reputed to have come from Maryland and was related to the McClures, who later married into the family. Since he was 36 years of age at the time of the marriage, it could be that this was John Jr.’s second wives. Amelia was quite young, 18, at the time of her marriage to John. Amelia first shows up as his wife on the deed dated April 14, 1789 conveying a 299-acre plot of land in Armstrong Twp., Westmoreland County for 6 pounds in back taxes on Dec. 20, 1787. Cummins and Amelia had then turned around and sold this land on April 14, 1789 on the east side of the Kiskamantis River to Wendell Keller for 66 pounds. John Cummin’s will in 1813 lists his wife, Amelia, and children: Ann, who married Jacob Carmack and later John Warren; Sally or Sarah, m. David Cook and later Mr. Innis; James; John III, who married Abby Harris, Emily, who married Stephen Wolverton, Eleanor, who married David Kennedy, and Samuel, who married Mary Hathaway.
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John Cummins born 1752, married Amelia Foreman in 1788, died 17 Apr 1814 age 61 in Erie, PA.
Served in the Revolutionary War as Lieut. in Captain Gilbert McCay's of Pennsylvania Volunteers commanded by Joseph Reed, Esq. from 15 June 1780 to Jan. 1781 according to the D.A.R. records. There is a mention of a Lieut. Cummins in a diary kept by the Chaplain of the Sullivan Expedition which also mentions Reed. From the PA State Archives: Cummins, Jno rank LT. county: Westmoreland unit: Rangers Total : L 14.17.10 Certificate:8349 Issued: 29 Dec 1785 Original certificate Reg. Vol A p. 263 Military Loan of 1 Apr 1784, 30 Mar 1785. Mentioned V46 series 5: 12 Nov. 1782 State of Ranging Comp. Westmoreland (apparently filed by Lieut. Cummins) 1 Lieu 1 Ens. 2 Serg. 2 Corp. 20 Pri. Capt. Boyd a prisoner.
He was a member of a ranging company in Westmoreland Co. PA. He was an innkeeper by trade and had served as Sheriff in Westmoreland. He was a witness to a court case held at Foreman's tavern in Hannastown, and lived for a time in Greensburg, PA. He seems to have sold off most of his property in the Greensburg area by 1790. At that time he may have moved his family to Pittsburgh area (had property in Allegheny Co, PA) and joined the U.S. Army involved in the Indian Wars from 1791- 1794. According to Heitman's Historical Register and Dictionary of the U.S. Army p. 344: Cummings, John PA. P.A. Lt. in the levies of 1791; 1st inf. 7 Mar 1792; 3rd sublegion 4 Sept. 1792; Capt. 21 Nov. 1792; dismd 9 Feb. 1794
National Archives: U.S. Levies Second Regiment (A-L) Micro-copy No. 905 Roll # 5 , #253 Cumings, John, Cribb's Co., 2 Reg't U.S. Levies (Lieut. Col. Gibson 1791-1792) Lieut./Lieut. Arrpears on payroll of Capt. John Cribbs Company, Major John Clark's Battalion from Ft. Pitt. PA -- roll not dated--When entered 8 Apr 1791 When left: 16 Nov. 1791 Remarks: Wounded. ( This is interesting because in my great-grandfather's letter he writes this about his grandfather: "was wounded by an Indian from behind a tree--in the arm I believe--but he killed the Indian before he (the Indian) could reload."
There is a footnote in the book Anthony Wayne, A Name In Arms by Richard C. Knopf where Capt. John Cummins is mentioned in Anthony's correspondence to Secretary of War Knox. Apparently, Wayne and Cummins did not get along very well.
Sometime prior to 1800, John Cummins and family moved to Erie, PA. According to David's letter, "My Grandfather I have heard, built the second house in Erie." ". . .he went back to Erie, where he opened a tavern, as they were called in those days, and boarded Com. Perry and other officers of his fleet while the fleet was building."
Under the heading of American Revolutionary Soldiers of Franklin Co. PA. John Cummins (I believe that this was Sr.) pvt. under Capt. Samuel Patton 1780: Charles Cummins (who I believe was John, Sr. eldest son) pvt. under Capt. James Patton and John McConnell 1778-80-81; James Cummins (who I believe was John, Sr. 2nd eldest son) pvt. under Capt. Alexander Peebles 1780-81; Thomas Cummins ( John, Sr.'s youngest son) private under Capt. Alexander Peebles 1780-81-82
As per Peg Harris - GGF David Cummins>Samuel Cummins>John Cummins Jr
************************ CAPTAIN JOHN CUMMINS JR.
In addition to serving in the Revolutionary War as a Lieutenant (Ranger), John Cummins Jr. also served in Major General “Mad Anthony” Wayne’s army as a Captain.
Although the Revolutionary War had ended with the Treaty of Paris in 1783, as late as 1790 the inhabitants of Northwest Pennsylvania and Ohio were beset by hostile Indian tribes who were supported by British in Forts the British illegally retained (i.e., Detroit) to carry on fur trade on the Great Lakes and Canada. To quash this Indian/British threat, President Washington and Secretary of War, Henry Knox in March of 1792, gave General Wayne (an unsuccessful Georgia plantation owner/politician who gained fame in the Revolutionary War as “The Hero of Stony Point”) plenary power to form an Army, styled the Legion of the United States, to deal with an Indian campaign as General Wayne saw fit.
In recruiting his Legion, Wayne relied heavily on experienced officers from the Revolution. Former Lieutenants such as Cummins were promoted to Captain to command units such as rifle and infantry companies in the Third and Fourth Regiments of the Legion. Alan D. Graff, Bayonets in the Wilderness , Anthony Wayne’s Legion in the Old Northwest, University of Oklahoma Press (2003) at 33 (hereafter, Bayonets), citing the Maryland Gazette, Mar. 29 and May 24, 1792.
A lot of recruiting was done in those days by individuals who paid for their recruiting expenses themselves and received $2 for each man recruited. Bayonets at 66 mentions that John Cummins had a recruiting office in Greensburg, Pa. (most likely in the tavern he ran). Interestingly, Cummins recruiting efforts were criticized by a homesick, supposedly disabled, and former indentured Irish recruit who served 18 months in Wayne’s Third Sub-Legion. In an incident that must have taken place in 1791, John Bacon described in a petition for release to General Wayne that he was a private with little education from his father in Ireland, a minister. Bacon described how, after completing his indenture, Captain Cummins “took the advantage of me that he was drunk likewise giving me the [$8 enlistment] bounty as he wore military cloths and I though[t] he was an officer I was oblidge to stay with him but being so ignorant that I did not know better and did not know what I was doing and put me quite distracted and out of my Head.” Bayonets at 191, citing Bacon to Wayne, (Dec. 5, 1793), Wayne MSS, WLCL (Anthony Wayne Papers, William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor).
According to Heitman's Historical Register and Dictionary of the U.S. Army p.344, John Cummings (Cummins) was a PA. Lt. in the levies of 1791; 1t inf. 7 Mar. 1792; 3rd Sublegion 4 Sept. 1792; Capt. 21 Nov. 1792; dismd 9 Feb. 1794. National Archives-U. S. Levies Second Regiment (A-L) Microcopy No. 905 Roll # 5 #253; Cumings, John, Cribb's Co. 2 Reg't. U.S. Levies (Lieut. Col. Gibson 1791-1792). Lt. Cummins appears on payroll of Capt. John Cribbs Company, Major John Clark's Battalion from Ft. Pitt. PA --Roll not dated, when entered 8 Apr. 1791. When Cummins left 16 Nov. 1791 the record notes that he was wounded. His grandson, David Cummins, records the family lore that Cummins was shot in the arm by an Indian, whom Cummins subsequently killed before the Indian could reload. Capt. John Cummins is also mentioned in Anthony Wayne's Correspondence to Secretary of War Knox ( Knopf, Richard C. , Anthony Wayne: A Name in Arms)
In August of 1793, Capt. Cummins commanded a small garrison at Gallipolis, Ohio on the Ohio River. Cummins, the only officer present, reported that he had been suffering from fever for ten days and that two dozen of his forty-two men were sick. In addition to health concerns, discipline, drinking and leave were issues that commanders faced. Bayonets at 142, citing Cummins to Wayne (Aug. 23, 1793), Wayne MSS, HSP (Anthony Wayne Papers, The Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Phila) 2; Knoph, Anthony Wayne at , 274; Columbian Centinal, Oct 30, 1793.
In October of 1793, a Captain John Peirce, an artilleryman, was appointed Commandant of Fort Washington, at the confluence of the Miami and Ohio Rivers in Cincinatti, Ohio, with Capt. Cummins, a man whom Gaff describes as “the contentious Lt. Diven,” and Ens. John Wallington being assigned to duty there too. Bayonets at 157. Captain Peirce arrested Capt. Cummins at Fort Washington for some unknown infraction and, after a general court-martial, Cummins was dismissed on February 9, 1794. Bayonets at 180 citing Peirce to Wayne 9 Nov. 23, 1793; Wayne MSS, HSP; Heitman, Hisotrical Register, 2:804. What Cummins did to merit such an ignominious end to the career of a wounded soldier is unknown, i.e., whether Capt. Cummins was caught up in political scisms between officers supporting Gen. Wayne and Gen Wilkinson, his second in command, or whether it was some other infraction such as drinking, discipline, or leave is unknown.
His dismissal did not seem to daunt the Old Boy as the newspaper reported that he was accustomed to furnishing free food and drink to his customers at his tavern in Erie, Pa on the Fourth of July.
In 1794, General Wayne and his men defeated the Indians at the Battle of Fallen Timbers on the Maumee River in August of 1794. A peace treaty with the Indians was signed at Fort Greeneville in 1795, but the problems with the British on the Great Lakes were not settled until the War of 1812. Wayne died in 1796 in Erie and was buried there. In 1809, his bones were disinterred and shipped back to Philadelphia.
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Head Quarters
Greenville 9th Feby 1794
At the General Court Martial where of Major T. H. Cushing is President held on the 1st & continued until Nov 8th Instant inclusive ---
Captain John Cummins of the 3rd Sub Legion was tried upon the following charges exhibited against him by Capt. John Pierce of the Artillery & Commanding Officer of the garrison of Ft. Washington.
1st. For neglect of duty, on being absent from the garrison on the night of the 11th of November last when officer of the day
2nd . For unofficer and ungentlemanlike behavior in debasing, or demeaning yourself by going to a public house, or house of entertainment kept by a Wm. Brown in the new village of Cincinnati on the evening or night of the 11th of Nov aforesaid & for mixing with, & putting yourself on a footing with several private soldiers, officers servants or waiters, one of which was your own, or attended on you, & contrary to the advice of an officer, previous to your going, which conduct not only tends to destroy your own reputation and consequence as an officer but is subversive of your order, & highly injurious to the public service. You are while under arrest to confine yourself to the garrison, conformality to the rules and articles of war until further notice.
3rd For unofficer & ungentlemanlike behavior, in going, to a public house or house of entertainment kept by a Wm. Brown, on the evening or night of the 28th of December last, & there mixing or associating with several private ???, & their associates, and at a time when you were actually in arrest for similar misconduct, and , and or stated in your arrest aforesaid, which conduct cannot had??? eventually to injure the public service, and destroy your reputation.
To the forgoing charges Capt John Cummins pleaded feverally?? not guilty.
After maturely & entirely examining the evidence introduced in the trial, the Court is of opinion that Capt John Cummins is not guilty of the first & second charges, but find him guilty of the third it being a breach of the Twentieth Article of the appendix to the Rules & Articles of war, and sentence him to be dismissed from the service of the United States.
The Commander in Chief after due and deliberate consideration, hereby confirms the??going sentence of the General Court Martial whereof Major T.H. Cushing is President, drafted upon Capt John Cummins, & the said Captain John Cummins is dismissed from the service of the United States accordingly!
Mr. Cummins will therefore settle with the Quartermaster General immediately & account for public monies by him received either for the purpose of recruiting or for other uses.
Anthony Wayne Papers, item #57, Philadelphia Historical Society. Phi699, Vol L: Court Martial May 1793 - Oct 1794
********************************** NOTE: American Rules & Articles of War, enacted May 31, 1786 - Article 20 - Whatever commissioned officer shall be convicted before a general court martial, of behaving in a scandalous and infamous manner, such as is unbecoming of an officer and a gentleman, shall be dismissed the service.
********************************* A report of Capt John Cummins Comp 4 of riflemen lying at Gallipolis for the month of June 1793:
Present fit for duty: Capt 1, Sergt 3, Corporals 4, Minick? 1, Privits 35, Total 43
Sir,
There has nothing happened at this garrison since I come here my men is all in good spirits and is very desireous to have the privelage of going on the campaign if possible I am six with the greatest respect.
Your most obedient humble servant,
John Cummins Capt
Commandt
Gallipolis July 20th 1793
His Excelancy General Wayne
Anthony Wayne Papers, item #17, Philadelphia Historical Society. Phi699, Vol XXVIII Jul 17 1793 - Sep 3 1793
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Gallipolis August 23 1793
I am sorry to inform your Excellancy that the greatest part of the troops under my command at this place are sick & I have not ??? my self having had a severe intermitting feavor for ten days past out of forty-three men of which the command ganfirth??? Twent four are sick I have cart??? But one man as yet & none of those who are sick are very dangerous A being principally intermitting fevers that they have. I have heard that a number of troops are on the way down the river - everything is quiet in our neighborhood relative to Indians.
I remain your Excellancy
Most obedient Servt
John Cummins Capt
Commandt
Maj Gen A. Wayne
Anthony Wayne Papers, item #95, Philadelphia Historical Society. Phi699, Vol XXVIII Jul 17 1793 - Sep 3 1793
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