Phillip S CUMMINGS (CUMMINS)
Biography



Philip Cummings, the American progenitor of the Cummings family of Dartmouth, Massachusetts, was an early settler of Portsmouth, Rhode Island who moved to Dartmouth about 1686. He died in 1707. His great-grandson, Benjamin Cummings, was born in Dartmouth, Mass., in 1750. He served in several town offices, including surveyor of highways between 1784-1815 and selectman from 1798-1808. In addition to his civic duties, he also owned a saw mill and a grist mill, commanded merchant vessels, and operated a general store in partnership with his son, William Cummings (1783-1872). Upon Benjamin's death in 1831, William took his brother, John Cummings (1795-1864), as a partner in the store and called the business William Cummings & Company. To supplement their mercantile activities, William and John, along with their brother, Benjamin Cummings (1797-1863), invested in whaling vessels through agents such as Gibbs & Jenney of Fairhaven, Mass., and William Gifford and Charles R. Tucker & Company, both of New Bedford, Mass. Benjamin's son, Charles Smith Cummings (1830-1906), formed a partnership with his brother-in-law, Abner R. Tucker (ca. 1818-1884), in 1853. The firm, known as Tucker & Cummings, was active at Dartmouth, Mass., in the grocery trade and in whaling as outfitters and agents. In 1881, Tucker withdrew from the business and his nephew, Benjamin Cummings (b. 1852), succeeded him in the firm C. S. & B. Cummings of New Bedford, Mass., which withdrew from whaling and concentrated on the grocery trade.

Benjamin Tucker Cummings, born in 1834, the son of John Cummings, was also active in whaling, serving as agent through his firm Gifford & Cummings, a partnership with his brother-in-law, Charles H. Gifford. Benjamin died in 1917. His nephew, Lawrence Belding Cummings (1881-1947), wrote an unpublished genealogy of the family just prior to his death.

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In the New Bedford Whaling Museum Research Library
Title: Cummings Family Papers
Date Span: 1675-1947
Creator: Cummings family
Mss Number: Mss 51
Extent: 5.5 linear feet
Abstract: Business and personal papers of a Dartmouth and New Bedford, Massachusetts, family, 1675-1947.





Learn more about the life of flag male ancestor  Phillip S CUMMINGS (CUMMINS).

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